Nestorian controversy (Ephesus 431)
428–433 (East Syriac separation through 486 and after)
attested. Attested. Whether Nestorius actually held the 'two persons' view condemned under his name is widely doubted by modern scholars (Loofs, Brock).
Nestorius, the Antiochene-trained patriarch of Constantinople, objected to calling Mary Theotokos ('God-bearer') and preferred Christotokos. He stressed the distinctness of Christ's two natures. Cyril of Alexandria accused him of dividing Christ into two persons. The fight mixed theology with the rivalry between the sees of Alexandria and Constantinople.
Sides
Antiochene / Nestorius
Leaders: Nestorius, John of Antioch, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Ibas of Edessa, Theodore of Mopsuestia (posthumously)
Two complete natures, divine and human, joined in one prosopon (person). Hesitation about Theotokos.
Cyrilline
Leaders: Cyril of Alexandria, Celestine I, Memnon of Ephesus, Rabbula of Edessa
One incarnate nature of God the Word. Hypostatic union. Mary is Theotokos.
Councils and places
Outcome
Nestorius was deposed (431) and exiled to the Egyptian desert, where he died around 450/451. The Formula of Reunion (433) reconciled Cyril and John.
What happened to the losers
The Antiochene theological tradition moved east. The School of Edessa was closed in 489, and its teachers went to Nisibis (Persia batch). The Church of the East adopted Theodore's Christology at the 484/486 synods and was called 'Nestorian', a label it rejects. It spread to China, Central Asia and India. Nestorius' Bazaar of Heracleides survived in Syriac.