Nestorian controversy
Dramatis personae: Nestorius &
Cyril.
2. Approaches to controversy.
3. Council of Ephesus, 431.
4. Christologies of Nestorius & Cyril
(seminar).
1.
Cyril of Alexandria
Nestorius of Constantinople (d. 451)
Student of Theodore of Mopsuestia
 Elected bishop of Constantinople in 428
 Denied that Mary was Theotokos,
‘Godbearer’

 Popular unrest in Constantinople
 Clash with Pulcheria,
sister of Theodosius II
Pulcheria (d. 453)
Empress Eudoxia crowned by God
Crowned by God
As Goddess Victory
bearing the labarum
Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444)

His first years in Alexandria
 Mob violence against prefect
Orestes & philosopher Hypatia
Defended the title “Theotokos”
against Nestorius
 Theology of the divine kenosis
(self-emptying) in Philippians
2:5-11 and in the creed

Approaches to controversy
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Episcopal power-play.
Logomachy.
Two competing exegetical schools.
The ‘how?’ of the union.
Two different starting points.
The range of arguments deployed in
the Nestorian Controversy:
Terminological issues: physis, hypostasis, prosopon;
types of union & conjunction; titles ‘Theotokos’,
‘Christotokos’, ‘anthropotokos’.
2. Interpretation of the Bible: two-fold or single subject of
miracles/ sufferings?
3. Metaphysical assumptions regarding divine transcendence
and divine action.
4. The appeal to the Nicene creed and to the writings of the
Fathers.
5. The implicit theologies of the Eucharistic ‘body’ of Christ.
6. The logic of salvation and God’s involvement in Christ’s
suffering.
7. Reductio ad heresim, ad hominem arguments, mutual
accusations of immorality, political pressure.
1.
Philippians 2: 5-11
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who,
though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with
God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking
the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being
found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient
to the point of death-- even death on a cross. Therefore God
also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above
every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father.
Second article of the Creed
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of
WHO?
God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of
DIVINE
God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten,
SUBJECT
not made, being of one substance with the Father; by
whom all things were made;
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from
DID WHAT?
heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the
HUMAN
Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified
CHARACTERISTICS
also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was
buried…
Acts of the Council of Ephesus in 431. In Coptic. Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek, Austria
Chalcedonian Definition, 451

Christ is one person in two natures
 Without confusion
 Without change
 Without division
 Without separation
Historical consequences of the councils of
Ephesus & Chalcedon
Persian Christians who did not accept the council of
Ephesus formed Assyrian Church of the East
(patriarch currently residing in Tehran, Iran)
 Non-Chalcedonian churches: Coptic, Ethiopian,
Syrian Orthodox, Malankar Syrian, Armenian
