Council of Ephesus: third of the seven Ecumenical Councils in which Christian doctrine was established (431).
The Council of Ephesus (431)
Organized by the emperor Theodosius II;
discussion of the teachings of bishop of Nestorius of Constantinople, who belonged to the Antiochene school of theology; Nestorius recognized that in Christ man and God were united, but he saw this as a psychological unity, whereas the Alexandrine and Roman theologians, led by Cyril of Alexandria, argued for a more physical unity;
the council started before the Antiochenes could arrive and condemned Nestorianism;
the Antiochenes organized a council of their own, which accepted Nestorius' teachings;
the emperor recognized the first council as orthodox, and this decision was confirmed by pope Coelestinus I;
as a result, the theologians of Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome decided that he Blessed Virgin should not be called Christotokos ("Mother of Christ") but Theotokos ("Mother of God").
the Antiochene theologians never accepted this outcome; they settled in the Sasanian Empire, where their christology was established in the Councils of Bet-Lapat (484) and Seleucia (486) ("Nestorian" or "Assyrian Church");
although it was by now agreed by many theologians that in Christ two natures were united, it remained unclear how.
