APPENDIX: CHALCEDON

IMPORTANT

The following articles were appended to this volume of Early Church Fathers writings by: Maged N Kamel, MD (mkamel@geocities.com)---the editor of this electronic WinHelp edition of Early Church Fathers writings.

Monophysitism: Reconsidered

Fr. Matthias F. Wahba

St. Antonius Coptic Orthodox Church

Hayward, California

USA

Introduction:

The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, in which I am a priest, is one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. These churches are the Coptic, Armenian, Syrian, Ethiopian, and the Malankara Indian Churches. The common element among them is their non-acceptance of the Council of Chalcedon of AD 451. Accordingly they prefer to be called "Non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches."

The Council of Chalcedon caused a big schism within the church which lasted until the present. In addition, after the Arab invasion in the seventh century, the churches lost communication with each other. Through this long period, the non-Chalcedonians were accused of Eutychianism, and called "Monophysites", meaning that they believe in one single nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. They never accepted this idea considering it a heresy. The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the issue.

Misunderstanding

Several publications reflect such an attitude. In The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, for instance, Alexander Kazhdan shows monophysitism as a "religious movement that originated in the first half of the 5th C. as a reaction against the emphasis of Nestorianism on the human nature of the incarnate Christ." The Encyclopedia of the Early Church carries an entry on "monophysitism" where Manlio Simonetti writes, "The term monophysites indicates those who admitted a single nature in Christ, rather than two, human and divine, as the Council of Chalcedon (451) sanctioned." Then he gives examples of Apollinarius and Eutyches, and goes on to mention St. Cyril the Great as having a "Monophysite Christology". Furthermore, in the Coptic Encyclopedia, W.H.C. Frend defines monophystism as a doctrine:

opposed to the orthodox doctrine that He (Christ) is one person

and has two natures..... The monophysites hold.... that the two

natures of Christ were united at the Incarnation in such a way

that the one Christ was essentially divine although He assumed

from the Virgin Theotokos the flesh and attributes of man.

Now, what is the actual belief of the Church of Alexandria and the other non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches on the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Common Declaration:

In May 1973 H.H. Pope-Shenouda III of Alexandria visited H.H. Pope Paul VI of Rome. Their Common Declaration says:

We confess that our Lord and God and Savior and King of us all,

Jesus Christ, is perfect God with respect to His divinity,

perfect man with respect to His humanity. In Him His divinity

is united with His humanity in a real, perfect union without

mingling, without commixtion, without confusion, without

alteration, without division, without separation.

After fifteen centuries, the two prelates declare a common faith in the nature of Christ, the issue which caused the schism of the church in the Council of Chalcedon. This will lead us to throw some light on that council.

Monophysitism and the Council of Chalcedon

1. According to some Scholars, there, was no need for it, b