African Christianity Homepage
Egyptian Christianity
The Monophysite Controversy
Egypt
Theologians
Clement of Alexandria
Origen
Monasticism
Arian Controversy
Monophysite Controversy
Egypt Under Islam
The Monophysite controversy was the main issue at the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451), and continued the theological, political, social and philosophical tensions between the Christians at Alexandria and the Christians at Antioch. The Alexandrian Monophysites were condemned by the Council and ultimately separated to become the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church. The Coptic Church, both in Egypt and in Ethiopia remained the dominant form of African Christianity from the Muslim invasion to the coming of the missionaries in the 19th century.
The central issues revolved around the nature(s) of Christ, which had been the subject of heated theological debate in the Eastern church since the time of the Arian controversy and the Council of Nicea. Although both sides of the controversy accepted the formulation of the Nicene Creed, they fought over the way in which divinity and humanity are joined in Christ Jesus. The problem arose when they began to think about the fact that God (and therefore the divine nature of Christ) was unchangeable, immutable and eternal, while human nature is changeable and temporal.
•Antiochian theologians tended to stress Christ’s human nature, because they believed that Christ needed to be fully and truly human if he were to be the saviour of human beings.
• The Alexandrians tended to stress Christ’s divinity and his role as teacher of divine truth.
These differences were intensified by the rivalry between the two ancient Patriarchates, a rivalry which found a convenient expression in their competition for appointments to the Patriarchal See of Constantinople, which, for political reasons, had become the most powerful bishopric in the east, much as Rome had become the most powerful bishopric in the Western church. The Antiochenes were better at getting their candidates selected bishop of Constantinole than the Alexandrians.
Nestorius
Nestorius, a representative of the Antiochene school, became patriarch of Constantinople in 428, and the Alexandrians immediately began looking for a way to attack him. They found a way when Nestorius suggested that it was inappropriate to call Mary theotokos or bearer of God, and that she should be called Christotokos or bearer of Christ. What he was suggesting was that Mary was the mother of Christ’s human nature, but that Christ’s divine nature was separate and eternal and did not come through his human mother. Nestorius was trying to preserve Christ’s full humanity by making a sharp distinction between his humanity and his divinity.
Cyril of Alexandria
In 431 the Alexandrians, under their bishop Cyril, an astute politician and an able theologian, though not a charitable man, sallied forth to hammer what they saw as rank heresy. Cyril and the Alexandrians were convinced that God had a single, divine, nature, and that he "emptied himself" (see Phil 2:6-8) to become human -- without losing any of his divinity. The Alexandrians suceeded in condemning the Nestorians in the Council of Ephesus, though the Antiochians, who had been delayed en route, were not able to make their case. The Antiochians then met in a counter-Council and declared Cyril a heretic. Negotiations, guided by the emperor, Theodosius II, led the two sides to make up, but the theological condemnation of Nestorius, which was supported by the Western Church, and encouraged by liberal gifts of gold from the Alexandrian church, stood.
The Council of Chalcedon, which met in 451 to iron out the differences between Antioch and Alexandria, met under the guidance of a new emperor, Pulcheria, who did not support the Alexandrian cause nearly as much as her brother had. The Council produced a "Definition of Faith," not a creed, clarifying what the church taught. The Definition did not seek to define the relationship between the two natures of Christ, but rather it tried to set the limits within which the discussion had to take place. Those limits excluded both Nestorianism and the Alexandrian position held by Cyril, by saying that Christ had two natures, not one, but that Mary was the mother of God, not merely the mother of the man Jesus.
This formula was unacceptable to many in Alexandria, but probably for political and anti-Imperial, rather than theological reasons. The Coptic Church, as the Anti-Chalcedonian church in Egypt came to be called, accepted Cyril’s formulation that Christ was God who emptied himself to become fully human, but did not really condemn the notion that Christ had two distinct natures in one person. The Council deposed, excommunicated and exiled the Alexandrian patriarch Dioscorus, and immediately installed an imperial candidate by the name of Proterius in his place. The Egyptians rejected the man they saw as an interloper, and elected Timothy Aelurus, an Alexandrian to the see. This marked the beginning of the split between the Imperial, or "Melkite" Church and the native or Coptic Church. The Coptic Church asserted its independence from the Empire, which it saw as hostile and alien. It became a national church, and survived the Arab conquests, in part because it was strongly supported by the Desert Monks. Later attempts to patch up the differences between the Coptic Church and the Imperial church failed.
This page was based on the following sources, which you can consult for more detailed information:
For more on the Council of Chalcedon, from the Catholic and Orthodox perspective see:
http://www.orthodox.co.uk/council.htm
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/coun5.html
http://www.csn.net/advent/cathen/03555a.htm
http://www.piar.hu/councils/ecum04.htm
For the Coptic Perspective see
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/2961/history.htm
for the documents see:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/chalcedon.html
For a discussion of the Monophysites from the Coptic perspective see
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/2961/mono1.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/2961/mono2.htm
Henry Chadwick, The Early Church. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdman’s, 1968. Ch 14
Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity. New York: Harper & Row, 1984 Ch 27
John McManners, The Oxford History of Christianity Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 138-142