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Doctrine

Incarnation

Also Known As The hypostatic union · God made manOriginal Term ensarkosis (Greek); incarnatio (Latin)
God and Divine Nature
Origin 325 to 451 CE

The claim is that the eternal Word became a specific first-century Jew without ceasing to be God. Christianity spent four centuries working out how to state that without saying something it considered fatal, and the working-out cost it its unity.

The council at Chalcedon in 451 produced the formula the Catholic, Orthodox and Reformation churches all inherit: one person in two natures, divine and human, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation. Each of those four negations rules out a position someone was holding.

Chalcedon did not command assent. A large body of churches, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian, Malankara, rejected the formula and were labelled monophysite, a label they have always disputed. Their own term is miaphysite: one incarnate nature of the Word, in which divinity and humanity are united without mixture. The Church of the East, separately, was accused of dividing Christ into two persons, and it likewise disputes the charge.

The twentieth century largely settled that these were disputes about vocabulary rather than substance. Rome and the Oriental Orthodox churches issued agreed christological statements confessing a common faith in the incarnate Word, and a Common Christological Declaration was signed with the Assyrian Church of the East in 1994. The churches remain separate for reasons of jurisdiction and history. The heresies they were divided over have, in the judgement of their own hierarchies, turned out largely not to have been held by anyone.

Facts
Belief
Defining Doctrinal Position
The Council of Chalcedon in 451 defined the two natures, divine and human, as united in Christ's one person without confusion, change, division or separation, a formula rejected by the Oriental Orthodox churches, who hold a single united nature, and by the Church of the East, which emphasised the distinction between the natures. 3
Doctrinal category (class)
God and Divine Nature 4
Origins
Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account
325 to 451 CE 1
Held BySourced to the subject's own account
Christianity 1
Status
Status Within the Tradition
Defined and binding within this tradition 1Tradition: Christianity
Sourced to the subject's own accountDefined at Chalcedon, 451
Standing as a Comparative Category
A standard analytic category in the study of religion 2
Doctrinal CategorySourced to the subject's own account
God and Divine Nature 1
Position Profile
Opposing Position
Arius held Christ to be the highest of created beings rather than co-eternal with the Father, a position condemned at the Council of Nicaea in 325. 3
The Claim
The Claim
That God became human in the person of Jesus Christ, fully divine and fully human at once, rather than merely appearing human or being human adopted into divinity. 3
Learn More
God Became a Particular Man

The Incarnation is the claim that the eternal Son of God, without ceasing to be God, took to himself a complete human nature and lived as a specific first-century Jew. The technical name for the result is the hypostatic union: two natures, divine and human, united in one person. Of all Christian doctrines it is the one defined with the most precision, because the question of how the two natures relate turned out to be church-dividing.

The scriptural anchor is the prologue of John's Gospel, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14), read together with the hymn of Philippians 2, in which the one who was "in the form of God" empties himself and takes "the form of a servant." From these the tradition drew two non-negotiables it refused to soften: that the one who became incarnate was truly God, and that what he assumed was a real and whole humanity, body and rational soul. Everything defined later was an attempt to hold both at once without letting either collapse into the other.

Chalcedon's Four Adverbs, and the Churches That Could Not Accept Them

The definitions came out of a fifth-century fight. Nestorius, in stressing the distinctness of the two natures, resisted calling Mary Theotokos, "God-bearer"; Cyril of Alexandria, insisting the child born was one and the same as the divine Son, prevailed at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Twenty years later the Council of Chalcedon (451) issued the classic formula: one person "in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation", four adverbs, each closing off a specific error.

That definition became a permanent fault line, and the atlas records the surviving positions rather than ranking them. The Chalcedonian confession is held by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Reformation churches. The Miaphysite churches, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian and others, follow Cyril's formula of "one incarnate nature of the Word" and rejected Chalcedon's language as tending toward division; they are not the same as the condemned Eutychians, a point recent dialogues have largely conceded. The Church of the East kept the Antiochene emphasis later labelled Nestorian. The Arian reading, which denied the Son's full divinity, was condemned at Nicaea. Late-twentieth-century Christological agreements have concluded that much of the Chalcedonian-Miaphysite split was verbal, though the churches remain distinct.

Connections

Associated With

Marcion, Historical Figures
Source Against Marcion (Adversus Marcionem)Tertullian

Belongs to Tradition

Anabaptism, Denominations

The Incarnation, God the Son taking human nature, is affirmed per the Chalcedonian Definition, binding on this tradition.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Anglicanism, Denominations

The Incarnation, God the Son taking human nature, is affirmed per the Chalcedonian Definition, binding on this tradition.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Baptist, Denominations

The Incarnation, God the Son taking human nature, is affirmed per the Chalcedonian Definition, binding on this tradition.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Calvinism (Reformed), Denominations

The Incarnation, God the Son taking human nature, is affirmed per the Chalcedonian Definition, binding on this tradition.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Christianity, Religions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Church of Cyprus, Denominations

Held in the terms the Council of Chalcedon set in 451, which this church receives as the fourth of the ecumenical councils.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Church of Greece, Denominations

Held in the terms the Council of Chalcedon set in 451, which this church receives as the fourth of the ecumenical councils.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Eastern Orthodoxy, Denominations

The Incarnation, God the Son taking human nature, is affirmed per the Chalcedonian Definition, binding on this tradition.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Denominations

Held in the terms of Ephesus in 431 and of Cyril of Alexandria, and deliberately not in the terms of Chalcedon. The doctrine is the same subject as in the Chalcedonian churches; the formula is not.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Georgian Orthodox Church, Denominations

Held in the terms the Council of Chalcedon set in 451, which this church receives as the fourth of the ecumenical councils.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Greek Orthodox Church, Denominations

Held in the terms the Council of Chalcedon set in 451, which this church receives as the fourth of the ecumenical councils.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Latter-day Saints (Mormonism), Denominations

The incarnation is taught, though within a christology in which the Son is a distinct being from the Father rather than one substance with him.

