Nestorian division
Catholic teaching receives the unity of Christ's person and the title Theotokos as safeguards for who is born of Mary.
Historical context
The controversy between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius came to a head at Ephesus (431), amid theological, linguistic, and ecclesial conflict. Later churches received and interpreted the controversy differently, so this pedagogical label should not be used as a blanket description of the Assyrian Church of the East or every East-Syriac Christological formulation.
Reception
Catholic teaching receives the unity of Christ's person and uses Theotokos to safeguard the identity of the one born of Mary.
Memory hook
Two natures, one acting subject.
Key points
- The one acting subject of the Incarnation is the eternal Son.
- The divine and human natures remain real without becoming two persons.
- Theotokos protects the identity of the one born from Mary; it does not claim that divinity has a beginning.
- Christ's human experiences can be truly his without making the divine nature passible.
Common questions
- Does Theotokos mean Mary is the source of God's divinity?
- How can one person act according to two natures?
- Is 'Nestorianism' an accurate label for every non-Chalcedonian or East-Syriac church?
Doctrinal connections
- Incarnation
- Theotokos
- Person and nature
- Ephesus
Scripture
- John 1:14 — The Word himself became flesh, a central text for confessing one incarnate subject.
- Galatians 4:4 — Paul says God sent his Son, born of a woman; the later Theotokos debate concerns the identity of this Son.
Primary sources
Cyril states in a passage preserved by Theodoret:
Cyril maintains that distinct divine and human natures belong to the one God and Son.
The natures which have been brought together in the true unity are distinct, and of both there is one God and Son
Passage context and translation
Theodoret quotes Cyril's letter to Nestorius as testimony in his own Dialogue 2. The excerpt is Cyril's wording as preserved there, not an independent work titled Dialogue 2 by Cyril.
After the excerpt
but the difference of the natures has not been removed in consequence of the union.
Cyril's conciliar anathema states:
Cyril connects the title Theotokos to the confession that Emmanuel is truly God.
the Emmanuel is very God, and that therefore the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God
Passage context and translation
Cyril's first anathema, reproduced among the Ephesian documents, grounds Theotokos in the identity of the one born from Mary: Emmanuel, truly God. This is Cyril's anathema, not a standalone council creed.
Before the excerpt
If anyone will not confess that
After the excerpt
(Θεοτόκος), inasmuch as in the flesh she bore the Word of God made flesh