In the first part of our discussion on the Seventh Council, we discuss some of the difficulties with properly representing the Council, the background issues, and the Council itself. Next week we will discuss some of the implications of the Council for Anglicans today.

Part 2 of our 2025 Trinitytide Sermon Series

We discuss the sixth ecumenical council, yet another attempt to reconcile the increasingly fractured early church. The controversy at hand is whether Christ has two “energies” and two wills, a human and a divine. We also touch on the contemporary debate over the “eternal subordination of the Son in Reformed circles.

We discuss the fifth ecumenical council, which attempted to reconcile the churches of Syria and Egypt with the rest of the Church. The question at hand: how can Christ’s human nature be a true nature without having its now personhood distinct from the Divine Person of the Logos?

Part 1 of our 2025 Trinitytide Sermon Series

Text: Matthew 16:13-19.

We discuss Monophysitism, the ongoing struggles between Antioch and Alexandria, the final “creed” of the Patristic era, and the ongoing schisms in the East.

In today's class we discuss the heresy of Nestorianism, its connection to Pelagianism, the Marian title "Theotokos," and how the theological distinction between justification and sanctification remains important today.

For further reading, see chapters 3 and 4 of TheCruelty of Heresy by C. FitzSimons Allison.

As a preface to the 3rd Council, we discuss the British monk Pelagius, and why his teaching was condemned by St. Augustine.