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In the early centuries of Christianity, some of the most important battles were fought not with swords, but with words.
Bishops gathered from across the Roman world to debate questions that would define the faith for millions of people: the nature of God, the identity of Jesus, the role of Mary, and even the use of images in worship.
The decisions they made shaped Christianity for the next 1,500 years.
Learn more about the first seven ecumenical councils on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Christianity wasn’t established all at once. Over the centuries, various beliefs emerged, which were resolved through debates, arguments, and sometimes violence.
One of the most popular means of settling religious disputes in the first several centuries of Christianity was the ecumenical council.
At this point, there were no Christian denominations as we think of them today. Each community had a church which was led by a local bishop. Each bishop was created by another bishop in a process known as apostolic succession, which legend holds began with the apostles.
When controversies arose and issues needed to be resolved, an ecumenical council was convened. What made them different from other councils was their claimed universal authority.
An ecumenical council gathered bishops from across the Christian world, addressed issues considered binding on all Christians, and was later recognized by the wider Church as authoritative.
In the first approximately 750 years of Christianity, there were seven such ecumenical councils that resolved issues still felt across most Christian denominations today.
In this episode, I want to give a brief summary of the seven ecumenical councils, the events surrounding them, and the issues they addressed. Each of these councils might be a future episode, but I felt an overview episode was necessary first.
The council, which is not usually included among the seven, was the Council of Jerusalem, held around the year 49. It was covered in the Acts of the Apostles and decided that Gentile Christians did not need to be circumcised or fully follow Mosaic law. It helped define Christianity as distinct from Judaism.
The First Council of Nicaea was held in 325 in the city of Nicaea, in what is now Turkey. It was called by the Roman emperor Constantine to resolve major disputes within the Christian Church, especially the controversy over Arianism.
The central issue was whether Jesus Christ was fully divine and eternal, or a created being subordinate to God the Father, as the priest Arius taught. The council rejected Arius’s position and affirmed that the Son was “of the same substance” as the Father, meaning fully divine.
The council produced the original Nicene Creed, established a common method for calculating the date of Easter, and issued disciplinary canons for church governance.
Its importance lies in its being the first ecumenical council and in setting a precedent for defining Christian doctrine through councils recognized by the wider Church.
Today, Most major Christian denominations are Nicene, meaning they accept the core theology of the First Council of Nicaea in 325. This includes Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Reformed churches, most Baptists, most Pentecostals, and most other mainstream Protestants.
The second ecumenical council was held 56 years later. The First Council of Constantinople was held in 381 under Emperor Theodosius I.
Its main purpose was to reaffirm and expand the theology of the Council of Nicaea. It rejected lingering forms of Arianism and also condemned teachings that denied the full divinity of the Holy Spirit. The council affirmed that the Holy Spirit was truly divine, alongside the Father and the Son.
Its most enduring legacy was the expanded Nicene Creed, often called the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, which is the version commonly recited in many churches today.
Fifty years later, in 431, the third ecumenical council was called by the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II: the Council of Ephesus. Its main issue was the teaching of Nestorius, the patriarch of Constantinople, who objected to calling Mary Theotokos, meaning “God-bearer” or “Mother of God.” Nestorius preferred language that seemed to separate Christ’s divine and human natures too sharply.
The council condemned Nestorius and affirmed that Jesus Christ was one unified person, fully divine and fully human. Because of that unity, Mary could properly be called Theotokos. The council became a major milestone in Christian teaching about Christ’s identity and also contributed to lasting divisions with some Eastern Christian communities.
After the controversy, many Christians associated with Nestorianism flourished outside the Roman Empire, especially in the Church of the East, centered in Persia. From there, they spread widely across Central Asia, India, and even China, becoming one of the most geographically expansive branches of medieval Christianity.
Twenty years later, the fourth ecumenical council was convened: the Council of Chalcedon in 451. It was called by the Byzantine Emperor Marcian.
Its main issue was how to explain the relationship between Christ’s divine and human natures. The council rejected both the idea that Christ’s humanity was swallowed up by his divinity and the idea that his divine and human natures were separated.
Chalcedon declared that Jesus Christ is one person in two natures, fully divine and fully human, “without confusion, change, division, or separation.”
Its decision became central to Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestant theology. However, it also created the first major lasting split with the Oriental Orthodox churches, including the Coptic, Armenian, Syriac, Ethiopian, and Eritrean churches, which rejected Chalcedon’s wording.
Today, they are categorized as non-Chalcedonian churches.
102 years later, in 553, the Fifth Council, the Second Council of Constantinople, was convened by Emperor Justinian I.
