Chalcedonians

Chalcedonian Christianity is a term referring to Christian denominations adhering to christological definitions and ecclesiological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, the Fourth Ecumenical Council held in 451. Chalcedonian Christians follow the Definition of Chalcedon, a religious doctrine concerning the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ. The great majority of Christian communions and confessions in the 21st century are Chalcedonian, but from the 5th to the 8th centuries the ascendancy of Chalcedonian Christology (detailed below) was not always certain.

The dogmatical disputes raised during the Council of Chalcedon led to the Chalcedonian Schism thus to the formation of the Non-Chalcedonian body of churches known as Oriental Orthodoxy. The Chalcedonian churches remained united with the Holy See of Rome, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (or "New Rome") and the Eastern Orthodox patriarchates of the Middle East (namely Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem). Together, these five patriarchates were considered the pillars of orthodox catholic Christendom and of the Chalcedonian confession of faith. During the 6th-century reign of Emperor Justinian I, the five patriarchates were recognised as the Pentarchy, the official ecclesiastical authority of the Imperial Christian Church.