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Nestorius developed his Christological views as an attempt to rationally explain and understand the incarnation of the divine Logos, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity as the man Jesus Christ. He had studied at the School of Antioch where his mentor had been Theodore of Mopsuestia; Theodore and other Antioch theologians had long taught a literalist interpretation of the Bible and stressed the distinctiveness of the human and divine natures of Jesus. Nestorius took his Antiochene leanings with him when he was appointed Patriarch of Constantinople by Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II in 428.<br/><br/> Nestorius' teachings became the root of controversy when he publicly challenged the long-used title Theotokos (Mother of God) for the Virgin Mary. He suggested that the title denied Christ's full humanity, arguing instead that Jesus had two loosely joined natures, the divine Logos and the human Jesus. As such he proposed Christotokos (Mother of Christ) as a more suitable title for Mary.<br/><br/> Nestorius' opponents found his teaching too close to the heresy of adoptionism – the idea that Christ had been born a man who had later been 'adopted' as God's son. Nestorius was especially criticized by Cyril, Pope (Patriarch) of Alexandria, who argued that Nestorius' teachings undermined the unity of Christ's divine and human natures at the Incarnation. Nestorius himself always insisted that his views were orthodox, though they were deemed heretical at the First Council of Ephesus in 431, leading to the Nestorian Schism, when churches supportive of Nestorius broke away from the rest of the Christian Church.
The Nestorian Stele of Xi'an (also known as the Nestorian Stone, Nestorian Monument or Nestorian Tablet) is a Tang Dynasty Chinese stele erected in 781 that documents 150 years of history of early Christianity in China. The name of the stele can also be translated as 'A Monument Commemorating the Propagation of the Ta-Chin Luminous Religion in the Middle Kingdom', Daqin being the Chinese name for the Roman Empire in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.<br/><br/> The stele is a 279-cm tall limestone block with text in both Chinese and Syriac, describing the existence of Christian communities in several cities in northern China. It reveals that the church had initially received recognition by the Tang Emperor Taizong, due to efforts of the Christian missionary Alopen in 635. A Nestorian Cross is incised above the main inscription in Chinese. Buried in 845, probably during religious suppression, the stele was not rediscovered until 1625.
The Nestorian Stele of Xi'an (also known as the Nestorian Stone, Nestorian Monument or Nestorian Tablet) is a Tang Dynasty Chinese stele erected in 781 that documents 150 years of history of early Christianity in China. The name of the stele can also be translated as 'A Monument Commemorating the Propagation of the Ta-Chin Luminous Religion in the Middle Kingdom', Daqin being the Chinese name for the Roman Empire in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.<br/><br/> The stele is a 279-cm tall limestone block with text in both Chinese and Syriac, describing the existence of Christian communities in several cities in northern China. It reveals that the church had initially received recognition by the Tang Emperor Taizong, due to efforts of the Christian missionary Alopen in 635. A Nestorian Cross is incised above the main inscription in Chinese. Buried in 845, probably during religious suppression, the stele was not rediscovered until 1625.