It was called to deal with lingering divisions after the Council of Chalcedon. The main issue was the condemnation of certain writings, known as the Three Chapters, associated with theologians accused of leaning toward Nestorianism.
Justinian hoped this would reconcile anti-Chalcedonian Christians, especially in the eastern provinces, to the imperial church. The council upheld Chalcedon but tried to clarify that it did not support Nestorian ideas. In practice, it failed to heal the split and causd controversy in the West, where some saw it as undermining Chalcedon.
The sixth council was the Third Council of Constantinople, held from 680 to 681 and was called by Emperor Constantine IV.
Its main issue was Monothelitism, the teaching that Christ had only one will, even though he was both divine and human. The council rejected this and affirmed that Jesus Christ has two wills, one divine and one human, corresponding to his two natures.
The council was important because it defended the Chalcedonian view of Christ as fully divine and fully human. It also condemned several supporters of Monothelitism, including Pope Honorius I, which later became controversial in debates over papal authority.
The final of the seven ecumenical councils was the Second Council of Nicaea, which was held in 787.
Its main issue was iconoclasm, the controversy over whether Christians could use and venerate religious images, especially icons of Jesus, Mary, and the saints. Earlier Byzantine emperors had supported the destruction or removal of icons, arguing that their use was idolatrous.
The council rejected iconoclasm and restored the veneration of icons. It made an important distinction: icons could be honored or venerated, but worship was due to God alone. The logic was that because Christ became human and visible, he could be depicted in images.
Its decision became especially important in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, where icons remain central to worship and devotion. It was also accepted by Roman Catholicism, though centuries later many Protestants rejected or limited the use of religious images.
These seven councils, and the conclusions they came to, are largely considered to be valid by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
So, why wasn’t there an eighth or ninth ecumenical council?
It depends on who you ask.
The ecumenical councils did not exactly “end” in the sense that Christians stopped holding major councils. Rather, the first seven ecumenical councils came to be seen, in much of historic Christianity, as a distinct early period when the imperial Roman or Byzantine state could still gather bishops from across the Christian world to settle universal doctrinal disputes.
They ended for several reasons.
First, the Christian world became politically fragmented. The early councils depended heavily on the Roman or Byzantine emperor, who could summon bishops, provide security, and enforce the results. After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the weakening of the Byzantine Empire, it became harder to gather anything that could plausibly represent the entire Church.
Second, the councils themselves created lasting divisions. The Council of Ephesus contributed to the separation of the Church of the East, often associated with Nestorian Christianity. The Council of Chalcedon led to the split with the Oriental Orthodox churches. After those divisions, later councils could no longer easily claim to speak for all Christians.
Third, the rise of Islamic caliphates changed the geography of Christianity. Many ancient Christian centers, including Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and parts of North Africa and Syria, came under Muslim rule. Christians still lived there, but they were no longer part of the same imperial structure that had supported earlier councils.
Fourth, the growing divide between Greek-speaking Eastern Christianity and Latin-speaking Western Christianity made universal agreement harder. Differences over theology, church authority, language, politics, and liturgy eventually contributed to the Great Schism of 1054 between Rome and Constantinople.
After that, the Catholic Church continued to hold councils it regarded as ecumenical, such as the fourth Lateran council , the council of Trent, Vatican I, and Vatican II, while Eastern Orthodoxy generally did not recognize those as ecumenical. In fact, an additional 14 ecumenical councils were held by the Catholic Church from 787 to 1965.
While the seven listed ecumenical councils were very important in shaping doctrine for most of the Christian world, they were not the only councils to have influence.
One of the most important was the Council of Hippo in 393. It was held in the city of Hippo Regius in North Africa, the same city that St Augustus would later serve as bishop.
While the Council of Hippo wasn’t ecumenical, as it was only for leaders of the North African church, it had repercussions that are still being felt today. However, it set the canon of what books should be considered part of the bible.
At the time, many apocryphal books were circulating, considered scripture in some churches and not in others. The Council of Hippo set down a list based on books that they were already using and that had some tie to the apostles and church teachings.
That became the basis for the Bible’s canon, which was then reaffirmed at the Council of Carthage in 397.
The first seven ecumenical councils were among the most important meetings in Christian history because they defined the basic doctrines that formed the foundation of early Christianity.
Their most important achievement was the formation of what became mainstream Christian orthodoxy.
Their legacy is also institutional. The councils established the idea that major doctrinal disputes could be settled by church leaders gathered from across the Christian world.
They created a model of authority that influenced later denominations even when those traditions later disagreed over which councils counted as ecumenical.
At the same time, the councils also marked points of schism. The Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon led to a lasting splits which still exist.
In the broadest sense, the first seven ecumenical councils determined what much of Christianity is today.