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 examined the doctrine of one nature, and exposed its chief
consequences. We have considered its effects in respect of the deity
of Christ and in respect of His manhood. We have applied the doctrine
to the human nature as a whole, and to the several parts that compose
it. The result of the examination may be summarised in brief.
Monophysitism destroys what is divine in the deity and what is human in
the humanity. It offers to Christians a Christ who is not sufficiently
above man to be able to help them by His power, nor sufficiently man to
be able to help them by His sympathy. The monophysite Christ is
neither very God nor very man, but a composition in which all traces of
the original entities are lost to view.
[1] "The Chronicle of Zachariah of Mitylene," translated by Hamilton
and Brooks, chap. iii. p. 46.
[2] This addition to the Trisagion was officially condemned at the
close of the 7th century owing to its monophysite associations.
[3] "Chronicle of Zachariah of Mitylene," translated by Hamilton and
Brooks, ii. 2, p. 21.
[4] The question of Justinian's orthodoxy has been debated by Bury and
Hutton. See _Guardian_, March 4th and April 15th, 1896.
CHAPTER IV
THE ETHOS OF MONOPHYSITISM
Monophysitism originated in a monastery. Eutyches, "the father of the
monophysites," was a monk. The monastic temperament is peculiarly
susceptible to this heresy, and the monastic element has always been
dominant in the monophysite churches. The cloister is the natural
habitat of the doctrine of the one nature. Monasticism is applied
monism. If the world's existence be a sham, if its value compared with
God be negligible, it becomes a religious duty to avoid all influences
that heighten the illusion of the world's real existence and intrinsic
value. The monist, like the monk, must renounce all secular interests
and "go out of the world." The path of renunciation had an additional
claim on the Christological monist. In his universal ideal, as
manifested in time, the human elements were sublimated into the divine.
Consequently his ideal of conduct imposed a negative attitude towards
the world and a merging of his ego in the universal spirit. These are
the ruling elements in the spirit of the cloister, and these are the
characteristics of the monophysite ethos.
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