Chalcedeon and 3 Councils

edited December 1969 in Coptic Orthodox Church
I'd like to learn more about church history... and i've been doing a little bit of reading up on it lately
But i have always been confused on what the Chalcedeon and the 3 Councils of Nicea, Ephasus, and Constantinople were all about. What is the Chalcedeon? all i knwo is that we were misrepresented as... something... but y and what were we? and what are the 3 councils all about

??? Help...
~ :-\ Confused and Wandering :-[
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Comments

  • Hey SMS,
    ...at the council of Chalcedeon we were counted with the heretics since the man, Eutychus, claimed the Copts of being his followers. This council became the council at which we took our 5 sister churches (indian, armenian, ethiopian, eritrean, syrian) and left the council following the truth of being Mia-physites (believing in the two natures of Humanity and Divinity fully and at the same time) rather than being accused of being mono-physites (belief in a single nature). However, the misunderstanding was cleared up recently when a common declaration was signed by H.H Pope Shenouda III and Pope John Paul VI. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/speeches/1973/may/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_19730510_dichiarazione-comune_en.html Hope this helps!
    -mary
  • wow! thanx!
    but who's eutychus
    that cleared things up
    if any body has any thing else to add... please do... im not Confused any longer, but still wondering... lol
  • hi again!
    Eutychus was the last MAJOR herectic of the time period. He claimed that Christ was of only one nature and that one the divinity entered the body, it just disappeared...he used the example of putting a salt crystal in water.. after it's put in, it just disappears. After the council repremanded him once and the coptic church quieted his heresy, he claimed that his beliefs were reformed and he was silenced for a while. He then came back and this time he told the heads of the council that he had the support of the coptic church (and the other sister churches). He was excommunicated and as for the fate of the churches, it is listed in my first response... wondering leads to the greatest discoveries.
    -mary
  • Hey again, and Thanx... u know ur stuff!
    [quote author=marys link=board=4;threadid=216;start=0#msg1086 date=1083355795]
    wondering leads to the greatest discoveries.

    (then maybe i should wonder more often)
  • If anybody still has any opinions or facts about this, i'd really appreciate it if you'd post it, or any other websites, books, etc
    btw, marys, that website helped a lot too! thanx ;)

    [move]Wondering leads to the greatest discoveries...[/move]
  • ooo!!... you made it scrollll...
    haha... experimentation is part of the process too, i guess. :)
  • lol...
    [move]i guess!!![/move]
    k im having way too much fun wiht this, but i still need answers people! :-\
  • Hi SMS,

    There are lot of good books you can read. One is the nature of Christ by H.H. This is good as an introduction. If you want information on the council of Chalcedon there is a good book called Chalcedon Re-examined by Fr V.C.Samuel who is an Indian Orthodox priest who adheres to our theology. It sets the tone for the council very well and highlights that St. Dioscorus wasn't deposed for reasons of belief, it actually highlights a huge irony in the whole situation. The Patriarch of Constantinople at the time was actually an Egyptian and he stated in the minutes of the council that Dioscorus was not deposed for any false beliefs, and the actual reasons given are laughable!

    Up until recently they say we are heretics who believe in division, confusion and alteration, when ironically Dioscorus was the first person to coin these pharses in defence of the church in that very council!!!

    The other 3 coucils are:

    Ephesus 431 - Set up to fight the heresy of Nestorianism which denied the right to call Mary the Theotokos. Nestorius was a patriarch of Constantinople who was trained in Antioch and adhered to their system of theology. The council deposed Nestorius in favour of the teachings of the fathers. There was a misunderstanding between the Alexandrian/Roman party and the party from Antioch who arrived after the council who decided to hold their own council and depose St. Cyril who was the most active fighter of Nestorianism. The emperor eventually sent Nestroius into exile and St. Cyril returned to his see. After this communication was broken and St. Cyril had to re-establish it so the antiochian side didn't feel like we had excommunicated their whole theology and he wrote what is now called the formulary of reunion which allowed people to have their systems of theology while adhering to basic principals. Unfortunatly this was not taken the same way by everyone and wasn't enough to prevent the split at Chalcedon.

