Hypostasis definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

View all »
Definitions (20)

American Heritage Dictionary (8)

noun Philosophy The substance, essence, or underlying reality.
noun Christianity Any of the persons of the Trinity.
noun Christianity The essential person of Jesus in which his human and divine natures are united.

5 more from this dictionary »

Century Dictionary (7)

That which underlies something else; that which forms the basis of something; foundation; support.
In theology, a person of the Trinity; one of the three real and distinct subsistences in the one undivided substance or essence of God. The Christian uses of the term hypostasis started from the meaning ‘a reality; a real personal subsistence or substance.’ In this sense the word could be used of God either as the Trinity or as each person of the Trinity. Accordingly, the meaning of the phrase “character of his [the Father's] hypostasis,' in Heb. i. 3, has been variously understood, the authorized version translating it “express image of his person,” and the revised version, “the very image [margin, the impress] of his substance,” and the general usage of the early church being unsettled down to the time of the Arian controversy. In the Western Church the word person (persona, πρόσωπον) had come into use in the sense still retained by us, and hypostasis, substance, or subsistence (substantia, subsistentia) was used as equivalent to ‘essence’ (οὐσία). The Greeks objected to persona or πρόσωπον (properly, a mask or dramatic character), as conveying the Patripassian or .Sabellian idea of a mere difference of manifestation, and πρόσωπον never became thoroughly adopted as a Greek theological term. At Alexandria, in the third and fourth centuries, on the other hand, hypostasis had come to be generally used in the sense of ‘person,’ while at Antioch in the middle of the fourth century there were two different parties among the orthodox: the Meletians, who used hypostasis in the sense of ‘person,’ and the Eustathians, who used it as equivalent to ‘substance’ or ‘essence’ (οὐσια). At a council in Alexandria, a. d. 362. under St. Athanasius, it was agreed that both parties were equally orthodox, and held the same doctrine under a different terminology, and after this the use of hypostasis in the sense of ‘essence’ was gradually abandoned. That two natures … could have been concentred into one hypostasis. Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), I. 759. Essence denotes that which is common to Father, Son, and Spirit. It denominates the substance, or constitutional being, of the Deity, which is possessed alike and differently by each of the personal distinctions…. Hypostasis is a term which was more subtle in its meaning than Essence. It denotes not that which is common to the Three in One, but that which is distinctive of and peculiar to them. Shedd, Hist. Christian Doctrine, I. 364.
In metaphysics, a substantial mode by which the existence of a substantial nature is determined to subsist by itself and be in communicable; subsistence.

4 more from this dictionary »

GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

WordNet (4)

Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

Might it not indicated that God is a hypostasis which is not an ousia, as Plotinus says of the One? — Joseph S. O'Leary homepage
The central rebuttal to the Latin filioque involves recognizing that each hypostasis is defined in relation to the other two hypostases. — The Fire and the Rose
Sophia is not a hypostasis, although, belonging to the hypostases, she is hypostatized from all eternity. — The Fire and the Rose
So likewise the human nature in Christ, although it is a particular substance, nevertheless cannot be called a hypostasis or suppositum, seeing that it is in union with a completed thing, viz. — Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition
Therefore it seems that this union ought chiefly to be judged with reference to the dignity of the Divine hypostasis, which is not anything created. — Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition

More examples »

hypostasis

View all »
Definitions (20)

American Heritage Dictionary (8)

Century Dictionary (7)

GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

WordNet (4)

Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

Tags

Stats

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

Add a related word »
Related

Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the Same Context

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Century Dictionary (1)

Pronunciations
Record your own »

Charts

Recently looked up

Recent Favorites

Recent Pronunciations

hypostasis

View all » Definitions (20)

View all » Examples (50)

Tags

Stats

stop updating On Twitter

Photos from

Add a related word » Related

synonyms:

Etymologies (2)

Pronunciations Record your own »

Charts

Recently looked up

Recent Favorites

Recent Pronunciations

View all »
Definitions (20)

View all »
Examples (50)

stop updating
On Twitter

Add a related word »
Related

Pronunciations
Record your own »