Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J. F.

Buch: The Way to Nicea

Titel: The Way to Nicea

Stichwort: Doppeldeutigkeit; philosophisch, theologisch: homoousion, ousia, Substanz, konsubstantiell (consubstantial)

Kurzinhalt: Philosophically, the ambiguity arises from different views of human knowing ... The theological ambiguity ... lies in this, that creatures are said to be consubstantial when they belong to the same species

Textausschnitt: 88a
1. The term, homoousion,1 or consubstantial, is both philosophically and theologically ambiguous. Philosophically, the ambiguity arises from different views of human knowing: for what one means by ousia, or substance (and thus by homoousion, or consubstantial), will depend on whether one thinks that it is known by sense, or only through true judgment. The theological ambiguity, which presupposes the doctrine of the Trinity, lies in this, that creatures are said to be consubstantial when they belong to the same species, whereas the consubstantiality of the divine persons implies numerical identity of substance. (Fs) (notabene)

88b Thus, according to Athanasius, one man is of the same nature (homophyEs) and of the same substance (homoousios) as another, but a man and a dog are different from each other both in nature and in substance (heterophyEs, heteroousios).2 (Fs)

88c Now, one whose philosophical position is that of naive realism would say that one man is consubstantial with another because the matter of one is derived from the matter of the other. But if one has advanced beyond naive realism, at least to a dogmatic realism, one will attend not to what is sensible, but to what is truly affirmed; therefore one will say that one man is consubstantial with another because of each of them the same substantial attributes are truly affirmed. (Fs) (notabene)

88d The theological ambiguity will clearly appear if we compare Peter and Paul, on the one hand, and on the other, the Father and the Son. Peter and Paul are consubstantial; the Father and the Son are consubstantial. But Peter and Paul are consubstantial, not because they have numerically the same individual substance-for indeed they have not-but because the individual substance of Peter and the really distinct individual substance of Paul both belong to the same species: Peter and Paul are two particular instances of the species, man. The Father and the Son are also consubstantial, but the analogy with Peter and Paul breaks down because unlike the consubstantial Peter and Paul, who are two men, the consubstantial Father and Son are one and the same God: there is numerically only the one God, who is, nonetheless, truly Father and truly Son. (Fs) (notabene)