Chalcedonian Christianity is the branch of Christianity that accepts and upholds theological and ecclesiological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, the Fourth Ecumenical Council, held in 451. Chalcedonian Christianity accepts the

Christological Definition of Chalcedon The Chalcedonian Definition (also called the Chalcedonian Creed or the Definition of Chalcedon) is a declaration of Christ's nature (that it is dyophysite), adopted at the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451. Chalcedon was an early centre of Christi ...

, a Christian doctrine concerning the union of two natures (divine and human) in one

hypostasis Hypostasis, hypostatic, or hypostatization (hypostatisation; from the Ancient Greek , "under state") may refer to: * Hypostasis (philosophy and religion), the essence or underlying reality ** Hypostasis (linguistics), personification of entities ...

of Jesus Christ, who is thus acknowledged as a single person (

prosopon Prosopon (, ;"prosopon"
''

Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, thus acknowledging the commitment of Chalcedonism to Nicene Christianity. In regard to their specific attitudes towards theological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon,

Christian denominations Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

(both historical and modern) can be divided into: * Chalcedonian – those that accept theological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon; * Semi-Chalcedonian – those whose acceptance of Chalcedonian theological resolutions is partial or conditional; * Non-Chalcedonian – those that reject theological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon. Today, Chalcedonian Christianity encompasses the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and Protestant denominations, while non-Chalcedonian, or

Miaphysite Miaphysitism is the Christology, Christological doctrine that holds Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, the "Incarnation (Christianity), Incarnate Logos (Christianity), Word, is fully divine and fully human, in one 'nature' (''physis'')." It is a posi ...

, Christianity encompasses the Oriental Orthodox Churches and, indirectly, the

Church of the East The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...

History

The dogmatic disputes raised during the Council of Chalcedon led to the Chalcedonian Schism thus to the formation of the Non-Chalcedonian body of churches known as

Oriental Orthodoxy The Oriental Orthodox Churches are Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology, with approximately 60 million members worldwide. The Oriental Orthodox Churches are part of the Nicene Christian tradition, and represent ...

. The Chalcedonian churches remained united with the Holy See of Rome, the

Ecumenical Patriarchate The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...

of Constantinople (or "New Rome") and the Eastern Orthodox patriarchates of the Middle East (namely Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem). Together, these five patriarchates were considered the pillars of

orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

catholic Christendom and of the Chalcedonian confession of faith. During the 6th-century reign of Emperor Justinian I, the five patriarchates were recognised as the Pentarchy, the official ecclesiastical authority of the

Imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texa ...

Christian Church In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a synonym fo ...

. Pre-Chalcedonian Christianity was mainly based on Paul.

John of Tella John of Tella (or John Bar Qursos) (483–538) was a monk and bishop in the Near East. John was a major proponent of moderate Miaphysitism. Although his native language was Syriac he studied Greek in order to serve in the Byzantine administration. ...

described the foundations of pre-Chalcedeonian Christianity:

And
he council of Nicaea He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
considered and saw widely where it set up its building; and the divine Paul, wise among spiritual master-builders, invoked them, and showed them the true foundation, a rock that can not be shaken; on it they will place and build their building; and those he spoke before them when he was saying: Another foundation except for you this you should not constitute, this is Jesus Christ; it was on this that Simeon built and John; on it that Thomas completed
is mission In linguistics, a copula (plural: copulas or copulae; list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word or phrase that links the subject (grammar), subject of a sentence (linguistics), sentence to a subject complement, such as the word '' ...
in Cush. And in Egypt Mark built upon it, and Addai the house of the Medians, Persians and Parthians. And it was on this that the apostle Matthew built in Palestine, and Jacob, the brother of our Lord.

He believed this foundation was abandoned at Chalcedon: "the council of Chalcedon builds not at all on the foundation that the divine master-builder Paul has set up, but on the sand that Nestorius, the confused and dethroned builder, put to it". Today, the great majority of Christian denominations can be considered descended from the Pentarchy, subscribing to Chalcedonian Christianity, broadly divided into the Roman Catholic Church in the predominantly Latin-speaking West, the Eastern Orthodox Church in the predominantly Greek-speaking East, and the Protestant denominations created in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. The groups that rejected Chalcedon's Christological definition were the majority of the Armenian,

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

, and Ethiopian Christians, together with a part of the Indian and Syriac Christians (the latter of which came to be identified as ''

Jacobites Jacobite means follower of Jacob or James. Jacobite may refer to: Religion * Jacobites, followers of Saint Jacob Baradaeus (died 578). Churches in the Jacobite tradition and sometimes called Jacobite include: ** Syriac Orthodox Church, sometimes ...

