Acts of Apostle Thomas

XVIII SURAYA IMMIGRATION : M. M. NINAN
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Man can reach out to God under their own power, without God’s grace. Once a person has entered a state
of grace, he can retain it through one’s efforts, without further grace from God.
8. Nestorianism (5th Century)
Nestorius claimed that Mary only bore Christ’s human nature in her womb, and could not be called Mother
of God (Theokotos) and proposed the alternative title Christotokos (Mother of Christ). Nestorianism found
its way into the Malankara Churches and it the Churches remained in it till the coming of the Portugese.
9. Monophysitism (5th Century)
Monophysitism originated as a reaction to Nestorianism. Christ was one person with only one nature (a
fusion of human and divine elements). They are thus known as Monophysites because of their claim that
Christ had only one nature (Greek: mono = one; physis = nature).
10. Islam (6 th Century) This was a movement against the icons and worship of Angels and saints which
became predominant in the Arab areas, Mohammed brought in a strict Monotheism akin to Judaism with
Jesus given a prophetic status. However because it was a political move Islam became a force and took
over most of the Arab areas. The bishops and elders of the Yemeni Christian Churches were forced to walk
into fire. As such today Islam is considered a full fledged semitic religion along with Judaism and
Christianity,
11. Iconoclasm (7th and 8th Centuries)
They thought it was sinful to make pictures and statues of Christ and the saints since human tendency is to
worship these symbols and miss the real object of the Person of Christ.
All these were reflected within the Indian Churches. By now there were three denominations in India.
1. The Issanuvadikal
2. Saivites
3. Vaishanavites
Vaishnavites of North India were already Gnostic.
The active presence and debates on the nature of God led to corresponding developments in Indian
Christian community and were reflected strongly in the Vedic Scholars of South India. It is this that led to
the Advaitic Theology of Sankara. In the same way as Constantine called for a Council to decide on the
creed of faith by King Kulashekara.
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The first person to explicitly consolidate the principles of Advaita Vedanta was Adi
Shankara, while the first historical proponent was Gaudapada, the guru of Shankara's
guru Govinda Bhagavatpada.
According to Adi Shankara, God, the Supreme Cosmic Spirit or Brahman is the One,
the whole and the only reality. Other than Brahman, everything else, including the
universe, material objects and individuals, are false. According to Adi Shankara, Māyā
is the complex illusionary power of Brahman which causes the Brahman to be seen as
the material world of separate forms. Maya has two main functions — one is to "hide"
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