    Constantinople 381: This wasn't instantaiously recongnised as a council but was set up to fight a number of different heresies namley Apollinarianism (the belief that Christ didn't have a human soul), Sabellinism (the belief that the trinity is a modal concept where there is one God who works in different modes) and Macadonianism (which attacks the Divinity of the Holy Spirit). When St. Cyril was defending the Theotokos he recycled a bit of material from the Apollinarian heresy such as the terminology Apollinarius used. This is counted against him and was one of the grievances the EO have with our creed mia physis to theou logos sesakwermene or nature of the word incarnate. This phrase was actually written by St. Athanasius in his book On the Incarnation of the Word but many EO people believe that St. Cyril was reading it in Apollinarian books falsley attributed to St. Athanasius.

    Nicea 325: This was the launching pad for a little red head boy who was ordained a priest in the middle of the council to break a deadlock between two sides of the council. I think you all know who I'm talking about. :)

    St. Athanasius was the greatest participant at the council and he later went on to be the youngest patriarch in the Churches history aged roughly a mere 30 years old!

    He fougth against the heresy of Arianism which denied the Divinity of Christ and he is also seen as the father of trinitarian theology.

    I hope this helps.

    God bless,

    CS
  • [quote author=CopticSoldier link=board=4;threadid=216;start=0#msg1266 date=1083559920]
    Nicea 325: This was the launching pad for a little red head boy who was ordained a priest in the middle of the council to break a deadlock between two sides of the council. I think you all know who I'm talking about. :)


    wow, that helped A LOT CS, thanx!
    but one comment... ^no, i dont know who ur talking about... ???
    u can tell im not up on my church history
  • St. Athanasius!

    [center]image[/center]

    Its a pity they never paint him as a red head...

    God bless,

    CS
  • o0o0o0o haha
    ;D the genius in me.... it never shows :P
    Thanx
  • i never knew that St. Athanasius was a red head... don't think that it makes much a difference in his saintly-hood.. but definetly a cool fact!
    -mary
  • [quote author=CopticSoldier link=board=4;threadid=216;start=0#msg1266 date=1083559920]
    Nicea 325: This was the launching pad for a little red head boy who was ordained a priest in the middle of the council to break a deadlock between two sides of the council.


    Why? ???
  • Are you asking why he was ordained a priest or why it was his launching pad? ???
  • both i guess
    like y was he ordained a priest int he middle of the council
    and what was the deadlock between the two sides?
  • well at the time of the council, St. Athanasius was just a deacon, but in order to speak at the council, he had to be at least the rank of priest. so right in the middle of the proceedings, since he had the zeal of the Spirit within him, an attending bishop ordained him on the spot.... leading to the greatest defense of our faith (relative to the other councils) ... from him comes the great saying..
    "Athanasius, but the whole world is against you!"
    St. Athansius "Then i am against the whole world.."
  • awesome!
  • C.S. Lewis actually wrote in his introduction to on the incarnation of the word that had St. Athanasius done none of the other things he did, he would have been remembered forever for writting that book alone, which is interesting because he wrote it in his youth before the council of Nicea.
  • C.S Lewis is a good author... random fact: he used to be athiest..
  • wow, i never knew that
    i heard of him before
    just wanted to thank everyone that replied
    THANX! ;D
  • Why What???? ??? ???
  • what are u confused about?
  • You and me both simple messenger service... ???

    CS
  • loooool, halarious but its actually short message service ;)
  • u guys lost me ???
  • i believe that makes the both of us.... :-\
  • sms = short message service
  • sms=short/simple message service
    ummm... im still quite lost lol
    sms is actually the intials of someone that was very dear to me that i lost... but i guess that works too.. :-\ lol
    but defender, what are u confused about?
  • Awww, I'm so sorry to hear that. :'(

    But your posts are like sms messages of 255 characters or less. ;)

    CS
  • 255!!!
    u really have not seen the catholic persecution or views on dating threads! (that is like 255 x infinity!!!) lol
    but thanx anywayz!
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