Word.ws English Dictionary

enhypostasia

Syllables: en·hy·po·stas·ia/ɛnˌhaɪ.pəˈsteɪ.sɪ.ə/US/ɛnˌhaɪ.pəˈsteɪ.ʒi.ə/

enhypostasia noun: the state of the human nature of Jesus Christ being entirely dependent on, and not existing independently of, the divine nature of God as a whole (which is the hypostasis of the Holy Trinity comprising God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit), or individual persons of the Trinity such as the Father and the Holy Spirit.

enhypostasia: a figurine of the Holy Trinity in the church of San Pablo Tepetzingo in , Puebla, Mexico
Image: Luistlatoani, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

enhypostasia (plural not attested)

  1. (no plural, Christianity (Christology)) The state of the human nature of Jesus Christ being entirely dependent on, and not existing independently of, the divine nature of God as a whole (which is the hypostasis of the Holy Trinity comprising God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit), or individual persons of the Trinity such as the Father and the Holy Spirit.
    • The anhypostasia, impersonality, or, to speak more accurately, the enhypostasia, of the human nature of Christ. This is a difficult point, but a necessary link in the orthodox doctrine of the one God-Man; for otherwise we must have two persons in Christ, and, after the incarnation, a fourth person...1867, Philip Schaff, “Theology. Development of the Ecumenical Orthodoxy.”, in History of the Christian Church, volumes III (From Constantine the Great to Gregory the Great, A.D. 311–600), New York...
    • The doctrine of the person of Christ is argued with greatest fullness, and he [John of Damascus] evinces no little ingenuity and dialectic skill in treating of the personal unity in Christ's twofold nature (which he conceived as enhypostasis, not anhypostasis, of the human nature in the Logos), […]1872, John M'Clintock [i.e., John McClintock]; James Strong, “John of Damascus”, in Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, volume IV (H, I, J), New York, N.Y.: Harper &...

Examples of enhypostasia in a sentence

  • The anhypostasia, impersonality, or, to speak more accurately, the enhypostasia, of the human nature of Christ.1867, Philip Schaff, “Theology. Development of the Ecumenical Orthodoxy.”, in History of the Christian Church, volumes III (From...
  • By enhypostasia, however, it asserted that in the assumptio carnis the human nature of Christ was given a real and concrete subsistence within the hypostatic union—it was enhypostatic in the Word.1954 September, T[homas] F[orsyth] Torrance, “The Atonement and the Oneness of the Church”, in Scottish Journal of Theology, volume 7...
  • Del Colle [Ralph del Colle] introduces the concept of the enhypostasia of the Spirit.2006, Simon Chan, “Encountering the Triune God: Spirituality since the Azusa Street Revival”, in Harold D. Hunter, Cecil M. Robeck Jr....

Forms of enhypostasia

alternative formenhypostasis

Origin of enhypostasia

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin enhypostasia, from Ancient Greek ἐν (en, “in”) + ὑπόστασις (hupóstasis, “existence; essence; substance”) + -ία (-ía, suffix forming nouns). ὑπόστασις is in turn derived from ῠ̔πο- (hŭpo-, “below, under”) + στάσις (stásis, “standing”). Compare Ancient Greek ἐνυπόστατος (enupóstatos, “substantial”). The word is analysable as en- + hypostasis + -ia.

Words formed from enhypostasia

Questions about enhypostasia

What does enhypostasia mean?
Enhypostasia means the state of the human nature of Jesus Christ being entirely dependent on, and not existing independently of, the divine nature of God as a whole (which is the hypostasis of the Holy Trinity comprising God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit), or individual persons of the Trinity such as the Father and the Holy Spirit.
How do you use enhypostasia in a sentence?
The anhypostasia, impersonality, or, to speak more accurately, the enhypostasia, of the human nature of Christ.
What part of speech is enhypostasia?
Enhypostasia is a noun.
How do you pronounce enhypostasia?
Enhypostasia is pronounced /ɛnˌhaɪ.pəˈsteɪ.sɪ.ə/ (UK).

Words near enhypostasia in the dictionary

  1. enhydritic
  2. enhydros
  3. enhydroses
  4. enhydrous
  5. enhypostases
  6. enhypostasia
  7. enhypostasias
  8. enhypostasis
  9. enhypostatic
  10. enhypostatise
  11. enhypostatised

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: enhypostasia (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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