User:Gog the Mild/Typos of Constans FAC draft

I had posted something then realized I left out Chalcedon, so I have taken it back! I shall return! Jenhawk777 (talk) 19:45, 3 December 2020 (UTC) Okay, a second try. I hope you aren't disappointed.

The doctrine that Christ had two natures, one fully human and one fully divine, also insisted that Christ had two wills, since the will is a property of the nature. This claimed the human will conformed naturally to the divine will, yet a person does not merely have a soul or a mind or a will; a person is wholly constituted as being that soul and mind and will. If Jesus' Being embraced two complete beings, one a fully functional and separate human body, soul and will, that amounts to a second part of the divine Logos. They would not be one person; they would instead be "a theological and metaphysical counterpart to conjoined twins". The two natures doctrine has a tendency to destroy the unity of Christ, and Jesus' mission as divine depended upon his unity with the will of the Father.

One effort to resolve this produced Monophysitism. Monophysitism took the sentence "the word was made flesh" believing it meant the divine nature, when changed into the human, absorbed and changed the human, making the two natures into one divine nature. Being solely divine treads upon the real human suffering of the cross. This led to the fourth ecumenical council in 451, the Council of Chalcedon, which wrote the Definition in response.

The Chalcedonian Definition sees the Incarnation as a personal or hypostatic union. Hypostasis is a Greek term for the substance that underlies and supports all of reality. Two natures of Christ are formed by one ontological entity into two manners of existence. "The significant difference between Chalcedonian and monophysite Christologies lies in their respective capacities for accommodating putative contradictions. Supposing that the list of necessary divine attributes conflicts with the list of necessary human attributes, Chalcedonianism can, and monophysitism cannot, allow that the incarnate divine person is truly God and man, with all the attributes entailed by each nature". Monophysitism was thus declared a heresy at Chalcedon.

By the seventh century in the Byzantine empire, emperor Heraclius decided he wanted to win back the "excommunicated and persecuted Monophysites of Egypt and Syria". The Patriarch of Constantinople, Sergius, understood how serious these issues were for the church and thought a teaching that had been going around in Egypt might provide the bridge between orthodoxy and monophysitism and heal the breach. This new teaching asserted two natures but only one will: monothelitism. In 638, Heraclius issued the "Statement of faith" that formulated the position explaining that the divine and human natures in Christ, while quite distinct, had but one will (thelēma) and one operation (energeia). "Unfortunately, this led to such intense controversy that Heraclius's successor, Constans II (r.641-668 CE) had to issue an edict in 648 CE forbidding all discussion of the question".

The controversy revived under emperor Constantine IV in 668 CE. In order to avoid tearing apart Jesus' unity, the Sixth Ecumenical Council of 680 CE, also held in Constantinople, declared that, while Jesus had two natures, his human will was determined by the divine will. Taken strictly, this omits Jesus' voluntary capacity necessary for atonement. Monothelitism was condemned and declared a heresy in 680.

Jenhawk777 (talk) 20:50, 3 December 2020 (UTC)


 * Monothelitism


 * The orthodox Chalcedonian position


 * Monophysitism


 * Heraclius's Ecthesis


 * The relevant bits of the Lateran Council of 649


 * Ditto the Third Council of Constantinople

Possible sources

 * Church and State during the Reign of Emperor Constantin IV (668-685)


 * ‘Willing Is Not Choosing’: Some Anthropological Implications of Dyothelite Christology - on Maximus the Confessor


 * The Church of Ravenna, Constantinople and Rome in the seventh century


 * Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium - Typos of Constans


 * The lure of the West: The Italian campaign of Constans II


 * Crisis of Empire: Doctrine and Dissent at the End of Late Antiquity


 * THE "LIVES" OF POPE MARTIN I AND MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR : SOME RECONSIDERATIONS OF DATING AND PROVENANCE


 * The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God


 * A New Approach to the Context of the Great Schism