annot apply the
formula nor reconcile it with common sense. He occasionally hears from
the pulpit the phrase "God-man"; but it is a mere phrase to him; it is
not translated for him into a language that he can understand. So he
registers the doctrine mentally as an impenetrable mystery and gives it
no further attention, or perhaps turns away in disgust from the system
whose central figure is so unintelligibly presented by its authorised
exponents. The bare statement that Christ is God and man, though true,
is not adequate. It carries no conviction to thinking minds to-day.
The full definition of the council of Chalcedon should be published
broadcast, and so studied by theologians in the light of modern
psychology that they can present it as a reasonable dogma, intelligible
to-day and touching modern life.

In the absence of such teaching the spread of false, unbalanced or
inadequate conceptions of what Christ was and of what He is is
inevitable. Our concern here is to exhibit those of a monophysite
character. Monophysite tendencies of the present day may be grouped
according as they affect Christ's being or His work or Christian
practice. We propose to take them in that order.

MODERN PRESENTATIONS OF CHRIST ESOTERIC AND DEFICIENT IN PERSONAL APPEAL

Monophysitism in respect of Christ's being shows itself to-day in
negative rather than positive ways. To its subtle influence is
traceable the capital defect of modern presentations of Christ, namely,
that they make no appeal to the outsider. Christ is proclaimed as the
solution of moral, social and industrial problems. As a rule in such
cases the name "Christ" is used as a synonym for Christian principles.
Such appeals are addressed to the head; they do not touch the heart and
fire the imagination; they do not kindle that personal devotion to the
Man Christ Jesus which has always been the dynamic of the faith. The
historic Christ is not presented in a way that would appeal to the
unconvinced. Christian teaching is becoming more and more esoteric.
In the language of Christology, a diphysite Christ is not preached.
His human nature is kept in the background. It is not portrayed in
arresting colours. If the apostles and apostolic men had preached the
impersonal redeemer of modern religious thought, they would never have
won the world for Christ. Their imaginations and lives were fired by
contact with a Man of flesh and blood. So they presented a Christ
w