The non chalcedoniansethiopian, eritrean, coptic, armenian,

1. THE NON-CHALCEDONIANS
ETHIOPIAN, ERITREAN, COPTIC, ARMENIAN, AND
SYRIAC CHRISTIANITY
WHAT’S COMING…
• The Great Schism (1054 CE)
• A division will occur between the Latin West and
the Byzantine East.
• The Church in the Latin West will continue to exist
and grow, and is known today as the Roman
Catholic Church.
• The Church in the Byzantine East will continue to
exist and grow as well, and is known today as the
Orthodox Church.
BUT WAIT A MINUTE…
• Are all Orthodox Churches (e.g. Greek Orthodox,
Russian Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, etc.) part
of the same church, the same way that Roman
Catholics all over the world are part of the same
church?
• Eastern Orthodox (Greek, Russian, Serbian,

2. Romanian, Albanian, Antiochian, Georgian)
• Oriental Orthodox (Coptic [Egyptian], Ethiopian,
Eritrean, Armenian, Syriac)
HERE’S HOW WE GOT HERE…
• Long before the Great Schism between the Roman Catholic
and Eastern Orthodox Churches, some churches in
the East had separated from the Orthodox/Catholic Church due
to issues related to the Third (Ephesus) and
Fourth (Chalcedon) Ecumenical Councils.
• While these churches look and “feel” very similar to Eastern
Orthodox Churches, and are very similar
theologically (many would say almost identical), there are key
theological and historical differences which
continue to separate the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the
Eastern Orthodox Churches.
NICENE-CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CREED
• I believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven
and Earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
• And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-
Begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light;
True God of True God; begotten, not made; of one essence with
the Father, by Whom all things were made; Who for
us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven, and was
incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and
became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,

3. and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He
arose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into
Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He
shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead;
Whose Kingdom shall have no end.
• And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who
proceeds from the Father; Who with the Father and the Son
together is worshipped and glorified; Who spoke by the
prophets.
• And in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
• I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. I look
for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to
come.
COUNCIL OF
EPHESUS (431 CE)
• Nestorius – Patriarch of
Constantinople
• Incarnation
• Two Natures of Christ (fully God,
fully Human)
• Virgin Mary as Theotokos (“God-
bearer,” or Mother of God)
NESTORIUS

4. • Mary gave birth to the incarnate Christ, but not to the divine
Logos who
existed before time itself.
• The Logos occupied the part of the human soul that was
stained by the
Fall.
• Consequently, the Virgin Mary should be called Christotokos
(“Christ-
bearer,” or Mother of Christ), not Theotokos.
• There could be no union between divine and human because
then the
Logos could not be consubstantial with God or with us.
• The two natures of Christ must remain separate.
CYRIL, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA
• Accuses Nestorius of dividing Christ into two persons existing
in
one body.
• Appeals to Pope Celestine I of Rome.
• Council of Ephesus called in response.
COUNCIL OF EPHESUS
• Condemns Nestorius.

5. • Condemns any departure from Nicene Creed.
• Jesus is one person (hypostasis) possessing two
natures.
• Virgin Mary called Theotokos (“God-bearer,”
Mother of God) because the one to whom she
gave birth was fully God.
“CHURCH OF THE
EAST”
• The Nestorian Church continued to
grow and expand throughout what is
now Iraq and Iran, India, China, and
Central Asia.
• The Nestorian Church of the East
continues to exist today, although its
numbers have greatly declined.
• According to Nestorian.org, there are
roughly 300,000 Nestorian Christians
throughout the world today.
COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON (451 CE)
Some of Cyril’s language
was imprecise, which was
further complicated by

6. linguistic differences.
Cyril had said there was only
one physis (nature),
apparently thinking that was
the same as the Latin
persona (person), instead of
the Latin natura (nature).
COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON
• Diocorus & Eutyches: Christ had two natures
before the incarnation, but afterwards they were
merged into one.
• Christ has one divine/human nature.
• Not distinct enough for their opponents.
COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON
• Results: Christ was one person with two distinct natures – one
divine and one human.
• “So it is on account of this oneness of the person, which must
be understood in both natures, that we both read that the son of
man
came down from heaven, when the Son of God took flesh from
the virgin from whom he was born, and again that the Son of
God is

7. said to have been crucified and buried, since he suffered these
things not in the divinity itself whereby the Only-begotten is
co-eternal
and consubstantial with the Father, but in the weakness of the
human nature. That is why in the creed, too, we all confess that
the
only-begotten Son of God was crucified and was buried,
following what the apostle said, If they had known, they would
never have
crucified the Lord of majesty. And when our Lord and Savior
himself was questioning his disciples and instructing their faith,
he says,
Who do people say 1, the son of man, am? And when they had
displayed a variety of other people’s opinions, he says, Who do
you
say I am ? —in other words, I who am the son of man and whom
you behold in the form of a servant and in real flesh: Who do
you say
I am? Whereupon the blessed Peter, inspired by God and
making a confession that would benefit all future peoples, says,
You are the
Christ, the Son of the living God. He thoroughly deserved to be
declared “blessed” by the Lord. He derived the stability of both
his
goodness and his name from the original Rock, for when the
Father revealed it to him, he confessed that the same one is both
the Son
of God and also the Christ. Accepting one of these truths
without the other was no help to salvation; and to have believed
that the
Lord Jesus Christ was either only God and not man, or solely
man and not God, was equally dangerous.” (Tome of St. Leo the
Great)

8. COUNCIL OF
CHALCEDON
• Many did not accept this council.
• These churches, which continue to
exist today, call themselves the
Orthodox Church, but often use
the term Oriental Orthodox to
distinguish themselves from
Eastern Orthodox Churches.
• This church makes up about 95%
of Egypt’s Christians and 43.5% of
Ethiopia’s Christians.
DIALOGUE BETWEEN ORIENTAL
ORTHODOX AND EASTERN ORTHODOX
• The Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches look
and “feel” very similar.
• In official dialogue between the two churches, many
theologians in recent decades
have suggested that the differences over the Council of
Chalcedon have more to do
with linguistics than with theology.
• However, even if that is the case, there are complex historical
problems preventing
formal reunion of the two churches:
• For the Eastern Orthodox, the Council of Chalcedon, as well
as the fifth, sixth,
and seventh Ecumenical Councils are considered authoritative.

9. • Both churches have official saints who have been condemned
as heretics by
the other church. Both also have martyr-saints who were
martyred by the
other church.
TWO FINAL NOTES…
• In both the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, appeals were
made by
Christians in the East to Rome to intervene.
• In both councils, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed
affirmed and
forbidden to be changed in the future.