Nestorius

NESTORIUS : UNDERSTANDING INCARNATION
PROF. M. M. NINAN
Key Players in the School of Antioch
• Nestorius (386 – 451) became bishop of Constantinople in 428. He came from the Antioch
school and was taught theology there by Theodore of Mopsuestia. He opposed a relatively
new theological and devotional slogan Theotokos - affirming that
Mary was the "God-bearer" or "Mother of God." Nestorius was
concerned with the thought that God might be seen to have had a
new beginning of some kind, or that he suffered or died. None of
these things could happen to the infinite God. Therefore, instead of a
God-man, he taught that there was the Logos and the "man who was
assumed." He favored the term "Christ-bearer" (Christotokos) as a
summary of Mary's role, or perhaps that she should be called both
"God-bearer" and "Man-bearer" to emphasize Christ's dual natures.
He was accused of teaching a double personality of Christ. Two
natures, and two persons. He denied the charge, but the term Nestorianism has always
been linked with such a teaching.
source: Church of the East
• Theodore of Mopsuestia (350 – 428)...the inspiration for Theodore's principles of exegesis
may be derived from the School of Antioch, which insisted on the
literal and historical sense of the text, as opposed to the
allegorical approach advocated by the school of Alexandria.
Theodore, in his theological considerations, insists on the human
soul of Christ and on the significance of His free moral activity in
the work of redemption. He replaces the phrase "Word and flesh"
with the formula "Word and assumed man." Consonant with the
Dyophysite position expressed by Diodore and later espoused by
Nestorius and the bishops of the schools of Edessa and Nisibis,
Theodore also asserts that the two natures of Jesus
constitute "one Son" and "one Lord" because they are united in one person.
source: Church of the East
• Diodorus of Tarsus (??? - 392) rejected the allegorical interpretation
of the Alexandrians, and adhered to the literal sense. In this he was
followed by his disciple Theodore of Mopsuestia, and by Chrysostom
in his unequalled expositions. The Antiochene School of which he
was the leader was discredited by the subsequent heresies of
Nestorius, of whom his disciple Theodore of Mopsuestia was the
precursor.
source: Church of the East
Nestorian Theology
• The Christological question which formed the background to the Nestorian controversy:
"How are divinity and humanity joined together and related to each other in Jesus
Christ?"
• The Western Church affirmed Tertullian's formula:
In Christ, there are two natures united in one person.
• The Eastern Church had two schools of thought:
the Antiochene and the Alexandrian.
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