Ousia、Homoousia 和 Hypostasis－論奧利金三一神學的希臘文化本質

Ousia, Homoousia and Hypostasis: The Greek Nature in Origen's Trinitarian Theory

章雪富(ZHANG Xuefu)

《道風：基督教文化評論》 18期 (2003/01) Pp. 179-203+315-316

並列摘要

In the article, I discussed the complicated relationship amongst ousia, homousia and hypostasis with the evaluation of early Trinitarianism. I tried to understand the disturbing conflict between homoousia and homoiousia in the early church from Nicaea (325 C.E.) to Constantinople (381 C.E.). My focuses were on three aspects of the controversy. First, I learnt that the conflict was really related to the Greek philosophical tradition. To Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle, ousia was an individual principle, so when church fathers used ousia to emphasize the hypostasis of Father, Son and Spirit, it meant it should be understood as three gods in the way of subordinationism. Second, I analysed the case of Origen to demonstrate how he confused ousia / homoousia with hypostasis, and pointed out that in his Trinitarian theory, there were double sides: on the one hand, Father, Son and Spirit had the same ousia; on the other hand, they were in different degrees of divinity. Third, I tried to describe how Athanasius and the Cappadocian Fathers discerned the distinction of ousia / homoousia and hypostasis with the limitation of their usage, solving the confusion of these concepts. In short, I found that, with the change of the usage of these concepts, there was also a change for Greek Ontology toward Christian Ontology.