Monothelitism and Christ's human will
Constantinople III
680-681 ADConstantinople
Third Council of Constantinople
The sixth council confessed that Christ has both a divine will and a human will, corresponding to his two natures.
Emperor Constantine IV
About 170 bishops
Outcome
What the council decided
Rejected monothelitism and affirmed that Christ's human will is real, obedient, and not swallowed up by his divinity.
Why it matters
The doctrine at stake
If Christ lacks a human will, then human obedience is not healed. The council protects the full humanity of the Savior.
Council teaching
Two wills in the one Christ
The council confessed two natural wills and two natural operations in Christ, divine and human, united without opposition in the one person of the Son.
Christ's human will is not abolished by his divinity; it is perfectly obedient to the Father.
Controversy explained
The monothelite controversy
Monothelitism attempted to preserve unity in Christ by teaching one will. The council judged that this damaged the reality of Christ's humanity.
The biblical center is Gethsemane: Christ truly wills as man, and his human obedience heals human disobedience.
Study path
How to understand it
Start at Gethsemane
Christ's prayer shows a real human will obedient to the Father.
Connect to Chalcedon
Two natures imply the real operations proper to each nature.
Study salvation
What Christ assumes, he heals; that includes human willing.
Reception
How the traditions receive it
Catholic
Received as the sixth ecumenical council and an important clarification of Chalcedonian Christology.
Orthodox
Received as ecumenical and central for the theology of Christ's real human obedience.
Protestant
Accepted in classical Christology where the full humanity and full divinity of Christ are confessed.
Oriental Orthodox
Not received as ecumenical in the Oriental Orthodox communion because it belongs to the post-Chalcedonian sequence.
Key terms
Words to know
Monothelitism
The teaching that Christ has only one will.
Dyothelitism
The confession that Christ has two wills, divine and human, united in one person.
Human obedience
Christ heals human willing by freely obeying the Father as man.
Scripture
Biblical connections
Matthew 26:39Luke 22:42John 6:38Hebrews 5:7-9
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