Christology

===Post-Apostolic controversies===<!-- [[Christological controversies]] redirects here -->
Following the [[Apostolic Age]], from the second century onwards, a number of controversies developed about how the human and divine are related within the person of Jesus.{{sfn|Fahlbusch|1999|p=463}}{{sfn|Rausch|2003|p=149}} As of the second century, a number of different and opposing approaches developed among various groups. In contrast to prevailing [[monoprosopic]] views on the Person of Christ, alternative [[dyoprosopic]] notions were also promoted by some theologians, but such views were rejected by the [[ecumenical councils]]. For example, [[Arianism]] did not endorse divinity, [[Ebionism]] argued Jesus was an ordinary mortal, while [[Gnosticism]] held [[docetism|docetic]] views which argued Christ was a spiritual being who only appeared to have a physical body.{{sfn|Ehrman|1993}}{{sfn|McGrath|2007|p=282}} The resulting tensions led to [[schism (religion)|schism]]s within the church in the second and third centuries, and [[ecumenical councils]] were convened in the fourth and fifth centuries to deal with the issues.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

Although some of the debates may seem to various modern students to be over a theological iota, they took place in controversial political circumstances, reflecting the relations of temporal powers and divine authority, and certainly resulted in schisms, among others that separated the [[Church of the East]] from the Church of the Roman Empire.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Internet History Sourcebooks: Medieval Sourcebook |url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/ephesus.asp |access-date=2023-05-10 |website=sourcebooks.fordham.edu |at=Vol. XIV, p. 207 |archive-date=10 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230510235650/https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/ephesus.asp |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church, trans H. R. Percival, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series, ed. P. Schaff and H. Wace, (repr. Grand Rapids MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1955), XIV, pp. 192–142</ref>