From Monophysitism to Nestorianism

The most important Christological controversies were waged during the Third through the Sixth Ecumenical Councils. This book argues that each of these councils can be characterized by the labels Nestorian, Monophysite, or proto-Monophysite. In the Third and Fourth Councils a Nestorian or Antiochene victory followed a Monophysite one, and the pattern was repeated identically with the Fifth and Sixth Councils. If this seems to damage the religious interpretation of the councils as the slow hammering out of orthodoxy or to contradict the current interpretation of the councils, it is not meant to. In contrast to R. V. Sellers, the distinctions between the Alexandrian and Antiochene approaches to Christology are maintained, and each council is labeled as coming down on one or the other of the two sides.

The book’s title reflects a half-truth. Orthodox Christology, at least until the outbreak of the Iconoclastic crisis, was characterized by a progression from the deifying and unifying impulse of the Alexandrian school in favor of the humanizing and dichotomizing tendency of the Antiochene. However, this book does not affirm anything other than that early orthodoxy successfully navigated the often narrow strait between Nestorianism and Monophysitism. By continually changing sides, and by declaring the decrees of all previous councils binding, it found itself outwitting both the Monophysites and the Nestorians.