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
Again, nature is the superficies of the soul. It is the part that
comes in contact with the world of things and people. A man's nature
is what he is for other people; what he is in and for himself alone is
personality. There is a substance or self-existence of the psychic
states. Thought, will and feeling have all and each an external
reference. The internal reference of the whole is the core of being.
Our perception of personality in other people is a subtle thing. In
the ordinary give and take of life we are not aware of it. It is when
we realise the subject as a self-existent unity that we recognise
personality. We judge a man's nature by his thought or will or
feelings as conveyed through the ordinary channels of communication.
Personality is felt. It is a magnetism that influences, but remains
inarticulate.
Person and nature differ also in respect of relation to the body. The
co-existence of heterogeneous natures in the same body is a fact of
experience. Different universes of thought, different levels of will
and feeling can be lodged in one organism. The higher the development
of the individual, the more clearly marked is the duality or plurality
of nature. It is otherwise with personality. In normal cases no two
personalities can tenant the one body. The unity of the organism is
the outward expression and guarantee of the unity of the person. There
are of course pathological cases which form exceptions to this rule.
Such cases, however, only serve to emphasise the distinction between
person and nature. In cases of dual personality the occupancy of the
one body is not simultaneous. Jekyll alternates with Hyde. Dual
personality is a totally different phenomenon from duality of nature.
Duality of nature is relatively superficial. In dual personality the
divergence in mental and moral outlook is so radical that
responsibility for the acts of the one entity cannot attach to the
other entity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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