What is Hypostasis?

What is Hypostasis?

Hypostasis is what each person of the Trinity is. When we say "God is one", we say God is one in Ousia (or essence). When We say God is three persons, we say God has three hypostases (i.e. the plural of hypostasis). God is three persons. The Son is a person or hypostasis of God, the Father is a person or hypostasis of God, et cetera. 

As one church father wrote: "The distinction between οὐσία (ousia) and ὑ πόστασις (hypostasis) is the same as that between the general and the particular; as, for instance, between the animal and the particular man. Wherefore, in the case of the Godhead, we confess one essence or substance so as not to give a variant definition of existence, but we confess a particular hypostasis, in order that our conception of Father, Son and Holy Spirit may be without confusion and clear. If we have no distinct perception of the separate characteristics, namely, fatherhood, sonship, and sanctification, but form our conception of God from the general idea of existence, we cannot possibly give a sound account of our faith," (St. Basil of Caesarea, letter 236, §6).

Works Cited:

“Hypostasis.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hypostasis. Accessed 10 Dec. 2023.

Lienhard, Joseph T., 'Ousia and Hypostasis: The Cappadocian Settlement and the Theology of ‘One Hypostasis’', in Stephen T. Davis, Daniel Kendall SJ, and Gerald O'Collins SJ (eds), The Trinity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Trinity (Oxford, 2002; online edn, Oxford Academic, 1 Nov. 2003), https://doi.org/10.1093/0199246122.003.0005, accessed 8 Dec. 2023.

Pace, Edward. "Hypostatic Union." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07610b.htm>.

Translated by Blomfield Jackson. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 8. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3202236.htm.