The first programme of his BBC television series on the history of Christianity (5 and 8 November) showed professor Diarmuid McCulloch pouring oil into a glass of water and a few minutes later adding red wine to water in another glass. He was presenting the difference between two fifth century Christian theologians’ understandings of the relationship between Christ’s ‘two natures’, his divinity and his humanity. How could Christ be simultaneously fully man and fully God? In the analogy espoused by Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, the ‘two natures’ remained distinct, like oil and water. In the view of Cyril, the bishop of Alexandria, by contrast, they merged inseparably in a similar manner to water and wine.

• Username
• Password
• Log in
  

• Forgot your password?

If you don't have an account you can register here