Topic > The Importance of the Doctrine of the Incarnation

Four movements, now heresies, of the past each adopted one of the four views mentioned above. They are: Nestorianism, Eutychianism, Apollinarianism and Arianism. Nestorianism and Eutychianism fall into the controversy over the relationship between the two natures. The controversy of Nestorianism arose over the propriety of the term theotokos (“God-bearer”) as a description of Mary. At the Council of Chalcedon in 428 Nestorius gave his vision of the theotokos which he advocated and an excessively divisive vision of the two natures of Christ. Nestorius believed that the term was of dubious correctness unless the term anthropotokos ("human bearing") was also used. Nestorius was subsequently condemned by Cyril of Alexandria; who believed that Christ had only one nature were involved. Nestorius' declaration regarding the birth of Christ caused Cyril to oppose him. Nestorius said that God cannot have a mother; no woman can give birth to God. Cyril of Alexandria suggested that Nestorius was proposing that Jesus had two natures united in a purely moral union. After Nestorianism came Eutychianism. In the end Eutyches, summoned several times to the permanent Synod of Constantinople in 448, presented himself and declared his position, while Christ has two natures before the incarnation, after the incarnation there was only one. The result of the Synod was that Eutyches was deposed and excommunicated and the doctrine of one nature rejected. Arianism and Apollinarianism fall into the controversy over whether Christ is fully divine and fully human. Arianism is the teaching of the Alexandrian presbyter Arius and his supporters. Arius denied the full divinity of Christ. He taught that the Son of God was not of the same substance as the Father and that he was created “……middle of paper……Bible Institute Colportage Ass'n., 1934.Gore, Charles . The Incarnation of the Son of God. London: J. Murray, 1891.Kelly, JND. The first Christian doctrines. New York: Harper, 1960.Lawson, Penelope. The Incarnation of the Word of God, being the Treatise of Saint Athanasius, De Incartione Verbi Dei; New York: Macmillan, 1946. Print. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: The Seven Ecumenical Councils, vol 14. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994.4. Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers: Socrates, Sozomenus, Church Histories, vol 2. eds. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994. 274. Streatfeild, George Sidney. The Incarnation. London: Longmans, Green, 1910. Verball, Wim. “The Council of the Senses Reconsidered: Masters, Monks, or Judges?” In Church History, vol 74. Cambridge University Press, 2005.