Position · 451

Miaphysitism

The teaching that in Christ divinity and humanity are united in one nature, without mixture, confusion or change, following Cyril of Alexandria’s phrase “one incarnate nature of God the Word”.

Its holders rejected the Council of Chalcedon (451) because they read “in two natures” as dividing Christ. They also reject Eutyches, who was said to teach that Christ’s humanity was absorbed into his divinity. For this reason they reject the label “Monophysite”, which suggests only one nature with the humanity lost.

It is the faith of the Oriental Orthodox churches. In 1973 Pope Paul VI and Coptic Pope Shenouda III signed a common declaration on Christology, and later dialogue with the Eastern Orthodox reached similar agreed statements.