Chalcedonian Definition - Oriental Orthodox Dissent

Oriental Orthodox Dissent

The Chalcedonian creed was written amid controversy between the western and eastern churches over the meaning of the Incarnation (see Christology), the ecclesiastical influence of the emperor, and the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome. The western churches readily accepted the creed, but some eastern churches did not.

The creed became standard orthodox doctrine, while the Coptic Church of Alexandria dissented, holding to Cyril's formula of the oneness of Christ’s nature as the incarnation of God the Word. This church felt that this understanding required that the creed should have stated that Christ be acknowledged "from two natures" rather than "in two natures".

This miaphysite position, historically characterised by Chalcedonian followers as "monophysitism" though this is denied by the dissenters, formed the basis for the distinction from other churches of the Coptic Church of Egypt and Ethiopia and the "Jacobite" churches of Syria and Armenia (see Oriental Orthodoxy). Over the last 30 years, however, the miaphysite position has been accepted as a mere restatement of orthodox belief by Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Eastern Orthodox Church and by Pope John Paul II of the Roman Catholic Church.