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Movements & -isms

Nestorianism

ness-TOR-ee-uh-niz-umnoun

The teaching (associated with Nestorius) that divides Christ too sharply — as if into two persons rather than one person in two natures.

Not To Be Confused With

Nestorianism divides Christ into two (over-separating the natures); Eutychianism blends the natures into one. Chalcedon (451) rejected both, confessing one person in two natures.

The dispute crystallized over Theotokos (“God-bearer”): if Mary bore the one person who is God the Son, the title holds. Nestorianism's over-division threatened that unity; Chalcedon answered with one hypostasis in two natures, “without confusion, without division.” (The modern Assyrian Church of the East disputes the “Nestorian” label often pinned on it.)

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Nestorianism — Definition | Theologos Media