Monophysitism, as we have seen, casts
doubts upon the reality of the sufferings and humanity of Christ; in so
doing it compromises the work He accomplished. Atonement ceases to be
a cosmic transaction completed on Calvary, and becomes a subjective
process. Redemption is made into an attitude, or rather a change of
attitude, on the part of the individual. That Christ wrought a power
and hope for man which man could not achieve for himself is not a
familiar doctrine to-day. Pain, not sin, is the great modern problem.
The Cross is made to stand for sympathy, not for satisfaction.
Salvation, achieved at a definite moment of history and conferred on
believers of subsequent generations, rests for its foundations on the
objective assumption of human nature by a divine person. If the
foundations be undermined, as monophysitism undermines them, the
superstructure crumbles. Redemption becomes improvement by effort and
self-help, or a constant endeavour after a private ideal of conduct.

MONOPHYSITISM LIMITS THE SCOPE OF REDEMPTION

Monophysitism shows itself also in the modern tendency to narrow the
scope of redemption. Partial salvation is offered as a substitute for
the salvation of the entire man. This tendency is a natural result of
narrowing the import of the incarnation. It runs counter to orthodox
Christology and the derivate doctrines. A divine economy is traceable
in God's dealings with men; there is nothing purposeless, nothing
otiose in God's dispensation. The Church's invariable answer to the
Apollinarians was grounded in belief in this economy. She argued that
Christ could not redeem what He did not assume, and, conversely, that
what He assumed He redeemed. He assumed human nature in its entirety,
thought, will, feeling and body; therefore not one of those elements of
human nature lies outside the scope of redemption. Monophysitism
excludes some or all of those elements from the being of the incarnate
Christ, and by so doing deprives the corresponding elements in man's
nature of their rightful share in the benefit of redemption.

The feeling that some parts of human nature are more fitted to survive
than others is wide-spread to-day. It is found within as well as
without the Church. We constantly read of the "survival factor." The
term implies the belief that at death part of the man's nature survives
and part perishes. There is, however, no general agreement as to which
part constitutes the