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The Council of Ephesus of 431

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The Council of Ephesus of 431 THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS OF 431 1978 ABOUT THE AUTHOR The Most Rev. Dr. Mar Aprem (formerly George Mooken) was born in Trichur, Kerala, India in June 1940. Educated in India, England and America, he specialised in the field of Church History. He is now the President of the Church History Association of India. He holds two master's degrees in theology, one from the United Theological College, Bangalore (M. Th., of Serampore, 1966) and the other from the Union Theo¬ logical Seminary, New York (S. T. M. degree, 1967). He earned a D. Th. (Doctor of Theology) degree from the University of Serampore near Calcutta. Since 1968 he is the head of the Church of the East in India with his head¬ quarters in Trichur. He is active in several religious and social organizations, all over India. Travelling and Writing he enjoys. He has more than half a dozen books in English to his credit. He is currently working on another half a dozen books mainly on the history and faith of his Church. £^>1 v^*' ^ £x Hibris $etb i-Harbutbo Hibrarp rhe Nlalphono George Anton Kiraz Collection bit ^ bo U£^-a^ -iiSeio, Lu. ^ £^> loou M JZ£*2> ot vl'o ouu»ii l^-coo LiSL^a- —>-o L^oojo \ ), \. ro ob loou 0^1 l*AJa ❖ O-Kaob* oCix -j-2>OU, Uc*0. -O'QI.^N^ Anyone who asks for this volume, to read, collate, or copy from it, and who appropnates it to himself or herself, or cuts anything out of it, should realize that (s)he will have to give answer before God’s awesome tribunal as if (s)he had robbed a sanctuary. Let such a person be held anathema and receive no forgiveness until the book is returned. So be it. Amen! And anyone who removes these anathemas, digitally or otherwise, shall himself receive them in double. I • X • fit • ft ■ % ' K i Tl (forme Trichu Educal fie sp> History Ch urch He theolog College 1966) a logical degree, (Doctor Universi Sine Cliurch e quarters religious India. Trave lias more English 1 working e mainly o Church. COUNCIL OF EPHESUS OF 431 mar aprem mar narsai press High Road, TRICHUR-1 Kerala, India: 1978 COUNCIL OF EPHESUS OF 431 A. D. by Most Rev. Dr. MAR APREM B. D., M. Th., S. T. M., D. Th. First Published, April 1978 bv MAR NARSA1 PRESS, TRICHUR Printed at: Rose Printing workers Co-op. Society, Kalathode, Trichur - 5 Number of Copies: 500 Number of pages: 192 Copy right: Author Price Rs. 5 Dollar 2 (U. S. A.) MAR NARSAI PRESS GOLDEN JUBILEE PUBLICATIONS NO. 4 A Study of the Council of Ephesus (431 A. D.) to Examine the Relevance of the Christology of the Church of the East A thesis submitted to the Senate of Serampore College as a partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Theology George Davis Mooken United Theological College Bangalore 1966 Printed by Permission of The Senate of Serampore CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION A. Aim of the study B. Scope of the study C. Previous Research in the Field D. Definitions i Council of Ephesus ii Church of the East E. Method of the study CHAPTER I BACKGROUND OF THE COUNCIL A. Alexandria versus Antioch i Alexandrian Christology ii Antiochene Christology B. Cyril of Alexandria C. Nestorius CHAPTER II DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONTROVERSY A. Causes B. Spread of the Controversy C. Synod of Rome D. Synod of Alexandria E. Anathematisms & Counter-Anathematisms CHAPTER III RIVAL SYNODS AT EPHESUS IN 431 A. D. 54 A. Pcparation for the Council 56 B. Synod of Cyril 62 C. Synod of John of Antioch 67 D. The Later Sessions of Cyril’s Synod 71 CHAPTER IV AFTERMATH 77 A. The Imperial Intervention 77 B. The Conclusion of the Synod 85 C. The Concordat of 433 A. D. 92 D. Summary 99 CHAPTER V CHRISTOLOGY OF THE CHURCH OF THE EAST 102 A. The Church of the East not involved in this controversy 102 B. The three crucial terms 105 C. The Greek Doctors 112 D. Mar Narsai (d.503) 116 E. Mar Bawai the Great (569-628) 119 F. Mar Avdeesho Metropolitan (d. 1318) 122 G. Summary 124 CHARIER VI THE ATTITUDE OF THE OTHER CHURCHES 1 27 A. The Roman Catholic Attitude 127 B. Martin Luther, the Reformer 133 C. Anglican & American Missions 137 i. Discovery of the Bazaar of Heracleides 140 ii. The Attempts for Intercommunion 141 CONCLUSIONS 146 A. The Necessity for an official Change in the Recognition of the Council of Ephesus by other Churches 146 B. The necessity for a ‘Nestorian' Christology today 14S C. The Prospects of These Two Aims 152 D. A Final Word 154 APPENDIX A. The Anathematisms & Counter-Anathematisms 156 APPENDIX B. The Aarhus Consultation 166 APPENDIX C. Chronology of the Controversy 171 BIBLIOGRAPHY 175 