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Dyothelitism (Two Wills of Christ)

If Christ is fully human, then he wills as a man and as God alike

Dyothelitism is the teaching that Christ possesses two wills, one divine and one human, matching his two natures. Championed by Maximus the Confessor and defined at the Third Council of Constantinople in 681, it answered Monothelitism, which held that Christ had only one will. Received by the Chalcedonian churches, the doctrine reasons that a complete human nature must include a human will, freely united to and harmonized with the divine.

How it traveled

  1. Exegetical Fragments.
    · 220
    explains
  2. Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.)
    Alexandria · 373
    explains
  3. The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 407
    explains
  4. The Sixth Ecumenical Council. The Third Council of Constantinople
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 680
    explains
  5. John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith
    Damascus · 749
    explains
  6. Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59)
    Paris · 1274
    explains

Key passages(20)

The Sixth Ecumenical Council. The Third Council of Constantinople · The Ecumenical Councils

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The Sixth Ecumenical Council. The Third Council of Constantinople · The Ecumenical Councils

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The Sixth Ecumenical Council. The Third Council of Constantinople · The Ecumenical Councils

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The Sixth Ecumenical Council. The Third Council of Constantinople · The Ecumenical Councils

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The Sixth Ecumenical Council. The Third Council of Constantinople · The Ecumenical Councils

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Exposition of the Christian Faith · Ambrose of Milan

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The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John · John Chrysostom

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