View source for Religion:Monophysitism

{{short description|Christological doctrine}}
'''Monophysitism''' ({{IPAc-en|m|ə|ˈ|n|ɒ|f|ɪ|s|aɪ|t|ɪ|z|əm}} {{respell|mə|NOF|ih|seye|tih|zəm}}<ref>[http://www.dictionary.com/browse/monophysitism "monophysitism"]. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.</ref>) or '''monophysism''' ({{IPAc-en|m|ə|ˈ|n|ɒ|f|ɪ|z|ɪ|z|əm}} {{respell|mə|NOF|ih|zih|zəm}}; from [[Social:Ancient Greek|Greek]] {{lang|grc|μόνος}} {{transl|grc|monos}}, "solitary"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=mo/nos|title=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, μόνος|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> and {{lang|grc|φύσις}} {{transl|grc|physis}}, "[[Philosophy:Nature|nature]]") is a [[Religion:Christology|Christology]] that states that in the person of the [[Religion:Incarnation (Christianity)|incarnated]] [[Religion:Logos (Christianity)|Word]] (that is, in Jesus Christ) there was only one nature—the divine.<ref name="EspínNickoloff2007">{{cite book|author1=Orlando O. Espín|author2=James B. Nickoloff|title=An Introductory Dictionary of Theology and Religious Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k85JKr1OXcQC&pg=PA902|year=2007|publisher=Liturgical Press|isbn=978-0-8146-5856-7|page=902}}</ref>

== Background ==

The [[Religion:First Council of Nicaea|First Council of Nicaea]] (325) declared that Christ was divine (homoousios, [[Religion:Consubstantiality|consubstantial]], of one being or essence, with [[Religion:God the Father|the Father]]) and human (was [[Religion:Incarnation (Christianity)|incarnate]] and became man). In the fifth century a heated controversy arose between the [[Religion:Episcopal see|sees]] and theological schools of Antioch and Alexandria about how divinity and humanity existed in Christ,<ref>{{cite book|author=Ted Campbell|title=Christian Confessions: A Historical Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2mUxxxGt_sC&pg=PA43|date= 1996|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-25650-0|page=43}}</ref> the former stressing the humanity, the latter the divinity of Christ. Cyril of Alexandria succeeded in having [[Biography:Nestorius|Nestorius]], a prominent exponent of the Antiochian school, condemned at the [[Religion:Council of Ephesus|Council of Ephesus]] in 431, and insisted on the formula "one ''physis'' of the incarnate Word", claiming that any formula that spoke of two ''physeis'' represented [[Religion:Nestorianism|Nestorianism]]. Some taught that in Christ the human nature was completely absorbed by the divine, leaving only a divine nature. In 451, the [[Organization:Council of Chalcedon|Council of Chalcedon]], on the basis of Pope Leo the Great's 449 declaration, [[Religion:Chalcedonian Definition|defined]] that in Christ there were two ''natures'' united in one ''person''.<ref name="Kleinhenz2004">{{cite book|author=Christopher Kleinhenz|title=Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E2CTAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT762|date=2004|publisher=[[Company:Routledge|Routledge]]|isbn=978-1-135-94880-1|page=762}}</ref>

Those who insisted on the "one ''physis''" formula were referred to as '''Monophysites''' ({{IPAc-en|m|ə|ˈ|n|ɒ|f|ɪ|s|aɪ|t}}), while those who accepted the  "two natures" definition were called ''Dyophysites'', a term applied also to followers of Nestorianism.