Lutheranism, Denominations

Article III confesses that the Son of God assumed human nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary.

Source The Augsburg ConfessionPhilipp Melanchthon
Methodism, Denominations

The Incarnation, God the Son taking human nature, is affirmed per the Chalcedonian Definition, inherited by Methodism through its Anglican and Nicene roots.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Oriental Orthodoxy, Denominations

The creed confesses the Son as incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and made man. This communion receives it in the form settled at Constantinople in 381.

Source The Nicene-Constantinopolitan CreedFirst Council of Constantinoplethe holders' own account
Pentecostalism, Denominations

The Incarnation, God the Son taking human nature, is affirmed per the Chalcedonian Definition, binding on this tradition.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Presbyterianism, Denominations

The Incarnation, God the Son taking human nature, is affirmed per the Chalcedonian Definition, binding on this tradition.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Roman Catholicism, Denominations

The Incarnation, God the Son taking human nature, is affirmed per the Chalcedonian Definition, binding on this tradition.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Romanian Orthodox Church, Denominations

Held in the terms the Council of Chalcedon set in 451, which this church receives as the fourth of the ecumenical councils.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Serbian Orthodox Church, Denominations

Held in the terms the Council of Chalcedon set in 451, which this church receives as the fourth of the ecumenical councils.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account
Seventh-day Adventism, Denominations

The Incarnation, God the Son taking human nature, is affirmed per the Chalcedonian Definition, binding on this tradition.

Source The Definition of Faith of the Council of ChalcedonCouncil of Chalcedonthe holders' own account

Contrasts With

Adoptionism, Doctrines
Docetism, Doctrines

Rejected Here

Jehovah's Witnesses, Denominations

Jehovah's Witnesses reject the Chalcedonian Incarnation formula, teaching that Jesus is God's first created Son rather than God the Son sharing one substance with the Father.

Source Jehovah's Witnesses: Continuity and ChangeGeorge D. Chryssides

Depicted In

Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece) (Workshop of Robert Campin, The Cloisters), Sacred Art & Iconography

The right wing's mousetraps are, per the Met's own catalogue reading, a specific Augustinian allegory for the Incarnation as the devil's undoing, not incidental workshop detail: a doctrinal argument built into the panel rather than a generic Annunciation scene.

Source The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)," accession 56.70a-cThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, catalogue entry

Positions on This Question

Anglicanism, Denominations

The Chalcedonian definition, received in the Articles of Religion.

Armenian Apostolic Church, Denominations

The miaphysite definition, held since the rejection of Chalcedon in 451.

Assyrian Church of the East, Denominations

The dyophysite christology of the Church of the East, which distinguishes the two natures more sharply than Chalcedon and declines the title Theotokos in the sense the council intended.

Calvinism (Reformed), Denominations

The Chalcedonian definition, received in the Reformed confessions.

Chalcedonian Christology (Two Natures in One Person), Beliefs & Restrictions

The Chalcedonian definition taken as the account of the incarnation, two natures in one person without confusion or division.

Coptic Orthodoxy, Denominations

The miaphysite definition, held since the rejection of Chalcedon in 451.

Eastern Orthodoxy, Denominations

The Chalcedonian definition, received as the fourth ecumenical council.

Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Denominations

The miaphysite definition, held since the rejection of Chalcedon in 451.

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Denominations

The miaphysite definition, held since the rejection of Chalcedon in 451.

Lutheranism, Denominations

The Chalcedonian definition, received in the Book of Concord.

Miaphysitism (one incarnate nature of Christ), Beliefs & Restrictions

The miaphysite definition taken as the account of the incarnation, one incarnate nature of the Word, against the Chalcedonian formula.

Oriental Orthodoxy, Denominations

The miaphysite definition: one incarnate nature of the Word, united out of two without confusion. The modern christological agreements record that this and the Chalcedonian formula are now widely read as the same faith in different terms.

Roman Catholicism, Denominations

The Chalcedonian definition: two natures in one person, without confusion, change, division or separation.

Related To

Kenosis, Doctrines
Recapitulation, Doctrines

On this account the incarnation is not a precondition of the work but the work itself, so the whole life from conception to resurrection is where the atonement happens.

Source Against Heresies (Adversus Haereses)Irenaeus of Lyons
Son of God, Doctrines

The Incarnation is the other half of the same question, how the Son is present as a man.

The Annunciation, Religious Events
The Nativity of Jesus, Religious Events
The Virgin Birth, Doctrines

The virgin birth is the manner of the incarnation in the credal sequence, not a separate claim about it.

Sources
1. The Definition of Faith of the Council of Chalcedon
Council of Chalcedon, 451The Definitionthe holders' own accountView the Source
2. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source
3. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition
F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005View the Source
4. Jehovah's Witnesses: Continuity and Change
George D. Chryssides, Routledge, 2016
The Augsburg Confession
Philipp Melanchthon, 1530The Augsburg Confession, Article III, Of the Son of GodView the Source
The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed
First Council of Constantinople, 381The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, second articlethe holders' own accountView the Source

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