Conciliar
325–787 · 4th–8th c. · 16 works
The Seven Ecumenical Councils are the seven assemblies of bishops, convened between 325 and 787, that the Orthodox Church receives as authoritative for the whole Church (the Greek oikoumene, the inhabited world). An ecumenical or general council was a gathering of bishops representing the universal Church, as distinct from a regional synod, summoned to settle grave disputes over faith, and its decisions were held to bind all Christians. Both the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions recognize these same seven as the foundational councils of the undivided early Church.
The first four councils chiefly defined the doctrine of God and of Christ. Nicaea I (325), called by the Emperor Constantine, condemned Arius and confessed the Son as 'of the same substance' (homoousios) with the Father, 'begotten, not made.' Constantinople I (381) affirmed the full divinity of the Holy Spirit and gave the Creed its enduring form, while Ephesus (431) upheld the title Theotokos (God-bearer) for the Virgin Mary against Nestorius, and Chalcedon (451) defined that Christ is one person in two natures, divine and human, against the Monophysites.
The later three councils completed and defended this Christological teaching. Constantinople II (553) reaffirmed the unity of Christ's person in His two natures by condemning writings associated with Nestorianism (the 'Three Chapters'); Constantinople III (680–681) confirmed that Christ possesses two wills and two operations, divine and human, against Monothelitism; and Nicaea II (787) ended the first iconoclast crisis by decreeing that holy icons merit honor and veneration, though adoration belongs to God alone.
Each council issued both dogmatic definitions (the horoi, or 'boundary' statements of the faith) and disciplinary canons governing church order and practice. Orthodox tradition regards these definitions as expressions of the mind of the whole Church, guided by the Holy Spirit and confirmed by the Church's reception; later councils such as Ephesus and Chalcedon treated the decrees of Nicaea as unalterable. In this view the ecumenical councils, once truly received, do not err in matters of faith, and their creed and definitions remain the doctrinal foundation of Orthodox Christianity.
Sources: Encyclopædia Britannica — Ecumenical council · Encyclopædia Britannica — Council of Chalcedon · Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent) — General Councils