HERESY SERIES: PART 6
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QUESTION: God is infinite. Humans are finite. If Christ is both fully divine and fully human, Christ must be both fully infinite and fully finite at the same time. Isn’t this a logical contradiction? If not, how can something be both finite and infinite at the same time?
ORTHODOX CHRISTOLOGY: The theology of Christ is called Christology. Orthodox Christology holds that Christ is a single person with two natures: a complete human nature and a complete divine nature. This formulation is stated in the Chalcedonian Definition, which was a result of the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Fundamental Christological heresies will therefore violate the Chalcedonian Definition in some way: [1] denying the full divinity of Christ (e.g., Arianism); [2] denying the full humanity of Christ (e.g., Apollinarianism); [3] denying that Christ is a single person (e.g., Nestorianism); and/or [4] denying that Christ has two natures (e.g., monophysitism / Eutychianism). The reading below is the Chalcedonian Definition. But since much of the Christological debates centered around the meaning a several Greek words, I have left these in the original Greek and provided the definitions used in the Chalcedonian Definition.
GREEK TERMS: homoousios = essence or substance; physeis = natures; hypostasis = prosōpon = person (pl. prosōpa); Theotokos = God bearer.
READING (Chalcedonian Definition): Following, then, the holy Fathers, we all unanimously teach that our Lord Jesus Christ is to us One and the same Son, the Self-same Perfect in Godhead, the Self-same Perfect in Manhood; truly God and truly Man; the Self-same of a rational soul and body; homoousios with the Father according to the Godhead, the Self-same homoousios with us according to the Manhood; like us in all things, sin apart; before the ages begotten of the Father as to the Godhead, but in the last days, the Self-same, for us and for our salvation born of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, as to the Manhood; One and the Same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten; acknowledged in two physeis unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the difference of physeis being in no way removed because of the Union, but rather the properties of each physeis being preserved, and both concurring into one prosōpon and one hypostasis; not as though He was parted or divided into two prosōpa, but One and the Self-same Son and Only-begotten God, Word, Lord, Jesus Christ; even as from the beginning the prophets have taught concerning Him, and as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself hath taught us, and as the Symbol of the Fathers hath handed down to us.
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