Dictionary:
Mo·noph·y·site (mə-nŏf'ə-sīt')  |
[Late Latin monophysīta, from Late Greek monophusītēs : Greek mono-, mono- + Greek phusis, nature.]
Monophysite Mo·noph'y·site or Mo·noph'y·sit'ic (-sĭt'ĭk) adj.| Philosophy Dictionary: monophysite |
The doctrine that in the person of Jesus Christ there was but one, divine, nature, rather than two natures, divine and human. A point of dispute between the Coptic and Abyssinian churches, which accept the doctrine, and Roman Catholicism, which denies it in favour of the opposing, dyophysite doctrine of two natures.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Monophysitism |
Bibliography
See W. H. Frend, The Rise of the Monophysite Movement (1972); J. Pelikan, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (1971) and The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (1974).
| Wikipedia: Monophysitism |
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Monophysitism (from the Greek monos meaning 'one, alone' and physis meaning 'nature'), or Monophysiticism, is the Christological position that Christ has only one nature (human-that-evolved-into-divine), as opposed to the Chalcedonian position which holds that Christ maintains two natures, one divine and one human.
Monophysitism and its antithesis, Nestorianism, were both hotly disputed and divisive competing tenets in the maturing Christian traditions during the first half of the fifth century; during the tumultuous last decades of the Western Empire, and marked by the political shift in all things to a center of gravity then located in the Eastern Roman empire, and particularly in Syria, the Levant, and Anatolia, where Monophysitism was popular among the people.
There are two major doctrines that can indisputably be called Monophysite (pronounced /məˈnɒfɨsaɪt/):
After Nestorianism, taught by Nestorius, Archbishop of Constantinople, was rejected at the First Council of Ephesus, Eutyches, an archimandrite at Constantinople, emerged with diametrically opposite views. Eutyches' energy and imprudence with which he asserted his opinions brought him the accusation of heresy in 448, leading to his excommunication. In 449, at the controversial Second Council of Ephesus Eutyches was reinstated and his chief opponents Eusebius, Domnus and Flavian, deposed. Monophysitism and Eutyches were again rejected at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.
Monophysitism's theological point of view is also rejected by the Oriental Orthodox Churches, but was widely accepted in Syria, Egypt and the Levant, leading to many tensions in the Coptic period 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 once escaping the condemnation of a Pope 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 Catholic Church.
Miaphysitism, the christology of the Oriental Orthodox churches, is sometimes erroneously considered as a variant of Monophysitism, but these churches view their theology as distinct from Monophysitism and anathematize Eutyches.
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Philosophy Dictionary. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Copyright © 1994, 1996, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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