Hypostatic union

[Julene]

The theological dogma that the Person of Jesus Christ was fully God and fully Man. This holds that Christs humanity and divinity are not mixed, but are united without loss of separate identity. The doctrine of the hypostatic union is an attempt to explain how Jesus could be both God and man at the same time. It is ultimately, though, a doctrine that human minds are incapable of understanding fully. It holds that there is no mixture or dilution of Christs Human or Divine nature, and that He is one united Person. The doctrine of the hypostatic union was made dogma at the Council of Chalcedon in [451] A.D., in response to the need to clearly define the [Churchs] position in the face of [heretical] teachings, and further articulated at the fifth general council at [Constantinople] in [533] A.D. The latter council declared that the union of two natures is real (against [Arius]), not a mere indwelling of God in a man (against Nestorius), with a rational soul (against Apollinaris), and that in Christ’s divine nature remains unchanged (against [Eutyches]).