3. Adoptionism With the sixth ecumenical council closes the development of the ancient Catholic christology. The Adoption controversy (see ADOPTIONISM), which arose in Spain and France toward the close of the eighth century, turned upon the question whether Christ as man was the Son of God by nature (naturaliter), or simply by adoption (nuncupative ). The Adoptionists maintained the latter, and shifted the whole idea of sonship from the person to whom it belongs to the nature. Their theory was a modification of the Nestorian error, and was condemned in a synod at Frankfort, 794; but it did not result in a positive addition to the creed statements.

4. The Medieval Church. The scholastic theology of the Middle Ages made no progress in christology, and confined itself to a dialectical analysis and defense of the Chalcedonian dogma, with a one-sided reference to the divine nature of Christ. John of Damascus in the East, and Thomas Aquinas in the West, were the ablest exponents of the Chalcedonian dogma. The medieval Church almost forgot, over the glorious divinity of our Lord, his real humanity (except his passion), and substituted for it virtually the worship of the Virgin Mary, who seemed to appeal more tenderly and effectively to all the human sensibilities and sympathies of the heart than the exalted Savior.