The Search for Peace in Times of Chaos—Volume Basic Doctrine Vocabulary Catholicism The union in Christ is not a union of two natures directly with one another, but a union of the two in one hypostasis; thus they are distinct yet inseparable, and each acts in communion with the other yophysitism This is the belief that Christ had two natures: both divine and human This concept won out after extensive debate at the church council at Chalcedon in ad It is imbedded in the Chalcedonian Creed Eutychianism It holds that the human and divine natures of Christ were fused into one new single (mono) nature His human nature was dissolved like a drop of honey in the sea This view essentially absorbed the human nature into the divine nature In an attempt to unify the person of Jesus, Eutychianism denied the two natures of Jesus and affirmed a new, or third, nature Nestorianism Jesus to be two distinct persons, closely and inseparably united He was banished for maintaining that Mary was the mother of the man Jesus only, and therefore should not be called the mother of God onophysitism It is the Christological position that Christ has only one nature (human that was divine), as opposed to the Chalcedonian position, which holds that Christ maintains two natures: one divine and one human Monophysitism and its antithesis, Nestorianism, were both hotly disputed and divisive competing tenets in the maturing Christian traditions during the first half of the fifth century Another comparison: • Nestorians: one person, two beings or entities, two natures • Catholics: one person, one being or entity, two natures • Monophysites: one person, one being or entity, one nature There are four branches of the Monophysites: the Syrian Jacobites; the Copts, including the Abyssinians; the Armenians; and the less ancient Maronites ~ 161 ~