10 Facts About Nestorianism

Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings.

Original Nestorianism is attested primarily by works of Nestorius, and by other theological and historical sources that are related to his teachings in the fields of Mariology and Christology.

Nestorianism's teachings were considered as heretical not only in Chalcedonian Christianity, but even more in Oriental Orthodoxy.

Nestorianism is a radical form of dyophysitism, differing from orthodox dyophysitism on several points, mainly by opposition to the concept of hypostatic union.

Where Nestorianism holds that Christ had two loosely united natures, divine and human, Monophysitism holds that he had but a single nature, his human nature being absorbed into his divinity.

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Nestorianism had studied at the School of Antioch where his mentor had been Theodore of Mopsuestia; Theodore and other Antioch theologians had long taught a literalist interpretation of the Bible and stressed the distinctiveness of the human and divine natures of Jesus.

Nestorianism suggested that the title denied Christ's full humanity, arguing instead that Jesus had two persons, the divine Logos and the human Jesus.

Nestorianism became a distinct sect following the Nestorian Schism, beginning in the 430s.

Cyril had both theological and political reasons for attacking Nestorius; on top of feeling that Nestorianism was an error against true belief, he wanted to denigrate the head of a competing patriarchate.

Nestorianism was officially anathematized, a ruling reiterated at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.