2 natures, saint quotes

OneSleeve

There’s a lot of non Oriental Orthodox quoting Oriental Saints that supposedly affirm 2 natures and I’m wandering what Oriental Orthodox say about this


That is, he was not merely man, but also God. He showed that there was one person in the two natures, that is, God's and man's. For, if he were two persons, there would begin to be a foursome instead of a trinity. Thus he is a twofold substance, but one person.
- St. Augustine

Dioscoros

Hello my friend, blessed forty days to you and a joyful feast.

Non-Orthodox will try to point to the Fathers pre-schism to justify dyophysitism, but this is all sophistry which is meant to detract from the dogma defined at the Council of Ephesus in 431 - Christ is one composite nature after the union.  To speak of two natures as "unified," only as it regards being conjoined, but not as synthesizing into one nature, is what St Cyril's dogmatic third letter to Nestorius condemns.  By trying to argue for their position they make known their obstinance to the third and final ecumenical council.

As for Saint Augustine, there are various doctrines which he taught which the Orthodox do not accept, such as inherited guilt (as opposed to original sin without a transferal of guilt), the doctrine that the Spirit proceeds from the Son and not only the Father, the idea that unbaptized babies suffer punishment in hell, and unfortunately his Christology was erroneous too.

Saint Augustine is best read for his spiritual insights and mysticism as opposed to his theology.  If Saint Augustine lived only a year or two more than he did, he would've attended the Council of Ephesus where he would have repented of his errors more fully than anything in his Retractations would indicate.  Here is one example of the Nestorian Christology which Saint Augustine fell into:

"In this the grace of God is supremely manifest, commended in grand and visible fashion; for what had the human nature in the man Christ merited, that it, and no other, should be assumed into the unity of the Person of the only Son of God? What good will, what zealous strivings, what good works preceded this assumption by which that particular man deserved to become one Person with God?" - Enchiridion, XI, 36

Regardless, all we as Orthodox believers need to know is that just like how the Trinity was expressed in sometimes less-than-clear formulae before the Nicaean-Constantinopolitan definitions, in the same way we focus on Christology according to the definition of Ephesus.

This is why the Chalcedonians try to obfuscate the situation - their weapon is confusion, ours is clarity.

May God bless you in the rest of this joyful season, and further bless you with His wisdom.

Daniel_Kyrillos

As in most matters regarding ecumenical councils, Dioscorus saves the day! :))