Chalcedon, by contrast, adopted a “two natures” formulation. Because the
same one is “complete in divinity and in humanity, truly God and truly man,”
he is “understood in two natures.” The Chalcedonian formula adds, “without
confusion, without change, without division, without separation.”
Chalcedonian vocabulary links the two doctrines of Incarnation and Trinity.
After Chalcedon, it becomes commonplace to speak of Christ as “two
natures in one person,” which provides a conceptual link with the doctrine
of the Trinity, where there is “one nature in three persons.” “Nature” and
“essence” (ousia) thus become equivalent terms in the doctrines of Trinity
and Incarnation.
Major schisms resulted in the East after Chalcedon. Partisans of Cyril’s
“one nature” formulation, called “Monophysites” (from the Greek term for
“one nature”) did not accept Chalcedon and eventually broke off from the
mainstream Eastern Orthodox church of Byzantium. Both Monophysite and
Nestorian churches were eventually excluded from Eastern Orthodoxy.
Two other councils also dealt with Christology in the early Christian church.
The Second Council of Constantinople (the ¿ fth ecumenical council) in 553
endorsed the theopaschite formula, “that one of the Trinity was cruci¿ ed
in the À esh.” According to the doctrine of divine impassibility, universally
accepted by the orthodox, the divine nature cannot suffer. But by the same
logic which af¿ rms that Mary gives birth to God in his humanity, it must
be said that it is God who dies on the cross and suffers, not in his divine
nature but in his humanity. Hence the orthodox tradition af¿ rms that God
suffers, but not that the Father suffers; for the Father is not human. In short,
the tradition af¿ rms Deipassionism but not Patripassionism.
The Third Council of Constantinople (the sixth ecumenical council) in 681
teaches that Christ has two wills, divine and human. For if he is fully human,
he must have a human will. But by the same token, if he is fully God, then
his will must be the divine will. This point is illustrated in the Garden of
Gethsemane, where he submits his human will to his divine will by praying,
“Not my will, but Thine be done.” Ŷ