Monophysitism
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Monophysitism (from the Greek monos meaning 'one, alone' and physis meaning 'nature') is the christological position that Christ has only one nature, as opposed to the Chalcedonian position which holds that Christ has two natures, one divine and one human. This doctrine and its antithesis, Nestorianism, were both hotly disputed and divisive competing tenants in the maturing Christian traditions during the first half of the fifth century; a tumultous period being the last decades of the Western Empire, and marked by the political shift in all things to a center of gravity now located in the Eastern Roman empire, and particularly in Syria, the Levant, Egypt, and Anatolia, where Monopysitism was popular among the people.
There are two major doctrines that can undisputedly be called monophysite (IPA: [məˈnɒfəsɪt]):
- Eutychianism holds that the human nature of Christ was essentially obliterated by the Divine, "dissolved like a drop of honey in the sea", and therefore Christ only had the one (Mono) nature, that of divinity.
- Apollinarianism holds that Christ had a human body and human "living principle" but that the Divine Logos had taken the place of the nous, or "thinking principle", analogous but not identical to what might be called a mind in the present day.
The monophysitism of Eutyches, a sometimes radical presbyter and archimandrite at Constantinople, emerged in 431 AD as a response to Nestorianism, espoused by the Archbishop of Constantinople Nestorius at the First Council of Ephesus which repudiated the Nestorians interpretation, but did not accept the position of Eutyches either, leading to a couple of acrimonious decades of infighting and alienation of large numbers of otherwise worshipful christians.
However, Eutyches' energy and imprudence with which he asserted his opinions led to his being misunderstood, accused of heresy in 448 AD, leading to a temporary excommunication. In 449 AD, however, at the Second Council of Ephesus, not only was Eutyches reinstated to his office, but Eusebius, Domnus and Flavian, his chief opponents, were deposed, and the Alexandrine doctrine of the "one nature" (Monophysitism) received the sanction of the church. In the end, such infighting was settled at the cost of schism when Monophysitism was again rejected at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD despite being accepted by the earlier third ecumenical council, which was declared null and void. Monophysitism is also rejected by the Oriental Orthodox Churches, but was widely accepted in Syria, the Levant, and Egypt leading to many tensions in the early days of the Byzantine empire.
Later, monothelitism was developed as an attempt to bridge the gap between the monophysite and the Chalcedonian position, but it too was rejected by the members of the Chalcedonian synod, despite at times having the support of the Byzantine Emperors and one of the Popes of Rome (Honorius I). Some are of the opinion that monothelitism was at one time held by the Maronites, but the Maronite community, for the most part, dispute this, stating that they have never been out of communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
Miaphysitism, the Christology of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, is sometimes considered a variant of monophysitism, but these churches view their theology as distinct from monophysitism and anathematize Eutyches.
