Appolinarius

The Coptic Church condemns Appolinarius because he taught that Christ did not have a human soul when He became Incarnate. He preached that Christ had a divine nature but since he did not believe that Christ had a human soul, Appolinarius did not believe in Christ having a fully human nature.

However Appolinarius like Pope Shenouda also taught that Christ had only One Nature after the union for, ”just as man is one nature, so is Christ Who has come in the likeness of men...One incarnate nature of the Divine Word”.1 This statement sounds dangerously close to what the Coptic Pope says. Appolinarius was actually the first to introduce the word hypostasis2 in Christology.3 However Appolinarius mostly used the term prosopon4 for Christ’s Person, whereas Pope Shenouda uses the term hypostasis. According to St. John of Damascus, the followers of Appolinarius taught that, the Word only was made flesh”,5meaning that Christ did not take flesh from the Virgin, even though He was born from her. So in Appolinarius’ view Christ was not consubstantial with mankind. Obviously the Coptic Church condemn Appolinarius, but the, perhaps unwilling, overemphasizing of the divine nature, and somewhat erronous understanding of the Chalcedonian use of the terms person and nature, might result in the over-emphasizing of respectively both the divine and the human nature in Christ, depending on the context.

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1 Kelly p. 293.
2 Ιποστασις – Substantial nature, essence, actual being, reality. (Bauer) Used by the Orthodox Church to describe the Persons in the Holy Trinity.
3 Kelly p 293.
4 Προσωπον – Face, countenance (Bauer). Used in ancient pagan Greek drama for ”mask”.
5 Writings p. 131.

Note: With all of my respect, any response from a non-Chalchedonian that aim for controversy will be deleted without any notification