This post follows from “Who do you say that I am: Controversies about Christ in the early church,” Controversies about Christ in the early church, part II: The hybrid Jesus and the Second Council, Controversies about Christ in the early church, part III: The werewolf Jesus and the third council, and Controversies about Christ in the early church, part IV: The divine swallowing the human and the fourth council’s “four fences.”
But now we have to descend from the ideal, abstract world of ideas and remember the other result of the Council of Chalcedon: The worst schism the church had ever faced. The reaction was violent. Christian citizens were robbed, there were riots, leaders were deposed, Christians killed each other. The anti-Chalcedon reaction became the religion of Egypt: monophysitism. Later: the Coptic church. In Syria, many Christians became monophysites. The story of all of this is told in a new book by the prolific and clear writer Philip Jenkins, called Jesus Wars. Continue reading