2: Orthodox Christianity Volume II : Doctrine and Teaching of the Orthodox Church

by Hilarion Alfeyev

In the fifth century, the teaching of “two sons” was charged to Nestorius, who failed to prove that the accusation was unfounded. Significant in this is that Gregory the Theologian’s Christological insights and his theological terminology, in essence, anticipated the controversies of the fifth century, in this case concerning the term “Theotokos.” Nestorius rejected this term on the basis that “Mary did not give birth to the Godhead.” Half a century before the Third Ecumenical Council, which condemned Nestorius, Gregory the Theologian passed judgment regarding the heretical deviations in the exposition of Christological doctrine: Whoever does not accept Holy Mary as the Mother of God has no relation with the Godhead. Whoever says that he was channeled, as it were, through the Virgin but not formed within her divinely and humanly (“divinely” because without a husband, “humanly” because by law of conception) is likewise godless. Whoever says the human being was formed and then God put him on to wear him is condemned. . . . Whoever imports two “sons,” one from God the Father, a second from the mother, and not one and the same Son, loses the adoption promised to those who believe aright. Two natures there are, God and man . . . but not two “sons” or two “Gods”. . . . In sum: the constituents of our Savior are different things . . . but not different people—God forbid! The pair is one by coalescence, God being “in-manned” and man deified. Whoever speaks of “activation by grace”...