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TRINITY_

It’s about the trinity

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17 views2 pages

TRINITY_

It’s about the trinity

Uploaded by

r8dygy4tn2
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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TRINITY

by Michael Wallace
HYPOSTASIS:
“Hypostasis is a subsisting reality and is known as such because it underlies accidents.
Substance, as the very name implies, subsists by itself. And hypostasis and substance differ
only as the common and the particular, as, for instance, the animal and the particular man.
For the common, that is the species, does not exist in itself, but is comprehended in the
particular, for there is no such thing as animal in general, but only a particular, such as a
certain man or horse or something of the kind. So that hypostasis and substance differ in
aspect only, and not in essence, just as that which is composed of common things differs
from that which is composed of particulars.”
This passage is found in Book I, Chapter 8
In summary, John of Damascus defines hypostasis as that which exists in itself and is individual.
This means it refers to the specific, concrete existence of a being (e.g., Peter as an individual
person), distinguishing it from the more general term substance or ousia, which refers to the
essence or nature common to all individuals of a species.
OUSIA:
“The term ‘ousia’ signifies the nature or essence of a thing, which is considered to be one
and indivisible. In God, ousia denotes the divine nature that is simple, without composition,
and beyond all attributes that can be predicated of it”

—St. Gregory of Nyssa, “Against Eunomius,” Book I—


In this context, St. Gregory of Nyssa explains that ousia refers to the nature or essence of a
being, and in God refers to the diving nature.
In addition this,
Hypostasis + osia
Ouia is a kind essence or genus essence (the kind of thing you are and that defines some of your
essential properties) and hypostasis is an individual essence or a specific essence (all the
properties that are necessary not to be the kind of thing you are, but to literally be you, that
particular individual), so a hypostasis is a combination of properties that characterise an
individual

TRINITY 1
The Cappadocians say that God the Father is necessary asse but they say it’s not part of Gods
kind essence but the father’s individual essence (being unbeggoten), they also say we can never
know what Gods kind essence is (this links into EED).
“Thus, the Father is the cause of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yet this causality does not
imply that the Father possesses some quality or characteristic that changes or modifies the
essence. Rather, this relation of causality is a matter of personal distinction within the
Trinity, and it does not alter the common essence shared by the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.”
—Chapter 18 of St. Basil the Great’s On the Holy Spirit—

TRINITY 2

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