Divine Substance<\/em><\/a>) suggests several possibilities.<\/p>\nFirst, homoousios<\/em> might mean \u201cthat the so-called two or more things are actually one and the same; the reference to \u2018substance\u2019 merely advises us that in calling them \u2018two\u2019 or \u2018three\u2019 or some other number, we are attending to distinctions which are not those of substance; for instance, we are recognizing different names, functions, or contexts of what is really one individual thing\u201d (246).<\/p>\nThis interpretation takes ousia<\/em> as Aristotle\u2019s \u201cprimary substance,\u201d that is, substance as an individual thing. But for several reasons it\u2019s by no means certain that this is what the creed means. \u201cAristotle employs this concept, as traditionally understood, only in his Categories<\/em>, and here only of embodied creatures like \u2018this man,\u2019 \u2018this horse\u2019; he did not hold that immaterial realities are individuated in the same way, since . . . he thought that things are individuated by their \u2018matter'\u201d (246).<\/p>\nBesides, \u201cunless we are dealing with philosophers professedly discussing Aristotle, it is not easy to be sure whether this concept is really intended; since ancient usage allows it to be said that two things are \u2018identical as regards their substance\u2019 when all that is meant is that they are members of the same genus or species; and we have also noted the flexibility of modern usage in speaking of \u2018one thing\u2019, and the complexities presented by individual species\u201d (246).<\/p>\n
Second, \u201cTwo or more beings could be called homoousios<\/em> because there is one single ousia<\/em> to which they belong, and of which they are aspects, parts, or expressions; and since \u2018aspects\u2019 and \u2018expressions,\u2019 no less than \u2018parts,\u2019 imply that other aspects, expressions, or parts are possible, there is a sense in which the ousia<\/em> referred to contains more than any one of its aspects, expressions, or parts. Thus three divine Persons might be described by the term homoousios<\/em> as belonging to a single complex ousia<\/em> which needs the three distinct Persons for its full expression\u201d (246-7).<\/p>\nFinally, \u201cthe term homoousios<\/em> could be applied to two or more beings because they severally have (and not \u2018jointly constitute\u2019) a single ousia<\/em>; that is, if they have the same generic or specific characteristics, or the same material constitution. Most probably ancient writers do not draw the line between this third possibility and the second in the way which would seem natural to us; since to have the characters which identify a species is to belong to that species; and the ancients often refer to the members of a class, species, or genus as \u2018parts\u2019 of it; they also quite commonly attribute to classes, for instance to animal species, a metaphysical status influenced by Platonic theory which we might refuse to concede. Nevertheless it would be natural to think that the notion of \u2018belonging to an inclusive reality\u2019 would be easily suggested where one could claim for this reality some natural unity and structure, or again in the case of a class with a limited number of members; where these conditions are absent, it would be more natural to think in terms of \u2018sharing some identical feature.\u201d Thus the term homoousios<\/em>, used of angels, might suggest that they all belonged to the same glorious company; used of stones, it might rather suggest that they share those features which inseparably attach to stones, in being inanimate, heavy, and hard\u201d (247).<\/p>\nHe cites an example from Irenaeus who calls the Aeons of Valentinus homoousioi<\/em> because \u201che is thinking of their common constitution as pneumatikoi<\/em>, beings activated by spirit, rather than of the complex body, the Pleroma, to which they belong\u201d (247).<\/p>\nJudged by its pre-Nicene usage, \u201cHomoousios<\/em> guarantees very little; it can be used of things which resemble one another merely in belonging to the created order, or to the category of substance; it can relate collaterals to each other, or derivatives with their source; it does not exclude inequality of status or power\u201d (247).<\/p>\nYet, it\u2019s far from meaningless: \u201cthe term is often used to indicate a relationship which in fact is closer than mere membership of the same species or similar material constitution, for instance that of a stream to the actual fountain from which it flows, or that of an offspring to his own parent. To call a son homoousios<\/em> with his father implies more than merely their common membership of the human race; and the further implication need not be merely that of their physical linkage; the term can evoke their whole biological and social relationship\u201d (247-8).<\/p>\nStead concludes \u201call (or virtually all) the theological applications of it in pre-Nicene times fall within this elastic third class; we have found no evidence which clearly points to the first or second\u201d (248).<\/p>\n
He goes on to raise the question whether pro-Nicene used the term in the first or second sense. There are some turns of phrase (in Marcellus and Constantine) that suggest an equation of ousia<\/em> with primary substance, but he doesn\u2019t think the evidence strong.<\/p>\nHe also doesn\u2019t find much evidence for the second usage. Did some think, he asks, \u201cthe Triad of persons is called homoousios<\/em> because they jointly constitute the single complex reality which is the divine Monad?\u201d He finds this implausible because \u201cthis scheme is seldom presented in a pure form. The pure form would be a symmetrical scheme in which all three persons play an equal part. What in fact we find is that the divine Monad and source of the Triad is identified with the first person, the Father\u201d (249).<\/p>\nDavid Brown (Divine Trinity<\/em><\/a>, 241) concludes from Stead\u2019s argument that \u201cNicaea leaves open the question of the nature of the divine unity, whether it is numerical or generic, but that, if anything, its bias seems to be in the latter direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What did the fathers who formulated the Nicene Creed mean to assert when they described the relationship between Father and Son with the term homoouios, \u201csame substance\u201d? In what sense \u201csubstance\u201d and in what sense \u201csame\u201d? Surveying the usage of this terminology before Nicea, Christopher Stead (Divine Substance) suggests several possibilities. First, homoousios might mean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":19751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trinity"],"yoast_head":"\n
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