A Call to the Chalcedonian Churches for Repentance

Abstract

In 444, the monk Eutyches began espousing a new form of Christology. According to Eutyches, in the incarnation, the human nature of Christ had been subsumed into his divine nature. This teaching of a mia physis (“one nature”) was largely an attempt to combat the Nestorian heresy, which had been condemned thirteen years earlier at the tumultuous Council of Ephesus. Unfortunately, Eutyches claimed Cyril of Alexandria as his validating source for miaphysitism. Since the Council of Chalcedon of 451, which declared Eutyches and his teaching heretical, Cyril and the Coptic Church along with the Oriental Orthodox Church have been denounced by the other Churches of the East and of the West as miaphysite. Even though some significant attempts have been made to heal the divisions between non-Chalcedonian and Chalcedonian Christians, for real reconciliation to take place, mutual repentance is necessary. Such repentance begins with a careful examination of Cyril’s writings against the backdrop of the historical tensions between the see of Alexandria and Constantinople up and until the middle of the fifth century. One needs to separate from such a reading what Eutyches had understood Cyril to have said. Through such rereading, the divided Churches may together rediscover the best gifts of Alexandrian Christology and in turn an examination may offer important ecumenical gifts to the Chalcedonian Churches. After such an examination and for the sake of Christian unity, Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Christians may well be mutually compelled to humbly seek forgiveness and reconciliation with the other and lift mutual condemnations against the other.