The Coptic Church and the Council of Chalcedon

  • Thread starter Thread starter victrolatim
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
V

victrolatim

Guest
I was recently at the local Coptic Church for their Egyptian festival. Very nice people, good food etc. Picked up a pamphlet about their history, the writing is very brief but it makes a point of mentioning that they do not recognize the Council of Chalcedon. The reasoning is a bit confusing (it is obvious that English is a second language to the author). Can someone explain why they reject the council and what we believe vs what they believe? I know it is something regarding the personage of Christ.
 
victrolatim said:
I was recently at the local Coptic Church for their Egyptian festival. Very nice people, good food etc. Picked up a pamphlet about their history, the writing is very brief but it makes a point of mentioning that they do not recognize the Council of Chalcedon. The reasoning is a bit confusing (it is obvious that English is a second language to the author). Can someone explain why they reject the council and what we believe vs what they believe? I know it is something regarding the personage of Christ.
Click to expand...
It is thought by Oriental Orthodox in general, and the Coptic Church specifically, that the Council was called by the Emperor to subjugate the Church to the imperial throne. “It was only under constant pressure from the Emperor Marcian that the Fathers of Chalcedon agreed to draw a new formula of belief.”

More thorough Coptic Orthodox position paper here:
coptic.net/articles/monophysitismreconsidered.txt
 
Aside from the political considerations, those Christians who rejected Chalcedon suspected the Tome of Leo and the Definition of Chalcedon of Nestorian tendencies.
 
RyanBlack said:
Aside from the political considerations, those Christians who rejected Chalcedon suspected the Tome of Leo and the Definition of Chalcedon of Nestorian tendencies.
Click to expand...
Very true. And St. Cyril who was Pope- Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444 was the utmost defender of the orthodox Faith against Nestorianism (as was his predecessor Pope Athanasius against Arianism). One can see why the Coptic Church is so against anything that resembles Nestorianism in honor of their spiritual Father.
 
Didn’t Pope St. John Paul II sign a common declaration of faith on Christology with the Copts - healing 1500 years of misunderstandings and mistrust? (At least on this issue). Or was that only with the Syriac Orthodox Church?
 
victrolatim said:
I was recently at the local Coptic Church for their Egyptian festival. Very nice people, good food etc. Picked up a pamphlet about their history, the writing is very brief but it makes a point of mentioning that they do not recognize the Council of Chalcedon. The reasoning is a bit confusing (it is obvious that English is a second language to the author). Can someone explain why they reject the council and what we believe vs what they believe? I know it is something regarding the personage of Christ.
Click to expand...
Why not ask them?
 
SyroMalankara said:
Very true. And St. Cyril who was Pope- Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444 was the utmost defender of the orthodox Faith against Nestorianism (as was his predecessor Pope Athanasius against Arianism). One can see why the Coptic Church is so against anything that resembles Nestorianism in honor of their spiritual Father.
Click to expand...
My best friend (a Copt) set up a round of bowling for me and our mutual friend. I got there late and arrived to see my name was ‘NESTORIUS’ on the screen, presumably as a joking insult.

Little did he know I was the opposite of offended.
 
Since this thread peaked my interest in the Coptic Orthodox Church, please allow me to put in some links about these modern- day descendants of the ancient Egyptians and their Christian beliefs…

copticchurch.net/topics/thecopticchurch/church1.html, theopedia.com/monophysitism, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copts, stmarkdc.org/our-faith, copticchurch.net/topics/liturgy/index.html ( the links on this page are pdf, but you might be interested anyway), orthodoxwiki.org/List_of_Coptic_Popes, suscopts.org/coptic-orthodox/church/.

Neat. So, the Copts and other Monophysites reject the Divine and Human natures of Jesus Christ as separate and posit that He had only one Nature.
 
LutheranScholar said:
Since this thread peaked my interest in the Coptic Orthodox Church, please allow me to put in some links about these modern- day descendants of the ancient Egyptians and their Christian beliefs…

copticchurch.net/topics/thecopticchurch/church1.html, theopedia.com/monophysitism, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copts, stmarkdc.org/our-faith, copticchurch.net/topics/liturgy/index.html ( the links on this page are pdf, but you might be interested anyway), orthodoxwiki.org/List_of_Coptic_Popes, suscopts.org/coptic-orthodox/church/.

Neat. So, the Copts and other Monophysites reject the Divine and Human natures of Jesus Christ as separate and posit that He had only one Nature.
Click to expand...
The Copts, like all the Oriental Orthodox, are not Monophysites. Rather, they are Miaphysites, and they affirm both the divinity and humanity of Christ, using the formula of St. Cyril of Alexandria, “the one nature of the Word of God Incarnate.” Furthermore, they reject as heretical the Monophysitism of Eutyches.
 
RyanBlack said:
The Copts, like all the Oriental Orthodox, are not Monophysites. Rather, they are Miaphysites, and they affirm both the divinity and humanity of Christ, using the formula of St. Cyril of Alexandria, “the one nature of the Word of God Incarnate.” Furthermore, they reject as heretical the Monophysitism of Eutyches.
Click to expand...
Miaphysite is how Oriental Catholics view themselves historically as well.
 
Miaphysitism, the Christology of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, is sometimes considered a variant of monophysitism, but these Churches are at pains to distinguish their teaching from monophysitism per se. theopedia.com/monophysitism However, it’s not my tradition and really none of my business. Carry on.
 
LutheranScholar said:
Miaphysitism, the Christology of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, is sometimes considered a variant of monophysitism, but these Churches are at pains to distinguish their teaching from monophysitism per se. theopedia.com/monophysitism However, it’s not my tradition and really none of my business. Carry on.
Click to expand...
Monophysitism is the heretical teaching that there is only one nature in Christ–the divine nature. Miaphysitism is not heretical–it is the christology of St. Cyril of Alexandria. It uses the terminology of one nature–that of the “Word of God (divine) Incarnate (human),” but it fully affirms both the divinity and the humanity of Christ. Furthermore, the Oriental Orthodox have always rejected Eutychianism, which actually is Monophysitism.
 
LutheranScholar said:
Miaphysitism, the Christology of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, is sometimes considered a variant of monophysitism, but these Churches are at pains to distinguish their teaching from monophysitism per se. theopedia.com/monophysitism However, it’s not my tradition and really none of my business. Carry on.
Click to expand...
Some of them think that we (and you) are at pains to distinguish our teaching from Nestorianism per se.
 
Peter_J said:
Some of them think that we (and you) are at pains to distinguish our teaching from Nestorianism per se.
Click to expand...
Meh, probably. 🤷 In all reality, I’d be more concerned with what my own religious community thought of my theological statements than what others might think.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top