== Groups called monophysite ==

The forms of monophysism were numerous, and included the following:
* [[Religion:Acephali|Acephali]] were Monophysites who in 482 broke away from Peter III of Alexandria who made an agreement with Acacius of Constantinople, sanctioned by Emperor Zeno with his [[Religion:Henotikon|Henotikon]] edict that condemned both Nestorius and Eutyches, as the Council of Chalcedon had done, but ignored that council's decree on the two natures of Christ. They saw this as a betrayal of S. Cyrils use of "Mia Physis" and refused to be subject to the Chalcedonian Patriarch of Alexandria, preferring to be instead ecclesiastically "without a head" (the meaning of ''acephali'').<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01100c.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Acephali|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref> For this, they were known as Headless Ones.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Reply to Fr. John Morris Concerning His Review of My Book, The Non-Orthodox |url=http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/morris_review.aspx |access-date=2022-11-15 |website=orthodoxinfo.com}}</ref>
* [[Religion:Agnoetae|Agnoetae]], Themistians or Agnosticists, founded by Themistius Calonymus around 534, held that the nature of Jesus Christ, although divine, was like other men's in all respects, including limited knowledge.<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Frank Leslie Cross|editor2= Elizabeth A. Livingstone |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA29|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-280290-3|page=29}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Justo L. González|title=A History of Christian Thought Volume II: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kEXOzNeSgWoC&pg=PA81|date= 2010|publisher=Abingdon Press|isbn=978-1-4267-2191-5|page=81}}</ref> They must be distinguished from a fourth-century group called by the same name, who denied that God knew the past and the future.<ref>{{cite book|author=J. C. Cooper|title=Dictionary of Christianity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZC3AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA119|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-26546-6|page=119}}</ref>
* [[Religion:Aphthartodocetae|Aphthartodocetae]], [[Religion:Phantasiasts|Phantasiasts]] or, after their leader Julian of Halicarnassus, Julianists believed "that the body of Christ, from the very moment of his conception, was incorruptible, immortal and impassible, as it was after the resurrection, and held that the suffering and death on the cross was a miracle contrary to the normal conditions of Christ's humanity".<ref>{{cite book|author=Mary Clayton|title=The Apocryphal Gospels of Mary in Anglo-Saxon England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLxwYDgHf54C&pg=PA43|year=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-58168-4|page=43}}</ref> Emperor Justinian I wished to have this teaching adopted as orthodox, but died before he could put his plans into effect.<ref>{{cite book|author=William Holmes|title=The Age of Justinian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GLh4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT280|date=2017|publisher=Jovian Press|isbn=978-1-5378-1078-2|page=280}}</ref>
* Apollinarians or Apollinarists, named after Apollinaris of Laodicea (who died in 390) proposed that Jesus had a normal human body but had a divine mind instead of a regular human [[Philosophy:Soul|soul]]. This teaching was condemned by the [[Religion:First Council of Constantinople|First Council of Constantinople]] (381) and died out within a few decades.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01615b.htm Sollier, Joseph. "Apollinarianism." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 8 February 2019</ref> Cyril of Alexandria declared it a mad proposal.<ref name="McGuckin1994">{{cite book|author=McGuckin|title=St. Cyril of Alexandria: The Christological Controversy: Its History, Theology, and Texts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-p5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109|date=1994|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-31290-6|page=109}}</ref>
* [[Religion:Docetism|Docetists]], not all of whom were Monophysites, held that Jesus had no human nature: his humanity was only a phantasm, which, united with the impassible, immaterial divine nature, could not really suffer and die.<ref>{{cite book|author=Daniel R. Streett|title=They Went Out from Us: The Identity of the Opponents in First John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A2XN2zFinK8C&pg=PA38|date=2011|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-024771-8|pages=38–39}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=J.R.C. Cousland|title=Holy Terror: Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rMw6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA99|date= 2017|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-0-567-66817-2|page=99}}</ref>
