Monophysite

Monophysite
Monophysitic /meuh nof'euh sit"ik/, adj.Monophysitism, Monophysism, n.
/meuh nof"euh suyt'/, n. Theol.
a person who maintains that Christ has one nature, partly divine and partly human. Cf. Dyophysite.
[1690-1700; < LL monophysita < LGk monophysítes, equiv. to Gk mono- MONO- + phýs(is) nature + -ites -ITE1]

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      in Christianity, one who believed that Jesus Christ's nature remains altogether divine and not human even though he has taken on an earthly and human body with its cycle of birth, life, and death. Monophysite doctrine thus asserted that in the Person of Jesus Christ there was only one (divine) nature rather than two natures, divine and human, as asserted at the Council of Chalcedon (Chalcedon, Council of) in 451. In the development of the doctrine of the Person of Christ during the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries, several divergent traditions had arisen. Chalcedon adopted a decree declaring that Christ was to be “acknowledged in two natures, without being mixed, transmuted, divided, or separated.” This formulation was directed in part against the Nestorian doctrine—that the two natures in Christ had remained separate and that they were in effect two Persons—and in part against the theologically unsophisticated position of the monk Eutyches, who had been condemned in 448 for teaching that, after the Incarnation, Christ had only one nature and that, therefore, the humanity of the incarnate Christ was not of the same substance as that of other men. Political and ecclesiastical rivalries as well as theology played a role in the decision of Chalcedon to depose and excommunicate the patriarch of Alexandria, Dioscorus (d. 454). The church that supported Dioscorus and insisted that his teaching was consistent with the orthodox doctrine of St. Cyril of Alexandria was labeled monophysite.

      The label also was attached to various theologians and groups, although some who were called monophysite, notably Severus Of Antioch (d. 538), repudiated the terminology of Chalcedon as self-contradictory. Most modern scholars agree that Severus as well as Dioscorus probably diverged from what was defined as orthodoxy more in their emphasis upon the intimacy of the union between God and man in Christ than in any denial that the humanity of Christ and that of mankind are consubstantial.

      In modern times, those churches usually classified as monophysite (the Armenian Apostolic, Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, and Syrian Orthodox) are generally accepted by Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant Christendom as essentially orthodox in their doctrine of the Person of Jesus Christ.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • monophysite — [ mɔnɔfizit ] adj. et n. • 1694; de mono et gr. phusis « nature » ♦ Relig. Doctrine monophysite (ou MONOPHYSISME n. m. ), qui ne reconnaît qu une nature (divine; humaine) au Christ. N. Adepte de cette doctrine …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Monophysite — Mo*noph y*site, n. [Gr. ?; mo nos single + ? nature: cf. F. monophysite.] (Eccl. Hist.) One of a sect, in the ancient church, who maintained that the human and divine in Jesus Christ constituted but one composite nature. Also used adjectively.… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Monophysite — 1690s, from Church L. Monophysita, from Gk. monophysites, from monos single, alone (see MONO (Cf. mono )) + physis nature (see PHYSICS (Cf. physics)). Christian (regarded in the West as a heretic) who believes there is only one nature in the… …   Etymology dictionary

  • Monophysite — [mō näf′ə sīt΄, mənäf′ə sīt΄] n. [LGr(Ec) monophysitēs < Gr monos, single (see MONO ) + physis, nature (see PHYSIC)] an adherent of an originally 4th and 5th cent. theory asserting the existence of only one nature (divine or divine human) in… …   English World dictionary

  • Monophysite — noun Etymology: Medieval Latin Monophysita, from Middle Greek Monophysitēs, from Greek mon + physis nature more at physics Date: 1698 one holding the doctrine that Christ has a single inseparable nature that is at once divine and human rather… …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Monophysite heresy — (5th–6th century AD) Doctrine that emphasized the single nature (the term means literally of one nature ) of Christ, as a wholly divine being rather than part divine and part human. Monophysitism began to appear in the 5th century; though… …   Universalium

  • Monophysite — Monophysisme Le monophysisme (du grec μονο [mono] une seule et φυσις [füsis] nature) est une doctrine christologique apparue au Ve siècle dans l empire byzantin en réaction au nestorianisme, et ardemment défendue par Eutychès et Dioscore d… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Monophysite — 1. noun /məˈnɒfɪsaɪt/ A member of an early Christian sect which held that Jesus Christ has one nature, as opposed to the orthodox view that Christ has two natures, both fully man and fully God, and is co eternal and co substantial with the Father …   Wiktionary

  • 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… …   Philosophy dictionary

  • monophysite — (mo no fi zi t ) s. m. Partisan du monophysisme. ÉTYMOLOGIE    Lat. monophysita (QUICHERAT, Addenda) ; le terme grec est dérivé de deux mots traduits par : unique et nature …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

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