The fourth- and fifth-century councils look like hair-splitting until you see them as a map. Two questions were being answered: what is the Son to the Father, and how do divinity and humanity coexist in Christ. Move the two dials to place yourself anywhere on that map, and the panel tells you whose position you have just taken, which council ruled on it, and which churches — still existing today — walked out over it.
Set your positionc. 318–451
A creature: begotten, so there was a time when he was notHomoousios: of the same substance, co-eternal, fully God
Two natures so distinct they are nearly two subjectsOne single united nature after the union
← created, subordinatesame substance →
Notice the shape of the map. The position the empire settled on is a narrow band in one corner — which is exactly why the arguments took a hundred and thirty years and never entirely stopped.