Patristic Christology: Through the Looking Glass of the Heretics

Abstract

Contemporary Christological developments often overlook traditional theological statements made in earlier centuries, or else undermine their importance, in an endeavour to create a non-hellenistic ontology. This article presents the traditional arguments of the Church Fathers in the period preceding the great Council of Chalcedon (451), examining them in the context of Church and salvation, while also recalling the illuminating insights of certain writers subsequently branded as heretics.