enhypostasia

/ɛnˌhaɪ.pəˈsteɪ.sɪ.ə/

Etymology

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.

Why this word is great

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. From Ecclesiastical Latin enhypostasia, from Ancient Greek ἐν (en, "in") + ὑπόστασις (hupóstasis, "existence, essence, substance") + -ία (-ía, noun-forming suffix). Unlike "anhypostasia" (which denies Christ's humanity any concrete existence) or "homoousios" (which speaks only of shared divine essence), enhypostasia is the delicate balance—humanity held, like a flame in a lantern, within the uncontainable light of the divine. It is the quiet of a breath in prayer, the weight of a body on the cross, the echo of a voice that is both mortal and eternal—a mystery not of absence, but of presence folded into presence.

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.“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, and that a human, in the divine Trinity. The impersonality of Christ's human nature, however, is not”