Mutual Understanding Of Christology With Nestorians?

[Anastasia13]

I read this quote, "In substance, there is no longer an issue over Christology with either the Monophysites or Nestorians." on this page: http://www.askacatholic.com/_WebPostings/Answers/2000_08AUG/2000AugDifferencesWithArmenians.cfm

 

My understanding is that Nestorians are the Assyrian Church of the East, and my understanding was that their monophysite christology was incompatible with dyphysite christology. How resolves is this really?

[qfnol31]

I read this quote, "In substance, there is no longer an issue over Christology with either the Monophysites or Nestorians." on this page: http://www.askacatholic.com/_WebPostings/Answers/2000_08AUG/2000AugDifferencesWithArmenians.cfm

 

My understanding is that Nestorians are the Assyrian Church of the East, and my understanding was that their monophysite christology was incompatible with dyphysite christology. How resolves is this really?

 

First, a note. That site has a few historical inaccuracies. Apollinaris lived in the 4th century, while Nestorius and Cyril lived in the 5th century. The response might have meant Eutyches, but I am not certain.

 

I am going to try to answer this succinctly, but it was almost a topic for my dissertation so I hope this answer doesn't come off as pithy or overly long. In the end, the issue can be resolved without ever really being resolved, just as many other theological points of contention between various Churches have been resolved and yet still cause division somehow. There are in fact three camps here. First we have Nestorians (also the Assyrian Church of the East), then we have Chalcedonian orthodoxy (what the rest of the Church teaches), and then there is Monophysitism. I'll just give a quick definition of each here.

 

 

1. Nestorianism is sometimes known as two-person Christology. It is a response to Cyril and others who seem to conflate Christ's divinity and humanity into one thing.

 

2. Monophysitism is a later reading of Cyril (started by Eutyches) which states that Christ's human nature and divine nature come together in a third nature that isn't really human or divine itself, but a mixture of the others.

 

3. Chalcedonian orthodoxy teaches that Christ is one person in two natures, with all the attributes of each, and without a mixture of either nature. The Council of Chalcedon rejected Nestorianism and Monophysitism.

 

 

A lot of the disagreements between these people actually arose based on their use of language and its meaning, not based on their teachings. In other words, Nestorius and Cyril were very often just talking right past each other, and their followers continued to do so even more (except perhaps Eutyches, who seemed to do something more, but he's a different story). Cyril used the word physis (later: 'nature') when other people used hypostasis (person). He had a phrase that he continually repeated, in which he said mono physis (see monophysis) when he meant the one Person (i.e. Jesus Christ).

 

As you might be able to see here, the groundwork was set for Monophysites to mean exactly what later Chalcedonians meant by one person. The same logic can be applied to Nestorians (and in fact it has been applied to Nestorians over and over and over again). Nestorius felt vindicated by Chalcedon's Christology and tried to say that it was what he had been saying all along (though very, very poorly). I personally don't think he quite understood his own error, but that's a completely different story. What I've been trying to say here is that there is room for all three parties to come together and the answer lies in the meaning that the people tried to convey with their language as the Christological language was being developed.

[cappie]

COMMON CHRISTOLOGICAL DECLARATION
BETWEEN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
AND THE ASSYRIAN CHURCH OF THE EAST

 

 

His Holiness John Paul II, Bishop of Rome and Pope of the Catholic Church, and His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, give thanks to God who has prompted them to this new brotherly meeting.

Both of them consider this meeting as a basic step on the way towards the full communion to be restored between their Churches. They can indeed, from now on, proclaim together before the world their common faith in the mystery of the Incarnation.

 

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_11111994_assyrian-church_en.html