Nicene Trinity, Chalcedonian Christology: Understanding Christ through Councils and Conflicts – Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Religion &Amp; Spirituality, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fr. Gregory Pine explains Nicene Trinitarian theology and Chalcedonian Christology through key councils and controversies, showing how Christ’s incarnation and union with humanity unveil the path to salvation and divine participation.

This lecture was given on September 11th, 2025, at University of Dallas.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., is an instructor of dogmatic and moral theology at the Dominican House of Studies and the Assistant Director of the Thomistic Institute. He holds a doctorate from the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). He is the author of Prudence: Choose Confidently, Live Boldly and Your Eucharistic Identity: A Sacramental Guide to the Fullness of Life, and is co-author of Credo: An RCIA Program and Marian Consecration with Aquinas. His writing also appears in Aleteia, Magnificat, and Ascension’s Catholic Classics series. In addition to the TI podcast, he regularly contributes to the podcasts Godsplaining and Pints with Aquinas, and Catholic Classics.

Keywords: Chalcedonian Christology, Council Of Chalcedon, Divine Participation, Ecumenical Councils, Exemplar Cause, Homoousios, Hypostatic Union, Incarnational Solidarity, Nicene Theology, Soteriology

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.2	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:12.7	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.0	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at to mystic institute.org.
0:24.6	So the theme of tonight's lecture, as you saw, is Trinitarian Theology and Christology.
0:31.6	And the proposal is that we go by way of councils and conflicts.
0:35.6	And there are various ways by which to do so, obviously. You can do a kind
0:40.7	of historical approach or an historical dialectic in which you trace the councils of the church
0:47.2	and then the teachings which are clarified as orthodoxy is expressed in conversation with heresy.
0:54.4	And there is great fruit to be gained from deep historical inquiry of such a sort,
1:00.1	but I'm not necessarily going to pursue that tack, although I will leave you with one gem.
1:05.2	If you're looking for a mnemonic whereby to memorize the 21 ecumenical councils of the church, it goes like this.
1:15.1	Nico F-Cal, Cocoa-Niko, Lala, Lulu Vico, Flola, Vico, Flola, Trie V-V-V-A.
1:22.0	Flola, Trevava.
1:34.1	Um, So thanks so much for coming to tonight's lecture.
1:40.0	No, so you have perhaps heard this in your theology classes,
1:45.3	where the church clarifies her understanding as to the divinity of Christ and the humanity of Christ and as it were, the union of his human nature in the hypothesis or in the substance of his divine
1:52.9	person. And so like in the Council of Nicaea, in consension with Aryanism or subordinationism,
1:59.9	in that the Council of, excuse me, on the Council of
2:02.3	Constantinople in conversation or in conflict with Apollinarianism, the Council of Ephesus, in conflict
2:08.4	with Nestorianism, the Council of Calcedon in conflict with Monophysitism, and then the Councils
2:14.6	of Second and Third Constantinople in conflict with mono-erganism and then monothelitism.
	...

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