Monotheletes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Members of a 7th-century Christian sect who taught that Christ possessed only one divine will rather than separate divine and human wills
2. Followers of the doctrine of monothelitism, which held that Jesus Christ had a single will despite his two natures
3. Those who adhered to the early Christian belief that Christ had one volitional faculty, a view condemned by the church councils of the seventh century

Etymology: "Monotheletes" is simply the plural of "Monothelete," the name for a follower of Monotheletism, a seventh-century Christian doctrine holding that Christ had two natures but only one will. The term comes from Medieval Greek "monothelētēs," built from "monos" ("single" or "alone") and "thelein" ("to will" or "to wish"), so the name describes the doctrine's central claim in its own grammar. The English form "Monothelete" is a variant of "Monothelite," which follows the same Greek original. Both spellings refer to the same people: the Monothelites or Monotheletes who were condemned by church councils for denying that Christ possessed a human will alongside his divine will.