Church politics can be quite brutal. Theology often becomes a surrogate for power politics. Theologians will use theological issues to batter those who are their political rivals, magnifying theological differences using rhetorical means. Distorting the position of opponents is one of the most effective means of destroying their credibility. The penchant for vilifying one's theological rivals was called "the rabies of the theologians," and quite rightly. A theologian passed over for a preferment will suddenly find that those who slighted him hold any number of theological heresies, even though they may have seemed to him perfectly orthodox previously.

The fourth and fifth centuries were rife with theological and church political debates. And sometimes it was difficult to distinguish between them. One casualty of those battles was Theodoret of Cyrus (c. 393 - c. 457), who was accused of Christological heresies; primarily that he believed that there were two sons of God. Theodoret had the good sense to desire to clearly condemn false teaching, but to decline to participate in the ruination of the reputation of condemned churchmen. He wanted to be truthful about what these men had taught that was not faithful, but he did not want to pile on by accusing them of false doctrines they would never have espoused. In the end, that made Theodoret suspect in the eyes of many and cost him dearly in both personal comfort and professional prestige. Only at the end of his career was his name rehabilitated, but in the meantime he suffered much.

Theodoret, who was a renowned interpreter of the Bible and was fully committed to its authority in the church, stepped between the extremes of squabbling sides, and confessed the biblical teaching that Jesus is God and man, two natures in one person. He sought this middle way, not because he wanted to "split the difference" and keep everyone happy, but because he knew that this was the way taught by the prophets and apostles and all who followed their testimony. There were no better footsteps in which to walk. And though he was despised on all sides, he was a majority of one, because he stood with those to whom the Lord's Word had been revealed.