Consubstantiality

Consubstantiality, a term derived from Template:Langx, denotes identity of substance or essence in spite of difference in aspect.<ref>Collins English Dictionary: "consubstantial"</ref>

It appears most commonly in its adjectival form, "consubstantial",<ref>Chamber's Twentieth Century Dictionary: "of the same substance, nature, or essence, esp. of the Trinity", "united in one common substance"</ref> from Latin consubstantialis,<ref>Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary: consubstantialis</ref> and its best-known use is in regard to an account, in Christian theology, of the relation between Jesus Christ and God the Father.

Theological use

The affirmation that Jesus Christ is "consubstantial with the Father" appears in the Nicene Creed.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica: "Nicene Creed"</ref> Greek was the language in which the Nicene Creed was originally enunciated. The word used was Template:Langx<ref>Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon: ὁμοούσιος</ref> (homoousios) and means "of the same substance."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> This may be contrasted with the term ὁμοιούσιος (homoiousios), meaning "of like substance" and, therefore, not the "same substance," as was proposed, for example, at a later church council (the Council of Seleucia regarding the Arian controversy) in the year 359.

The term {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (ousia) is an Ancient Greek noun, formed on the feminine present participle of the verb Template:Wikt-lang, Template:Transliteration, meaning "to be, I am", so similar grammatically to the English noun "being". There was no equivalent grammatical formation in Latin, and it was translated as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and then indirectly into English as "essence" or "substance". Cicero coined {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}<ref>Conte, G.B.: "Latin Literature: a history" (1987) p. 199</ref> and the philosopher Seneca and rhetorician Quintilian used it as equivalent for {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, while Apuleius rendered {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} both as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. In order to designate {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, early Christian theologian Tertullian favored the use of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} over {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, while Augustine of Hippo and Boethius took the opposite stance, preferring the use of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} as designation for {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The word "consubstantial" was used by the Council of Chalcedon (451) to declare that Christ is "consubstantial with the Father in respect of the Godhead, and the same consubstantial with us in respect of the manhood".<ref>David M. Gwynn. Christianity in the Later Roman Empire: A Sourcebook. Bloomsbury Publishing; 20 November 2014. Template:ISBN. p. 256.</ref>

In contemporary Christian theology, the Holy Spirit is also described as consubstantial with the Father and Son.<ref>Steven D. Cone. Theology from the Great Tradition. Bloomsbury Publishing; 22 February 2018. Template:ISBN. p. 417.</ref>

Alternative translations of the Nicene-Creed term

In the 1662 Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, the adjective "consubstantial" in the Nicene Creed is rendered by the phrase "being of one substance".<ref>The Order of the Administration of the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion.</ref> The same phrase appeared already in the Book of Common Prayer (1549)<ref>The Book of Common Prayer – 1549</ref> and continues to be used, within "Order Two", in Common Worship, which within "Order One" gives the ecumenical English Language Liturgical Consultation version, "of one Being".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Eastern Orthodox Church use "of one essence".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Catholic Church, in its official translation of the Nicene Creed, uses the term "consubstantial"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as a translation of "consubstantialem" (in Greek “ὁμοούσιον"), instead of "of one Being with the Father" (or, in the United States only, "one in Being with the Father"), which were the English translations used until November 2011.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In rhetoric

In rhetoric, "consubstantiality", as defined by Kenneth Burke, is "a practice-related concept based on stylistic identifications and symbolic structures, which persuade and produce acceptance: an acting-together within, and defined by, a common context".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> To be consubstantial with something is to be identified with it, to be associated with it; yet at the same time, to be different from what it is identified with.<ref name= Craig>Template:Cite book</ref> It can be seen as an extension or in relation to the subject.Template:Citation needed

Burke explains this concept with two entities, A and B. He goes on to explain that "A is not identical with his colleague, B. But insofar as their interests are joined, A is identified with B. Or he may identify himself with B even when their interests are not joined, if he assumes they are, or is persuaded to believe so...In being identified with B, A is 'substantially one' with a person other than himself. Yet at the same time, he remains unique, an individual locus of motives. Thus he is both joined and separate, at once a distinct substance and consubstantial with another."<ref name=Craig />

"Consubstantiality may be necessary for any way of life, Burke says. And thus rhetoric, as he sees it, potentially builds community. It can tear it down as well. In the end, rhetoric relies on an unconscious desire for acting-together, for taking a 'sub-stance' together".<ref>David Blakesley. The Elements of Dramatism. Longman; 2002. Template:ISBN. p. 15–16.</ref><ref>Same in pdf form</ref>

Sources

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