04) FOURTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL
Background
In 325, the first ecumenical council (First Council of Nicaea) determined that Jesus Christ was God, "consubstantial" with the Father, and rejected the Arian contention that Jesus was a created being. This was reaffirmed at the First Council of Constantinople (381) and the First Council of Ephesus (431).
The Council of Chalcedon (/kælˈsiːdən, ˈkælsɪdɒn/; Latin: Concilium Chalcedonense)[a] was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian.
The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bithynia (modern-day Kadıköy, Istanbul, Turkey) from 8 October to 1 November 451 AD.[3]
The council was attended by over 520 bishops or their representatives, making it the largest and best-documented of the first seven ecumenical councils.[3]
The principal purpose of the council was to re-assert the teachings of the ecumenical Council of Ephesus against the teachings of Eutyches and Nestorius.[4]
Such doctrines viewed Christ's divine and human natures as separate (Nestorianism) or viewed Christ as solely divine (Monophysitism).[5]
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Chalcedon
Chalcedon marked on a map of the Istanbul region
As recorded by American Christian scholar Jaroslav Pelikan, it was stated:
We all teach harmoniously [that he is] the same perfect in godhead, the same perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man, the same of a reasonable soul and body; homoousios with the Father in godhead, and the same homoousios with us in manhood ... acknowledged in two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.[6]
Whilst this judgment marked a significant turning point in the Christological debates,[7] it also generated heated disagreements between the council and the Oriental Orthodox Church, who did not agree with such conduct or proceedings.[8]
This disagreement would later inform the separation of the Oriental Orthodox Churches from the rest of Christianity, and led to the council being regarded as "Chalcedon, the Ominous".[8]
The council's other responsibilities included addressing controversy, dealing with issues such as ecclesiastical discipline and jurisdiction,[9] and approving Statements of Belief such as
the Creed of Nicaea (325),
the Creed of Constantinople (381, subsequently known as the Nicene Creed),
two letters of St. Cyril of Alexandria against Nestorius, and the Tome of Pope Leo I.[3]
The Christology of the Church of the East may be called "non-Ephesine" for not accepting the Council of Ephesus, but did finally gather to ratify the Council of Chalcedon at the Synod of Mar Aba I in 544.[10][11]
Through the 1994 Common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, the Assyrian Church of the East accepted and confessed the same doctrine of Christology as the Catholic Church; it can be considered here that the Assyrian Church of the East accepted the Council of Ephesus.