INDEX 185 PREFACE This book was written more than twelve years ago. Dr. Kaaj Baago, the then professor of Church History at the United Theological College, Bangalore, suggested that it might be published. I postponed the publication hoping that I would be able to read more on the subject and later to publish a well documented study. Nevertheless, as per the advice of Professor Baago I wrote a summary of this thesis and published it in the Bangalore Theological Forum in 1967 under the title “A Re appraisal of Nestorianism/’ Since then I did further research on the Christology of Nestorius in New York and Princeton and it has been discussed in detail in my doctoral dissertation. However, much of the historical background brought out in the foll¬ owing pages of this book has not been discussed in the doctoral dissertation. Hence the publication of this book became a necessity. This will supplement some of the the¬ ological discussions in the doctoral dissertation which will be published in the near future under the title “Nestorian Christology.” In this M. Th. thesis, several words have been written in Syriac and Greek. As it is difficult to get Greek print¬ ing types, the Greek words are transliterated during print¬ ing. Although Syriac types are available, they too are transliterated realising that most of the readers of this book will not be able to read it in that language. In 1976 when Mar Narsai Press reached the fiftieth year of its inception, the Managing Committee decided to celebrate its golden Jubilee in a fitting manner by publish- ing a series of books in English about the history, faith and worship of the Church of the East. The literary develop¬ ment of the Church was the original intention of the found¬ ing fathers of Mar Narsai Press in 1926. It has published several books in Syriac, Malayalam and English during its fifty years of service. The first two numbers of the golden Jubilee publicat¬ ions, The Nestorian Fathers and Westorian Missions came out in 1976 itself. The third number The Chaldean Syrian Church in India was published in 197 7. This book is the fourth in that series. The fifth one, which is on the Sacra¬ ments is already in the Press. I hope that the Golden Jubilee series of Mar Narsai Press will be able to explain the history, faith and worship of the ancient Church of the East to the people in India and abroad. I am grateful to the Senate of Serampore College for granting permission to print this M. Th thesis of mine submitted to the Serampore Senate in 1966. t Metropolitan’s Palace MAR APREM Trichur - 680001 30 April 1978 INTRODUCTION A. AIM The following work is an unbiased probe into the history and background of what is known as the third ecu¬ menical council of the universal church held at Ephesus in 431 A. D. The purpose is to examine and evaluate the christology of the Church of the East, tracing its historical development to the present day. Attempt has been made to test the relevance of the ‘Nestorian' christology to the contemporary thought in the context of its relation to the other churches, thereby determining its right to claim a place among the orthodox. B. SCOPE OF THE STUDY All those who are engaged in the great task of bury¬ ing the heresies should, naturally, refrain from an attempt such as the one which the present writer proposes to do. Modern scholarship, however, has questioned the propriety of calling Nestorius a Nestorian. John Stewart, in his sch¬ olarly book entitled Nestorian Missionary Enterprise, protests strongly against calling the Nestorians, schismatics. The personal and theological battles around the unhappy Council of Ephesus of 431 A. D. were recorded in the pages of history. The discovery of the Bazar of Herac/eides has widened the scope of our study on Nestorius and his teach¬ ings. The most unbiased approach in the inquiry as to a person’s teaching and character is, undoubtedly, the sincere attempt to let that person’s works and deeds disclose himself. Nestorius is being attacked, too often, with a set of precon- 10 ceived notions and pre-arranged questions. With the he;p of this work of Nestorius, the present writer hopes to have done justice to this theologian condemned under strange circumstances. C. PREVIOUS RESEARCH IN THE FIELD In doing so the writer naturally, has received such information and inspiration frcm the more recent literature on the subject and he wishes, in particular, to acknowledge his debt to authors like: Hefele, Kidd, Duchesne, Badger, Bethune Baker, Loofs, Vine, Wigram etc. The main limitation in the field of previous research is the fact that those who are called Nestorians have not written any theological work on Nestorius.
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