Hypostasis (philosophy and religion)
Hypostasis, from the Greek ὑπόστασις, is the underlying, fundamental state or substance that supports all of reality. It is not the same as the concept of a substance. In Neoplatonism, the hypostasis of the soul, the intellect and "the one" was addressed by Plotinus. In Christian theology, the Holy Trinity consists of three hypostases: that of the Father (Christianity)|Father], that of the God [the Son (Christianity)|Son], and that of the Holy Spirit.
Ancient Greek philosophy
Pseudo-Aristotle used "hypostasis" in the sense of material substance.Neoplatonists argue that beneath the surface phenomena that present themselves to our senses are three higher spiritual principles : each one more sublime than the preceding. For Plotinus, these are the Soul, the Intellect, and the One.
Christian theology
The term hypostasis has particular significance in Christian theology; particularly in Christian triadologythe study of the Christian doctrine of the trinityas well as Christology.Triadology
In Christian triadology, three specific theological concepts have emerged throughout history in reference to the number and interrelationship of the hypostases:Monohypostatic
The Monohypostatic concept advocates that the Father, Son, and Spirit are one single hypostasis in a single ousiameaning that the Father, Son, and Spirit are a single Person. Historically, there were variations of this view:- The second-century Monarchians believed that "Father" and "Son" are two names for the same God.
- In the third century, Sabellius taught that the Father, Son, and Spirit are three parts of one hypostasis.
In the fourth century, Sabellians, Alexander, Athanasius, and the Western Church taught a single hypostasis in God. The "clear inference from usage" is that "there is only one hypostasis in God." Some leading scholars claim that even the Nicene Creed professes a 'one hypostasis' theology.
Dyohypostatic
The Dyohypostatic concept advocates that God has two hypostases ; When the fourth-century Controversy began, the focus was only on the Son, not on the Holy Spirit. Later in that century, some groups, such as the Macedonians, accepted the Son as fully divine but not the Holy Spirit. This is why in AD 381, during the First Council of Constantinople, the Nicene Creed was revised to be explicit, the final word, on the deity of the Holy Spirit.Trihypostatic
The Trihypostatic concept advocates that God has three of these spaces, each having the same ousia -- that is, one Divine nature or true being, substance, being, existence. After Sabellianism was condemned in the third century, Origen's three-hypostases view dominated. The Eusebians believed in three hypostases. The leaders of the Eusebians were Eusebius of Caesarea and Eusebius of Nicomedia. In this view, Father, Son, and Spirit are three distinct minds. For example, the Eastern Dedication Creed says, "They are three in hypostasis but one in agreement." "Agreement" implies distinct minds.There were also variations of the 'three hypostases' view. "What is conventionally regarded as the key-word in the Creed homoousion, falls completely out of the controversy very shortly after the Council of Nicaea and is not heard of for over twenty years." Athanasius re-introduced the term into the debate in the 350s, some 30 years after Nicaea. This caused the Eusebians to divide into various views. Some said the Father's and Son's substances are unlike. Others said their substances are similar. Still others refused to talk about substance.
The Cappadocian fathers were the first pro-Nicenes to believe in three hypostases. For example, Basil of Caesarea said that the Son's statements that he does the will of the Father "is not because He lacks deliberate purpose or power of initiation" but because "His own will is connected in indissoluble union with the Father."
This dispute about the number of hypostases in God was at . Both traditional Trinity doctrine and the Arians taught three distinct hypostases in the Godhead. The difference is that, in the Trinity doctrine, they are one also identified as a single Being.
Hypostasis and ousia
Hypostasis is the individual aspect of ousia, this means ousia is the parent characteristic that is shared by the hypostasis under it. Ousia can be shared by numerous hypostases, as hypostasis is the individual expression of that ousia just how ego is an expression of the underlying soul. In this case it's clear to see that the ego and the soul are seemingly different as well as the same thing for the ego is not without the soul, they can however coexist. Ousia is the nature of that existence and all things that exist have ousia, as it's the nature of that existence in the way that it exists. Ousia is what makes a rock a rock and hypostasis is the various kinds of rocks; ousia is the form as well as nature of particles that construct an entity in the case of physical phenomena. On the other hand for spiritual phenomena it's the level of presence & creative force that differentiates one ousia from another. Like it has been said earlier this nature of existence maybe shared by various hypostasis or instances of ousia.Hypostasis is not the same as type or part, a Hypostasis holds all the nature described by its ousia. This means the ousia is equally possessed by each hypostasis & in that sense they are all the same. Each hypostasis is one as well as many at once. This is because all of them hold the same ousia, the difference is in their expressions of it.
