The Hypostatic Union: The Chalcedonian Definition

We shall base our exposition of the Hypostatic Union on the decrees of the Fourth General Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451). Its definition of the dogma is more explicit even than that of the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431), which is generally utilized for this purpose.

Here is the canon of Chalcedon:

“Following, therefore, the holy Fathers, we confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and we do with one voice teach one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-Begotten, acknowledged to be in two natures, without confusion, change, division, separation; the distinction of natures being by no means destroyed by their union; but rather the distinction of each nature being preserved and concurring in one Person and one Hypostasis; not in something that is parted or divided into two persons, but in one and the same and Only-Begotten Son, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.”¹

A careful analysis of this dogmatic definition shows that the Hypostatic Union may be regarded in three ways: first, as the personal unity of Christ in two natures; second, as a union of two natures which remain distinct; and third, as absolutely inseparable. The three sections that follow take up each of these three theses in turn.

General Readings

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, 3a, qu. 2–15, and the Commentators — C. von Schätzler, Das Dogma von der Menschwerdung des Sohnes Gottes, § 3 sqq., Freiburg 1870 — Scheeben, Dogmatik, Vol. II, §§ 215–227, Freiburg 1878 (summarized in Wilhelm-Scannell, A Manual of Catholic Theology, Vol. II, pp. 70 sqq., 2nd ed., London 1901) — Cardinal Franzelin, De Verbo Incarnato, thes. 16–40, Rome 1893 — Oswald, Christologie, §§ 5–6, Paderborn 1887 — Stentrup, Christologia, Vol. I, thes. 16–38, Innsbruck 1882 — Maranus, De Divinitate Christi, Würzburg 1859.

On the teaching of the Fathers: Petavius, De Incarnatione, III–IX, Antwerp 1700 — Schwane, Dogmengeschichte, Vol. II, 2nd ed., §§ 29–51, Freiburg 1895 — J. Tixeront, History of Dogmas, English tr., Vol. I, St. Louis 1910; Vol. II, 1914; Vol. III, 1916.

Notes