''). Today, such groups are known collectively as the Non-Chalcedonian,

, or Oriental Orthodox churches. Some Armenian Christians, especially in the region of Cappadocia and Trebizond inside the Byzantine Empire, accepted the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon and engaged in polemics against the Armenian Apostolic Church. After the conclusion of Byzantine-Sasanian War of 572–591, direct rule of the Byzantine Empire was extended to all western parts of Armenia, and Emperor Maurice (582–602) soon decided to strengthen his political control over the entire region by supporting the local pro-

Chalcedonian Chalcedonian Christianity is the branch of Christianity that accepts and upholds theological and ecclesiological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, the Fourth Ecumenical Council, held in 451. Chalcedonian Christianity accepts the Christolo ...

faction of the Armenian Church. In 593, a regional council of western Armenian bishops was convened in the city of Theodosiopolis, and proclaimed allegiance to the Chalcedonian Definition. The council also elected John (Yohannes, or Hovhannes) of Bagaran as the new

Catholicos Catholicos, plural Catholicoi, is a title used for the head of certain churches in some Eastern Christian traditions. The title implies autocephaly and in some cases it is the title of the head of an autonomous church. The word comes from ancient ...

of the Chalcedonian Armenians.

Chalcedonian Christology

Those present at the Council of Chalcedon accepted Trinitarianism and the concept of hypostatic union, and rejected

Arianism Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God ...

, Modalism, and

Ebionism Ebionites ( grc-gre, Ἐβιωναῖοι, ''Ebionaioi'', derived from Hebrew (or ) ''ebyonim'', ''ebionim'', meaning 'the poor' or 'poor ones') as a term refers to a Jewish Christian sect, which viewed poverty as a blessing, that existed durin ...

heresies Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

(which had also been rejected at the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325). Those present at the council also rejected the Christological doctrines of the Nestorians,

Eutychians Eutychianism, also known as Real Monophysitism, refers to a set of Christian theological doctrines derived from the ideas of Eutyches of Constantinople (c. 380 – c. 456). Eutychianism is a monophysite understanding of how the human and divine ...

, and monophysites (these doctrines had also been rejected at the

First Council of Ephesus The Council of Ephesus was a council of Christian bishops convened in Ephesus (near present-day Selçuk in Turkey) in AD 431 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. This third ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the church thr ...

in 431). The Chalcedonian understanding of how the divine and human relate in Jesus Christ is that the humanity and divinity are exemplified as two natures and that the one

of the '' Logos'' perfectly subsists in these two natures. The Non-Chalcedonians hold the position of miaphysitism (sometimes called monophysitism by their opponents). Miaphysitism holds that in the one person of Jesus Christ, divinity and humanity are united in one nature, the two being united without separation, without confusion and without alteration. That led many members of the two churches to condemn each other: the Chalcedonians condemning the Non-Chalcedonians as

Eutychian Eutychianism, also known as Real Monophysitism, refers to a set of Christian theological doctrines derived from the ideas of Eutyches of Constantinople (c. 380 – c. 456). Eutychianism is a monophysite understanding of how the human and divine ...

Monophysites, and the Non-Chalcedonians condemning the Chalcedonians as Nestorians. Later interpreters of the council held that Chalcedonian Christology also rejected monothelitism and

monoenergism Monoenergism ( el, μονοενεργητισμός) was a notion in early medieval Christian theology, representing the belief that Christ had only one "energy" (''energeia''). The teaching of one energy was propagated during the first half o ...

(rejected at the Third Council of Constantinople in 680). Those who did not accept the Chalcedonian Christology now call themselves '' non-Chalcedonian''. Historically, they called themselves Miaphysites or Cyrillians (after St

Cyril of Alexandria Cyril of Alexandria ( grc, Κύριλλος Ἀλεξανδρείας; cop, Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ Ⲕⲩⲣⲓⲗⲗⲟⲩ ⲁ̅ also ⲡⲓ̀ⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ Ⲕⲓⲣⲓⲗⲗⲟⲥ; 376 – 444) was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444 ...

, whose writing ''On the Unity of Christ'' was adopted by them and taken as their standard) and were called by Orthodox Christians monophysites. Those who held to the non-Chalcedonian Christologies called the doctrine of Chalcedon '' dyophysitism''. In turn, they considered themselves to be Orthodox Christians and called the Chalcedonians, Nestorians.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{portal bar, Christianity Christian terminology Trinitarianism Christian theological movements Nature of Jesus Christ