Greek philosophy
These terms originate from Greek philosophy, where they essentially had the same meaning, namely, the fundamental reality that supports all else. In a Christian context, this concept may refer to God or the Ultimate Reality.The Bible
The Bible never refers to God's ousia and only once to God's hypostasis. In Hebrews 1:3, it is not clear whether hypostasis refers to God's nature or His entire 'Person' and is variously translated.Early Church Fathers
In early Christian writings, hypostasis was used to denote 'being' or 'substantive reality' and was not always distinguished in meaning from terms like ousia, substantia or qnoma. It was used in this way by Tatian and Origen. Tertullian, writing in Latin, did not use the Greek terms hypostasis and ousia but he did use the related term ''substantia.''Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed of 325, in one of its anathemas, used the terms hypostasis and ousia:"But as for those... who assert that the Son of God is of a different hypostasis or substance ... these the Catholic and apostolic Church anathematizes."These terms were not used by any previous creed. At the time of the Nicene Creed, different people used these terms differently. Many used them as synonyms. Importantly, Athanasius, the main custodian of the Nicene Creed, also used these terms as synonyms. It is, therefore, not surprising that one of the anathemas in the Creed seems to use these terms as synonyms. However, since they were used as synonyms, the Early Church Texts, which translates ousia as 'substance' is misleading. As mentioned below, the meanings of these terms changed during the Arian Controversy and what Early Church Texts does is to apply the later developed meanings of these terms to the Nicene Creed:
"did not mean, and should not be translated, 'person' and 'substance', as they were used when at last the confusion was cleared up and these two distinct meanings were permanently attached to these words."
Cappadocian Fathers
As stated, when the Arian controversy began and for much of the fourth century, hypostasis and ousia were synonyms. However, later in that century, a clear distinction was made between the two terms. The three Cappadocian Fathers, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa who was one of Basil's younger brothers, are traditionally credited for being the first to make a clear distinction between ousia and hypostasis, particularly Basil of Caesarea, namely in his letters 214 and 236However, Arius and Asterius were two Eusebians who made that distinction much earlier. However, Basil of Caesarea was the first pro-Nicene to make that distinction. While Basil was a three-hypostasis theologian, Athanasius and the earlier pro-Nicene theologians were one-hypostasis theologians and did not need a distinction between hypostasis and ousia.
However, the Cappadocians did not yet understand God as one undivided ousia, as in the Trinity doctrine. They said that the Father, Son, and Spirit have exactly the same type of substance, but each has his own substance. Basil began his career as theologian as a Homoiousian. As such, he believed that the Son's substance is similar to the Father's, meaning two distinct hypostases. Later, after he had accepted homoousios, he retained the idea of two distinct hypostases:
He says that in his own view 'like in respect of ousia ' was an acceptable formula, provided that the word ' unalterably ' was added to it, for then it would be equivalent to homoousios." "Basil himself prefers homoousios." "Basil has moved away from but has not completely repudiated his origins.
This means that Basil understood homoousios in a generic sense of two beings with the same type of substance, rather than two beings sharing one single substance. Consequently, he explained that the distinction between ousia and hypostases is the same as that between the general and the particular; as, for instance, between the animal and the particular man.
"In theDSS discusses the idea that the distinction between the Godhead and the Persons is that between an abstract essence, such as humanity, and its concrete manifestations, such as man."
Basil "argued that was preferable because it actually excluded identity of hypostases. This, with the instances which we have already seen in which Basil compared the relation of hypostasis to ousia in the Godhead to that of particular to general, or of a man to 'living beings', forms the strongest argument for Harnack's hypothesis." "Harnack... argued that Basil and all the Cappadocians interpreted homoousios only in a 'generic' sense... that unity of substance was turned into equality of substance."
Doctrine of the Trinity
The terms ousia and hypostasis are foundational in the Trinity doctrine. Hanson described the traditional Trinity doctrine as follows:"The champions of the Nicene faith... developed a doctrine of God as a Trinity, as one substance or ousia who existed as three hypostases, three distinct realities or entities, three ways of being or modes of existing as God."
Hanson explains hypostases as 'ways of being' or 'modes of existing' but says that the term 'person' is misleading. As the term is used in English, each 'person' is a distinct entity with his or her own mind and will. This is not equivalent to the concept of hypostasis in the Trinity doctrine because, in that doctrine, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are a single Being with a single mind. For example, Karl Rahner, a leading catholic scholar, said:
"The element of consciousness... does not belong to it in our context ." "But there exists in God only one power, one will, only one self-presence.... Hence self-awareness is not a moment which distinguishes the divine "persons" one from the other."
Later developments
Consensus was not achieved without some confusion at first in the minds of Western theologians since in the West the vocabulary was different. Many Latin-speaking theologians understood hypo-stasis as 'sub-stantia' ; thus when speaking of three hypostases in the Godhead, they may have suspected three substances or tritheism. However, after the mid-fifth-century Council of Chalcedon, the word came to be contrasted with ousia and was used to mean 'individual reality', especially in the trinitarian and Christological contexts. The Christian concept of the Trinity is often described as being one God existing in three distinct hypostases/personae/persons.Nature of Christ
Within Christology, two specific theological concepts have emerged throughout history, in reference to the Hypostasis of Christ:- Monohypostatic concept advocates that Christ has only one hypostasis;
- Dyohypostatic concept advocates that Christ has two hypostases.