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This article discusses (I) the definition of “person”, especially with reference to the doctrine of the Incarnation; and (2) the use of the word persona and its Greek equivalents in connection with the Trinitarian disputes. For the psychological treatment see Personality.
Apr 24, 2013 · The internal lines identify the nature, substance, or essence of each person: The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. Basil of Caesarea, writing in the 370s ( Letter 236 .6), gives a good explanation for why we say “God the Father,” “God the Son,” and “God the Spirit”: The distinction between ousia and hupostasis ...
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In a remarkable essay on the notion of person, the Catholic philosopher Robert Spaemann writes, “Human beings are a kind of creature whose nature it is to ‘have’, not simply to ‘be’ its nature.
Only persons are made in the image of God, have a capacity for God, and have supernatural destinies. Remove God from the picture, therefore, and invariably the concept of person becomes unintelligible.
- The Background from Greek Philosophy.
- Substance and Hypostasis (Person) in Trinitarian Theology
- Substance and Person in Christology
Plato and Aristotle were the ones who first formulated the terms ousia (substance or essence) and hypostasis (individual substance) in a philosophical sense. Plato did not make any treatises; it was his student Aristotle who was the first to deal with substance (ousia) in a systematic way.
When the Council of Nicaea condemned the heresy of Arius, it affirmed that the Son is one in substance (homousios) with the Father. (See text of the Council of Nicaea in Denzinger-Hünnermann [DH], Enchiridion symbolorum, 125.) The council fathers, however, failed to distinguish well between hypostasis and ousia, as is evidenced by the following con...
The terms ousia (and its synonym physis or “nature”) and hypostasisalso appear in the context of Christology. The vast majority of Christians believe that Jesus is fully God and fully man; the technical way that Chalcedonian Christians affirm this is to say that Jesus has two natures (physes). Evidently, Jesus’ Divine Nature (or Substance) is the s...
The human person, created in the image and likeness of God, participates in and represents the essential truth and goodness of God. “God saw what he had made, and saw that it was good” (Gn 1:31).
Catholic dogma teaches that Christ is one Person (that of the Word) with two natures, divine and human. Consequently, human nature cannot of itself mean human person. Christ is a human but not a human person. Theology now had to come to a more precise understanding of personality or subsistence.
