04 — What the Definition Confesses

This is the dogmatic heart of the collection, and it is written in the confessing mood. The Definition of Chalcedon is the faith of the Orthodox Church: one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, acknowledged in two natures — ἐν δύο φύσεσιν — inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably, the property of each nature preserved and concurring in one Person and one Hypostasis. This section quotes the Horos exactly and expounds it.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Contents

File Description
in-two-natures.md The Definition quoted exactly from NPNF II/14, with the Greek of the load-bearing clause; the four adverbs and what each excludes; why “in two natures” and not “out of two”; what a physis is and why the duality must be affirmed after the union; how Chalcedon completes rather than contradicts Cyril
one-hypostasis-and-the-communication-of-idioms.md The one prosōpon and one hypostasis; the hypostasis of the union as the pre-existent hypostasis of the Word; enhypostasia in Leontius and St. John of Damascus; the communication of idioms and its rules; why the Theotokos and the theopaschite formula follow; the soteriological stake

Reading Order

Read In Two Natures first — it carries the text. Then One Hypostasis and the Communication of Idioms, which carries the other half of the same formula and the consequences that follow from it.

A Note on Mood

The rest of this collection reports, narrates, and — in Section 09 — refrains from adjudicating. This section does none of those things. Where the Church has defined, the collection confesses. What is set out here is not “the Chalcedonian position” among available positions; it is the faith of the Orthodox Church, defined by an Ecumenical Council, confirmed by the three that followed it, and never revisited (METHODOLOGY §4.1).

See Also