Combining historical and theological analysis, Christopher Beeley offers a new contextualized reading of early church fathers - among them Origen of Alexandria, Gregory of Nazianzus, Augustine of Hippo, and Cyril of Alexandria - and reexamines their ultimate contribution to the development of Christianity. Focusing particularly on the question of how Christ can be both human and divine, he traces how different patristic theologians and church councils constructed the idea of an authoritative theological tradition. In doing so, he seeks to explain how during the "golden age" of early Christianity the seeds were sown for Christianity's fragmentation into rival churches, and ultimately for the Great Schism between Eastern and Western Christendom.