Monophysitism is anidea about the nature ofJesus Christ - that Christ has only one nature, thedivine one.
There are two maindoctrines that can be calledMonophysite (English pronunciation: /məˈnɒfəsɪt/):
Eutychianism says that the human and divine natures of Christ were combined into one new single nature, and hishuman nature was "dissolved like a drop of honey in the sea".
Apollinarism, orApollinarianism, says that Christ had a human body and human "living principle" but that the DivineLogos had taken the place of thenous, or "thinking principle". That is analogous but not identical to what might be called amind today.
AfterNestorianism, which was taught byNestorius,Archbishop of Constantinople, was refused at theFirst Council of Ephesus,Eutyches, anarchimandrite atConstantinople came up with new ideas. Monophysitism and Eutycheism were also refused at theCouncil of Chalcedon in451.
Monophysitism is also rejected by theOriental Orthodox Churches but was widely accepted inSyria, the Levant, andEgypt. That caused many tensions in the early days of theByzantine Empire.
Later,Monothelitism was developed as an attempt to bridge the gap between the Monophysite and theChalcedonian position, but it was also rejected by the members of the Chalcedonian synod though it had at times the support of theByzantine emperors and one of thePopes of Rome,Honorius I. Some thought thatMonothelitism was at one time held by theMaronites, but the Maronite community, for the most part, dispute that by stating that it has never been out of communion with theCatholic Church.
Miaphysitism, thechristology of theOriental Orthodox churches, is sometimes considered a variant of Monophysitism, but those churches view theirtheology as distinct from Monophysitism andanathematize Eutyches.
