Ecumenical council

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In essay form (or as a chart) and in no more than 700 words, please upload a document responding to the following questions:

(1) What is an ecumenical council?

(2) What are the five major Christological heresies of the third through the seventh centuries? Identify the principal confusion or error of each heresy.

(3) What are the five ecumenical councils which address these heresies directly? State their location and date.

(4) What is the Church’s dogmatic response to each of these heresies at each of these councils?

Sample Solution

Ecumenical council

An ecumenical council is a conference of ecclesiastical dignitaries and theological experts convened to discuss and settle matters of church doctrine and practice in which those entitled to vote are convoked from the whole world and which secures the approbation of the whole church. The seven ecumenical councils, recognized by both the Eastern and Western denominations comprising Chalcedonian Christianity, were convoked by Roman Emperors, who also enforced decisions of those councils within the state of church of the Roman Empire. During its early centuries, the Christian church dealt with many heresies. They include: Docetism, Arianism, Gnosticism, and adoptionism. This era begins with the first council of Nicaea, which enunciated the Nicene Creed that in its original form and as modified by the First Council of Constantinople of 381 was seen by all later councils as the touchstone of orthodoxy on the doctrine of the Trinity.

4.1.1 Vulnerability 1: Cross-border supply of goods and services: creating an environment for abuse in VAT

Due to harmonisation of the VAT system in the EU, there has been a significant increase in cross-border trade. The harmonisation included the creation of cross-border trade which would ensure a significant level of trade in goods and services, thereby lessening the possibility of VAT fraud and abuse of law. The Commission has constantly highlighted the vulnerability of the VAT system and due to the complexity of the 28 jurisdictions engaged in cross-border trade, the EU legislator is faced with a constant challenge of preventing VAT as an environment for abuse or VAT fraud.

4.1.2 Vulnerability 2:

4.2 The fundamental distinction between abuse of law and abuse of rights
In the context of taxation, the CJEU has defined “abuse” as a form of tax minimisation, which through misuse of legal forms achieves a result which is not in compliance with system principles. This means that though tax abuse and tax avoidance are related, they do not coincide.

At this juncture, it is important to note that both abuse of rights and abuse of law are not necessarily the same. Generally speaking, abuse of law indicates abuse in Union law, whereas abuse of rights indicates abuse of Union law. The former may be defined as a situation where a person relies on a European legal right to circumvent or displace national law, while taking advantage of a right in European law, but in a manner running contrary to its spirit constitutes the latter.

In 2006, the CJEU extended the abuse of law principle in the Halifax to apply to the field of VAT. The abstract distinction between both abuse of law and abuse of rights is based on a dictum from Centros, where it was provided that abuse of law involves avoiding national provisions through claiming fundamental freedoms, whereas abuse of rights involves abusing rights directly provided by EU law. According to this dictum, a Member State:

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