Position · 451

Chalcedonian Christology

The teaching that Christ is one person in two natures, divine and human, united without confusion, change, division or separation.

The Council of Chalcedon (451) set this out in its definition, drawing on the letters of Cyril of Alexandria and on the Tome of Pope Leo I. It was meant to rule out both the division of Christ into two subjects, associated with Nestorius, and the absorption of his humanity into his divinity, taught by Eutyches.

It became the standard Christology of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, and the major Protestant churches kept it. The Oriental Orthodox churches rejected the council’s “in two natures” wording and hold to Miaphysitism.