By Cristian Fernandez

 Christian thinkers went from arguing about the trinity to arguing about Christology.  Christology is the branch of Christian Theology concerned with the nature of Christ and his role in Salvation.  Sparked up conflict between schools of Christological thought.  One was the school of Antioch and the other of Alexandria

 Antiochene theologians stressed the importance of both the human and divine nature in Christ.  The Alexandrian theologians were big on Christ’s divinity.  The Council of Chalcedon held in 451 will be called to settle the controversy of Christology

 Apollinaris believed that Christ had the body and lower soul of a human being but the divine logos took the place of his human mind, making him one complete divine nature.  Thought Christ was fully Divine  Rejected anything that was human about Christ  Syrian Bishop ca.( )

 Said that Christ’s emotional and intellectual experiences must have occurred in the human mind.  He claimed that the Divine logos came to dwell within the normal man, Jesus.  Used references from the New Testament to prove his points  Said that Christ’s human suffering was essential to salvation.

 Syrian Monk who said that human birth was not a quality that could be attributed with divinity.  Opposed the title “Theotokos” that was given to Mary.  Alternate title was Christotokos: this meant Christ bearer or mother of Christ.

 Cyril feared that Nestorius argued not for the distinct natures of Christ but for two separate beings entirely.  Cyril had issues with Nestorius’ Christology because it conflicted with salvation and the sacraments.  Wanted to preserve unity in Christ  Promoted the Theotokos

 Took over the Council of Ephesus in 431and persuaded the bishops there to deem Nestorius as “the new judas”.  Nestorius was exiled  Bishop John of Antioch (428-41) wrote the Formula of Reunion, which was a compromise congressional formula that Cyril himself supported.  Cyril found compromise with Antioch possible because he came to understand Christ as having one nature arising out of two natures which was Hypostasis.

 Everything was fine while John of Antioch and Cyril were around but once they died, conflict began again between the Antiochenes and Alexandrians  Eutyches (a monk from constantinople) was responsible for Monophysite Christology which means “One nature”  Dioscorus (Cyril’s successor) wanted to bring back the old Alexandrian Christology.

 Rejected monophysitism and embraced the Christology that Cyril had came up with later on in his life which was Christ was two natures, human and divine, each sharing attributes of the other.