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The Chalcedonian Creed
Introduction
The council of Chalcedon (451) met to resolve the Monophysite (a heresy
saying Christ had one nature) controversy in which the Eutychians refused
to confess the existence of two natures in Christ. It summarizes the Church's
teaching on the natures of Christ in negative terms. This Council asked,
“in what sense was Jesus truly man?” And, “How was He both
God and man?” Many answers had been given: Apollinarianism destroyed
Christ’s true manhood by saying He did not have a “rational
soul,” Nestorianism destroyed the unity of His person by radically
separating His divine nature from His human nature and making two Christ’s,
and Eutychianism destroyed the distinction of the two natures by teaching
that Christ’s human nature was absorbed into His divine nature.
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“We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of the natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.” |
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