Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Appendix H – Seven Ecumenical Councils, Overview
Only the first seven councils are summarized here as these have the most relevance to Protestant Christianity. Other subsequent councils are of particular interest only to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
| Year | Council | Main outcomes |
| 324 | First Council of Nicaea | adopted the Nicene Creed which affirmed that Jesus is truly God and equal to the Father – repudiating the belief that the Son did not always exists and was subordinate to the Father.[1] |
| 381 | First Council of Constantinople | affirmed that Jesus was perfectly man against the Apollinarians; revised the Nicene Creed into its present form which is used in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches; prohibited any further alteration of the Creed without the assent of an Ecumenical Council. |
| 431 | Council of Ephesus | affirmed that Jesus is one person; that the Virgin Mary was the “Mother of God;” and that all people are corrupted by original sin and need God’s grace to be save |
| 451 | Council of Chalcedon | affirmed that in Jesus there are two distinct natures in one person that are hypostatically united “without confusion, change, division or separation”; adopted the Chalcedonian Creed. |
| 553 | Second Council of Constantinople | reaffirmed decisions and doctrines explicated by previous Councils |
| 680-681 | Third Council of Constantinople | asserted that Jesus had both a divine and human will. |
| 787 | Second Council of Nicaea | restored the veneration of icons ( this practice is rejected by some Protestant denominations, who instead prefer the Council of Hieria (754), which had also described itself as the Seventh Ecumenical Council and had condemned the veneration of icons |
[1] aka Arianism.
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