* [[Religion:Eutychianism|Eutychians]] taught that Jesus had only one nature, a union of the divine and human that is not an even compound, since what is divine is infinitely larger than what is human: the humanity is absorbed by and transmuted into the divinity, as a drop of honey, mixing with the water of the sea, vanishes. The body of Christ, thus transmuted, is not consubstantial homoousios with humankind.<ref>{{cite book|author1=E. A. Livingstone|author2=M. W. D. Sparks|author3=R. W. Peacocke|title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZecAQAAQBAJ|date=2013|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-965962-3|chapter=Monophysitism}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Fred Sanders|author2=Klaus Issler|title=Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective: An Introductory Christology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qkWPkbi0NhoC&pg=PA22|year=2007|publisher=B&H Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8054-4422-3|page=22}}</ref> In contrast to Severians, who are called verbal Monophysites, Eutychianists are called real or ontological Monophysites,<ref name="Hannah2019"/><ref name="Loon2009">{{cite book|author=Hans van Loon|title=The Dyophysite Christology of Cyril of Alexandria|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8BWwCQAAQBAJ|date=2009|publisher=Brill|page=33|isbn=978-90-474-2669-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Bernhard Bischoff|author2=Michael Lapidge|title=Biblical Commentaries from the Canterbury School of Theodore and Hadrian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PCn2EL3rT84C&pg=PA11|year=1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-33089-3|page=11}}</ref> and their teaching is "an extreme form of the Monophysite heresy that emphasizes the exclusive prevalence of the divinity in Christ".<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eutyches |title = Eutyches &#124; Orthodox abbot}}</ref>
* Severians accepted the reality of Christ's human nature to the extent of insisting that his body was capable of corruption, but argued that, since a single person has a single nature and Christ was one person, not two, he had only a single nature. Agreeing in substance, though not in words, with the Definition of Chalcedon, Severians are known also as verbal Monophysites.<ref name="Hannah2019">{{cite book|author=John D. Hannah|title=Invitation to Church History: World: The Story of Christianity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=daamDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA153|date= 2019|publisher=Kregel Academic|isbn=978-0-8254-2775-6|page=153}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Justo L. González|title=A History of Christian Thought Volume II: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kEXOzNeSgWoC&pg=PA77|date= 2010|publisher=Abingdon Press|isbn=978-1-4267-2191-5|pages=77–78, 81}}</ref>
* [[Tritheism|Tritheists]], a group of sixth-century Monophysites said to have been founded by a Monophysite named John Ascunages<ref>{{cite book|author=Simplicius|title=On Aristotle On the Heavens 1.2-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RAQsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|date=2014|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-4725-0166-0|page=9}}</ref> of Antioch. Their principal writer was [[Biography:John Philoponus|John Philoponus]], who taught that the common nature of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is an abstraction of their distinct individual natures.<ref>{{cite book|author1=E. A. Livingstone|author2=M. W. D. Sparks|author3=R. W. Peacocke|title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZecAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA573|date= 2013|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-965962-3|page=573}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15061b.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Tritheists|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref>
* Some members of the early Coptic Orthodox Church believed in Monophysitism,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Olupona |first=Jacob K. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/839396781 |title=African Religions: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=[[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-979058-6 |location=Oxford |pages=90 |oclc=839396781}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-05-08 |title=Theodosius Of Alexandria |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodosius-of-Alexandria |access-date=2023-04-24 |publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> although others preferred to label their non-Chalcedonian beliefs as [[Religion:Miaphysitism|Miaphysitism]] and these beliefs were generally different from the Monophysitism-believing church members'.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lotha |first=Gloria |date=2023-03-16 |title=Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Coptic-Orthodox-Church-of-Alexandria |access-date=2023-04-24 |publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Petruzzello |first=Melissa |date=2023-04-13 |title=Monophysite |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/monophysite |access-date=2023-04-24 |publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref>

