Topic

Christ

How Jesus Christ is both God and human: whether he has one nature or two, and how his divinity and humanity are united in one person.

This is where the earliest lasting splits among Christians happened. After the Council of Ephesus (431) condemned Nestorius, the church in Persia went its own way as the Church of the East. After the Council of Chalcedon (451) defined Christ as one person “in two natures”, the churches now called Oriental Orthodox rejected it.

Three positions came out of these disputes: Chalcedonian Christology, Miaphysitism and Church of the East Christology. All three confess Christ as fully God and fully human. Modern dialogues have often concluded that much of the difference lies in terminology rather than faith.