Council of Nicaea
First Council of Constantinople
The Council of Ephesus
Key Terms and Figures
Class Readings
100


Cyrenaic Presbyter who wrote these words. "If the father beget the son, then the son had a beginning in time."

Arius

100

The emperor who convened the Council in 381. 

Theodosious I

100

This Archbishop of Constantinople taught that Christ had two separate natures, one divine and one human.

Nestorious

100

This emperor called the Council of Chalcedon after the death of Theodosius II to settle the disputes from the previous councils.

Marcian


100

Nestorius exchanged letters with the Patriarch on the subject of Mary. 

Cyril of Alexandria

200

A church father and chief proponent of Trinitarianism. 

Athanasius


200

The creed was a result of the Council of Nicaea and was expanded during the Council of Constantinople to include additions concerning this element of the God-head. 

Holy Spirit

200

Condemned Nestorius’s teachings as heretical and took charge of the Council of Ephesus.

Cyril of Alexandria

200

Known as one of the earliest church historians, he was the cousin of the emperor, and he was excommunicated because of his views on Arianism, but was later welcomed back into the church. 

Eusebius

200

According to Nestorious, "Mary did not give birth to the..."

God-head

300

This theological debate arose as a disagreement over the nature of Christ's divinity in the 4th Century and was not really settled at Nicaea. 

Arian Controversy

300

Considered one of the Cappadocian Fathers, an early Doctor of the Church, and helped shape the doctrine of the Trinity. 

Gregory of Nazianzus

300

What did the holy fathers boldly call the holy Virgin according to Cyril’s Second Letter?

Theotokos 

300

This greek term was the center of much controversy and debate in the early patristic period. 

οὐσία

Ousia or Essence

300

Is Jesus a human being or is he like a human being according to Fr 45 of the Apollinaris reading, AND why

Like a human because of his incarnate intellect. 

400

The first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity marked Christianity as an official religion of the Roman Empire. He also convened the Council of Nicaea. He excommunicated his cousin, Eusebius, for his views. 

Constantine I or Constantine the Great. 

400

A noted opponent of Arianism who wrote these words:  “the human race is saved… by the assumption of flesh (by the Logos)”.

Apollinaris of Laodicea

400

Before the Council of Ephesus officially began, Cyril of Alexandria started the meeting early using this phrase. 

"Start the council without delay." 

400

Early heresy that believed the three persons of the Trinity were distinct historical manifestations.

Sabellianism

400

In A Black Theology of Liberation James Cones notes six of these as (blank) for doing theology. 

Sources

500

Meaning constubstantial. 

Homoousious

500

Beginning with the phrase "I believe in One God," and ending with "and the life of the world to come." This was one of the "resolutions" of the First Council of Constantinople. 

Nicene-Constantinople Creed

500

After the initial Council of Ephesus, a later gathering called the “Robbers’ Council” condemned anyone linked to Nestorius and declared this Christological view the only correct one

Monophysitism or the belief that Christ has one nature (divine and human combined). 

500

Used by the homoiousians to reference the individual persons of the Godhead.

Sabellianism


500

This is the title of the first chapter of Kevin Hector's Christianity as A Way of Life 

"The Good of Theology"