Concept
Hypostasis (philosophy and religion)
Overview
Hypostasis (plural: hypostases), from the Greek ὑπόστασις (hypóstasis), 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 (nous) and "the one" was addressed by Plotinus. In Christian theology, the Holy Trinity consists of three hypostases: that of the Father, that of the Son, and that of the Holy Spirit.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Hypostasis (philosophy and religion) is discussed.
For hypostasis signifies something distinct in God, since hypostasis means an individual substance. So, as relation distinguishes and constitutes the hypostases, as above explained (A. 2), it follows that if the personal relations are mentally abstracted, the hypostases no longer remain. Some, however, think, as above noted, that the divine hypostases are not distinguished by the relations, but only by origin; so…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
names the idea; states what it is; author linked in the graph; opens on it
So also in speaking, the thing understood or named is called hypostasis, in respect of the name; so also a body coloured is the hypostasis, substance and subject of the colour; and in like manner of all its other accidents. Essence and all other abstract names, are words artificial belonging to the art of logic, and signify only the manner how we consider the substance itself. And of this I have spoken sufficiently…
Thomas Hobbes, The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04
states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
The higher life which belongs to this sphere, this supreme enjoyment of truth, which as feeling is called "blessedness," and as conscious thought "contemplation," we may describe generically as the life known to religion. For religion is just this universal domain[184], in virtue of which the _one_ concrete totality of the World comes to each man in union with himself, as his essential substance, while it remains no…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1
states what it is
But when, on the other hand, I take together all three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the result is not three substances but one substance. The one substance of the Three, then, cannot be separated or divided, nor is it made up of various parts, combined into one: it is simply one. Everything, therefore, that is affirmed of the divine substance must be common to the Three, and we can recognize what predicates may be…
Boethius, The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy
states what it is
The soul of man is divided by him into three parts, answering roughly to the charioteer and steeds of the Phaedrus, and to the (Greek) of the Republic and Nicomachean Ethics. First, there is the immortal nature of which the brain is the seat, and which is akin to the soul of the universe. This alone thinks and knows and is the ruler of the whole.
Plato, Timaeus
author linked in the graph
Philosophers who discussed Hypostasis (philosophy and religion)
Related ideas
- Jesus
- Ancient Greek
- John Calvin
- Metaphysics
- Monotheism
- Matter
- Cappadocian Fathers
- Platonism
- Origen
- Plato
- Neoplatonism
- Substance theory
- Christian theology
- Soul
- Nous
- Karl Rahner
- Plotinus
- Reality
- Monad (philosophy)
- Henology
Place in the tradition
Part of Emanationism.
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