==Verbal monophysitism==

Concerning verbal declarations of Monophysitism, Justo L. González stated, "in order not to give an erroneous idea of the theology of the so-called Monophysite churches, that have subsisted until the twentieth century, one should point out that all the extreme sects of Monophysism disappeared within a brief span, and that the Christology of the present so-called Monophysite churches is closer to a verbal than to a real Monophysism".
<ref>{{cite book|author=Justo L. González|title=A History of Christian Thought Volume 2: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1VMeQcNyDjYC&pg=PA82|year=1987|publisher=Abingdon Press|isbn=978-0-687-17183-5|page=82}}</ref>

== Political situation of monophysitism after Chalcedon ==

Under Emperor Basiliscus, who ousted Emperor Zeno in 475, "the Monophysites reached the pinnacle of their power". In his ''Encyclion'', which he issued in the same year, he revoked the Council of Chalcedon and recognized the Second Council of Ephesus of 449 except for its approval of Eutyches, whom Basiliscus condemned. He required his edict to be signed by each bishop. Among the signatures he obtained were those of three of the four Eastern Patriarchs, but the Patriarch and the populace of the capital protested so resolutely that in 476, seeing that his overthrow was imminent, he issued his ''Anti-Encyclion'' revoking his former edict. In the same year, Zeno returned victoriously.<ref>{{cite book|author=E. Glenn Hinson|title=The Early Church: Origins to the Dawn of the Middle Ages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ymn8dHYbaUC&pg=PT298|year=1996|publisher=Abingdon Press|isbn=978-0-687-00603-8|page=298}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Philip Hughes|title=History of the Church: Volume 1: The World In Which The Church Was Founded|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gSPUAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA265|date= 1948|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-7220-7981-2|page=265}}</ref>

Events had made it clear that there was a split between the population, staunchly Chalcedonian in sympathies, of Constantinople and the Balkans and the largely anti-Chalcedonian population of Egypt and Syria. In an attempt to reconcile both sides, Zeno, with the support of Acacius of Constantinople and Peter III of Alexandria, tried to enforce the compromise Henoticon (Formula of Union) decree of 482, which condemned Eutyches but ignored Chalcedon. Schisms followed on both sides. [[Organization:Holy See|Rome]] excommunicated Acacius (leading to the 35-year [[Religion:Acacian schism|Acacian schism]]), while in Egypt the [[Religion:Acephali|Acephali]] broke away from Peter III. The Acacian schism continued under Zeno's successor, the Monophysite Anastasius I Dicorus and ended only with the accession of the Chalcedonian Justin I in 518.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Bryan Ward-Perkins|author2=Michael Whitby|title=The Cambridge ancient history. 14. Late antiquity: empire and successors, A.D. 425–600|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qf8mrHjfZRoC&pg=PA51|year=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-32591-2|pages=51–52}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Justo L. González|title=A History of Christian Thought Volume II: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kEXOzNeSgWoC&pg=PA79|date= 2010|publisher=Abingdon Press|isbn=978-1-4267-2191-5|pages=79–82}}</ref>

Justin I was succeeded by the Chalcedonian Justinian I (527–565), whose wife Empress Theodora protected and assisted the Monophysites.<ref name=":0" /> Ghassanid patronage of the Monophysite Syrian Church under phylarch Al-Harith ibn Jabalah was crucial for its survival, revival, and even its spread.<ref>Rome in the East, Warwick Ball, Routledge, 2000, p. 105</ref> Justinian I was followed by Justin II, who after being a Monophysite, perhaps because of Theodora's influence, converted to the Chalcedonian faith before obtaining the imperial throne. Some time later, he adopted a policy of persecuting the Monophysites.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|author=John Wesley Barker|title=Justinian and the Later Roman Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LiJljEXvwAoC&pg=PA212|year=1966|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-03944-8|pages=212–213}}</ref> From Justinian I on, no emperor was a declared Monophysite, although they continued their efforts to find compromise formulas such as [[Religion:Monoenergism|monoenergism]] and [[Religion:Monothelitism|monothelitism]].

== See also ==
* [[Religion:Miaphysitism|Miaphysitism]]
* [[Religion:Chalcedonian Christianity|Chalcedonian Christianity]] (Jesus's divinity was also viewed as one nature by a minority of Roman Christians around the time of the [[Organization:Council of Chalcedon|Council of Chalcedon]])<ref>{{Cite book |last=Olupona |first=Jacob K. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/839396781 |title=African Religions: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=[[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-979058-6 |location=Oxford |pages=90 |oclc=839396781}}</ref>

== References ==
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{{Christian theology}}
{{Heresies condemned by the Catholic Church}}

[[Category:Christian terminology]]
[[Category:Heresy in Christianity]]

{{Sourceattribution|Monophysitism}}