Hypostasis (philosophy and religion)
Hypostasis (plural: hypostases), from the Greek ὑπόστασις (hypóstasis), is the underlying, fundamental state or substance that supports all of reality.[3] Neoplatonists argue that beneath the surface phenomena that present themselves to our senses are three higher spiritual principles (or hypostases): each one more sublime than the preceding.Historically, there were variations of this view: Among the pre-Nicene Church Fathers, "Dionysius of Rome ... said that it is wrong to divide the divine monarchy 'into three ... separated hypostases ... people who hold this in effect produce three gods'."[10]: 185 In the fourth century, Sabellians[11] (such as Eustathius[12] and Marcellus,[13][14]), Alexander,[15] Athanasius,[16][17] and the Western Church[18] taught a single hypostasis in God.[22] This is why in AD 381, during the First Council of Constantinople, the Nicene Creed[citation needed] was revised to be explicit, the final word, on the deity of the Holy Spirit."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."On the other hand for spiritual phenomena it's the level of presence & creative force that differentiates one ousia from another.[citation needed] These terms originate from Greek philosophy,[33] where they essentially had the same meaning, namely, the fundamental reality that supports all else."[10]: 181 As stated, when the Arian controversy began and for much of the fourth century, hypostasis and ousia were synonyms.Later, after he had accepted homoousios (same substance), he retained the idea of two distinct hypostases:He says that in his own view 'like in respect of ousia' (the slogan of the party of Basil of Ancyra) was an acceptable formula, provided that the word 'unalterably' was added to it, for then it would be equivalent to homoousios."[56][57]"In the DSS [Basil] 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.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.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 (I refrain from using the misleading word 'Person'), three ways of being or modes of existing as God.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.And in this sense do the orthodox fathers take this term, hypostasis, considering it to be threefold in God, while the essence (οὐσία) is simply one.
realityconcept of a substanceNeoplatonismthe onePlotinusChristian theologyHoly TrinityFatherHoly SpiritPseudo-Aristotlematerial substancethe IntellectItalo-GreekHypostatic unionChristian triadologytrinityChristologyChristPersonMonarchiansSabelliusDionysius of RomeMacedoniansFirst Council of ConstantinopleDedication CreedHomoiansearly ChristiansubstantiaSyriac ChristianityTatianOrigenCappadocian FathersKarl RahnersubstanceGodheadtritheismCouncil of ChalcedonChristologicalone GodJohn CalvinAspect (religion)HaecceityDuns ScotusHypokeimenonHypostatic abstractionInstantiation principleKalyptosEdmund HusserlPrakṛtiHinduismPrinciple of individuationProsoponpersonaReification (fallacy)Substance theoryDe mundoNicene CreedGonzález, Justo LAnton, John P.Bulgakov, SergiusDaley, Brian E.McGuckin, John AnthonyMeyendorff, JohnOwens, JosephRamelli, IlariaTurcescu, LucianTheologyConceptions of GodTheismDystheismHenotheismHermeticismKathenotheismNontheismMonolatryMonotheismUrmonotheismusMysticismPanentheismPandeismPantheismPolydeismPolytheismSpiritualismTheistic finitismTheopanismDivinityGender of GodGoddessSingular godAbrahamic religionsBaháʼí FaithJudaismChristianityBuddhismJainismSikhismTenrikyoZoroastrianismAbsoluteBrahmanEmanationismSupreme BeingSustainerAhura MazdaFather of GreatnessTrinitarianismAthanasian CreedComma JohanneumConsubstantialityHomoousianHomoiousianPerichoresisShield of the TrinityTrinitarian formulaTrinity of the Church FathersTrinitarian universalismEschatologyAfterlifeApocalypticismFate of the unlearnedHeavenBuddhistChristianIslamicJewish