The New Judas: The Case of Nestorius in Ecclesiastical Politics, 428-451 CE

The New Judas is a new account of the life of Nestorius (ca. 386 to

451 CE), the Christological controversy that engulfed him, as well as the

critical imperial interventions into ecclesiastical politics during the

period from the First Council of Ephesus to the Council of Chalcedon. This

work endeavours to use both Nestorius’ own Liber Heraclidis,

preserved only in Syriac, as well as the unprecedented abundance of

primary documents in Greek and Latin from Acta Conciliorum

Oecumenicorum, to answer a question of fundamental historical

importance: How could the teaching of Christ’s two natures, one so closely

identified with Nestorius, deposed in 431, be vindicated in all its

essentials at the Council of Chalcedon in twenty years later? The answer

requires not only a reconsideration of the role of the supposedly timid

emperor Theodosius II, but also a new understanding of the evolving

position of Nestorius’ chief opponent, Cyril of Alexandria.