Monophysitism Past and Present: A Study in ChristologyLuce, A. A. (Arthur Aston)
Religion
Monophysitism Past and Present: A Study in Christology
Luce, A. A. (Arthur Aston)
Monophysites
We have considered the monophysites' view of Christ's human nature,
regarded as an integral psychic entity. It is evident that they either
undervalued it or denied its existence. The more consistent thinkers
of their party maintained that the incarnation had made no difference
in the being of Christ, and that therefore His human nature had no
objective reality. Those who shrank from carrying the doctrine to that
length conceded to the orthodox that the incarnation had to some extent
modified the being of Christ, that its net result was a composition.
Further analysis showed that this concession was rendered nugatory;
that in whatever sense the word "composition" was taken, it was
inadequate to express the hypostatic union; that the composition proved
in its first significance illusory, in its second, hybridous, in its
third, Apollinarianist. We pass on now to review the human nature in
its constituent parts, and it will be seen that the heretical formula
undermines faith in respect of each several part.
THE "PARTS" OF HUMAN NATURE
From the standpoint of psychology human nature is divisible into parts.
The division must not be taken as absolute; for the whole is a unity,
and the parts are not discrete _quanta_. The division is rather a
classification of psychic states according to predominating features.
The classification corresponds, however, to the facts of experience,
and so psychology is justified in making use of it. We shall adopt it
in our investigation of the psychology of Christ. The sharpest
dividing line is that between immaterial and material, between soul and
body. The states of the soul fall into three well-marked groups,
thought, will, and feeling. The physical and the psychic are not
always distinguishable. Still more uncertain and tentative is the
identification in the psychic of cognitive, volitional, and emotional
faculties. But in every man these parts are found. They are
constituents of human nature. There may be other elements as yet
unanalysed; but there can be no complete humanity that is deficient in
respect of any of these parts. We propose to take them singly in the
above order, to show their existence in the historic Christ, and to
expose the monophysite attempts to explain them away.
CHRIST'S BODY
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