Chalcedon and the Oriental Orthodox churches
The Council of Chalcedon defines Christ as one person "in two natures", and the churches of Egypt, Ethiopia, Armenia and much of Syria refuse it, creating the oldest lasting division in Christianity.
- The Orthodox Church — Timothy Ware, Penguin (1993)
- An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches — John Binns, Cambridge University Press (2002)
- The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture — John Anthony McGuckin, Wiley-Blackwell (2008)
- A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years — Diarmaid MacCulloch, Allen Lane (2009)
By the fifth century Christians agreed that Jesus was fully God, as Nicaea had said, and fully human. The hard question was how the two belonged together. In 451 several hundred bishops met at Chalcedon, across the Bosphorus from Constantinople, under the eye of the emperor Marcian, and defined Christ as one person “in two natures”.
- The Orthodox Church — Timothy Ware, Penguin (1993)
- A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years — Diarmaid MacCulloch, Allen Lane (2009)
Much of the Christian East would not accept it. In Egypt, Syria and Armenia, many believers followed the great Alexandrian teacher Cyril, who spoke of “one nature” of the Word made flesh, and they heard Chalcedon as a betrayal. Language, regional pride and resentment of Constantinople’s power all played a part. Over the next century separate hierarchies formed, and the churches now called Oriental Orthodox went their own way: the Coptic Church of Egypt, the Ethiopian Tewahedo Church (and later the Eritrean), the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Malankara Orthodox of India.
- An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches — John Binns, Cambridge University Press (2002)
- The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture — John Anthony McGuckin, Wiley-Blackwell (2008)
These are some of the oldest Christian communities on earth. Armenia traditionally dates its conversion to around 301, and Ethiopia’s kings became Christian in the fourth century. They suffered greatly in later centuries, from the Armenian Genocide of 1915 to attacks on Copts in modern Egypt. See Armenia becomes the first Christian state and The Coptic church.
- An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches — John Binns, Cambridge University Press (2002)
- The Orthodox Church of Ethiopia: A History — John Binns, I.B. Tauris (2016)
- The Orthodox Church — Timothy Ware, Penguin (1993)
- The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture — John Anthony McGuckin, Wiley-Blackwell (2008)
Chalcedon is the fourth of the seven ecumenical councils, and its formula, one Christ "in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation", guards both his full divinity and his full humanity.
- The Orthodox Church — Timothy Ware, Penguin (1993)
- The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture — John Anthony McGuckin, Wiley-Blackwell (2008)
Following Cyril of Alexandria, Christ has "one incarnate nature of God the Word", divine and human united without mixture. Chalcedon's "two natures" sounded like dividing him, and the council was also an imperial imposition on Egypt and the East. These churches call themselves Orthodox and reject the old label "Monophysite".
- An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches — John Binns, Cambridge University Press (2002)
- The Orthodox Church of Ethiopia: A History — John Binns, I.B. Tauris (2016)
Why it matters today
"Orthodox" covers two families that are not in communion with each other: the Eastern Orthodox (Greek, Russian, Serbian and others) and the Oriental Orthodox (Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Armenian, Syriac and Indian Malankara churches). They look alike in worship and spirit, and since the 1960s theologians on both sides have said the old quarrel was largely about words, but full reunion has not come.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the faith of over 40% of Ethiopians, belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family that rejected Chalcedon. Its very name, Tewahedo ("made one"), proclaims the single united nature of Christ, and its long tie to the Coptic Church of Alexandria, which sent Ethiopia's chief bishop until 1959, grew out of this shared stance.