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32-487: The sacramental union is distinguished from the other "unions" in theology like the " personal union " of the two natures in Jesus Christ, the "mystical union" of Christ and his Church , and the "natural union" in the human person of body and soul . It is seen as similar to the personal union in the analogue of the uniting of the two perfect natures in the person of Jesus Christ in which both natures remain distinct:

64-761: A "local" inclusion of the Body and Blood of Christ in the sacramental bread and wine as has the term " impanation ." Lutherans have also rejected the designation of their position as consubstantiation because they believe it, like transubstantiation , is a philosophical explanation of the Real Presence , whereas the sacramental union provides a description of the Real Presence. Martin Luther distinguished this doctrine from that of transubstantiation and impanation in this way: … we do not make Christ's body out of

96-632: A "sacramental union," because Christ’s body and the bread are given to us as a sacrament. This is not a natural or personal union, as is the case with God and Christ. It is also perhaps a different union from that which the dove has with the Holy Spirit, and the flame with the angel, but it is also assuredly a sacramental union. It is asserted in the Wittenberg Concord of 1536 and in the Formula of Concord . The Formula of Concord couples

128-533: A cause of some confusion; accordingly the New American Standard Bible translates it as "subsistence". Hypostasis denotes an actual, concrete existence, in contrast to abstract categories such as Platonic ideals . In Kierkegaard's Philosophical Fragments , the dual nature of Christ is explored as a paradox, i.e. as "the ultimate paradox", because God, understood as a perfectly good, perfectly wise, perfectly powerful being, fully became

160-562: A human, in the Christian understanding of the term : burdened by sin, limited in goodness, knowledge, and understanding. This paradox can only be resolved, Kierkegaard believed, by a leap of faith away from one's understanding and reason towards belief in God. As the precise nature of this union is held to defy finite human comprehension, the hypostatic union is also referred to by the alternative term "mystical union". Apollinaris of Laodicea

192-487: A rational soul and human flesh; equal to the Father as regards divinity, less than the Father as regards humanity. Although he is God and human, yet Christ is not two, but one. He is one, however, not by his divinity being turned into flesh, but by God's taking humanity to himself. He is one, certainly not by the blending of his essence, but by the unity of his person. For just as one human is both rational soul and flesh, so too

224-601: A rational soul, inexplicably and incomprehensibly became man." Cyril also stressed on "μία φύσις τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου σεσαρκωμένη, meaning "one physis ["nature"] of the Word of God made flesh" (or "one physis of God the Word made flesh")" The preeminent Antiochene theologian Theodore of Mopsuestia , contending against the monophysite heresy of Apollinarism , is believed to have taught that in Christ there are two natures ( dyophysite ), human and divine, and two corresponding hypostases (in

256-535: Is a high medieval theory of the real presence of the body of Jesus Christ in the consecrated bread of the Eucharist that does not imply a change in the substance of either the bread or the body. This doctrine , apparently patterned after Christ's Incarnation (God is made flesh in the Person of Jesus Christ), is the assertion that "God is made bread" in the Eucharist . Christ's divine attributes are shared by

288-399: Is both fully God and fully man. He is simultaneously perfectly divine and perfectly human, having two complete and distinct natures at once. The Athanasian Creed recognized this doctrine and affirmed its importance by stating: He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time; and he is human from the essence of his mother, born in time; completely God, completely human, with

320-417: Is not our word or speaking but the command and ordinance of Christ that, from the beginning of the first Communion until the end of the world, make the bread the body and the wine the blood that are daily distributed through our ministry and office. Again, "Here, too, if I were to say over all the bread there is, 'This is the body of Christ,' nothing would happen, but when we follow his institution and command in

352-564: Is that by means of them the papistical transubstantiation may be rejected and the sacramental union of the unchanged essence of the bread and of the body of Christ indicated. Lutherans believe that the words spoken by Jesus Christ at his Last Supper , the Words of Institution, bring about the sacramental union then and at all times whenever the Christian Eucharist is celebrated according to his mandate and institution. Thus it

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384-471: The Eucharist really eat and drink the body and blood of Christ. This view was put forward by Martin Luther in his 1528 Confession Concerning Christ's Supper : Why then should we not much more say in the Supper, "This is my body," even though bread and body are two distinct substances, and the word "this" indicates the bread? Here, too, out of two kinds of objects a union has taken place, which I shall call

416-414: The Eucharist : the consecrated bread, the body of Christ, the consecrated wine, and the blood of Christ; but it differs in that it does not assert a "local" (three-dimensional, circumscribed) presence of the body and blood in the sacramental bread and wine respectively, which is rejected as "gross, carnal, and Capernaitic" in the Formula of Concord . The term "consubstantiation" has been associated with such

448-696: The Chalcedonian Definition, were known as Miaphysites because they maintain the Cyrilian definition that characterized the incarnate Son as having one nature. The Chalcedonian "in two natures" formula (based, at least partially, on Colossians 2:9) was seen as derived from and akin to a Nestorian Christology. Contrariwise, the Chalcedonians saw the Oriental Orthodox as tending towards Eutychian Monophysitism . However,

480-676: The East , which venerates Nestorius and Theodore , in 1994 signed a joint agreement with leaders of the Roman Catholic Church acknowledging that their historical differences were over terminology rather than the actual intended meaning. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). " Hypostatic Union ". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company. Impanation Impanation ( Latin : impanatio , "embodied in bread")

512-580: The Lord's Supper (a real, spiritual presence) is that Christ is truly present at the meal, though not substantially and particularly joined to the elements. This is in line with their general belief that "the finite cannot contain the infinite" ( finitum non est capax infiniti ). Lutherans, on the other hand, describe the Personal Union of the two natures in Christ (the divine and the human) as sharing their predicates or attributes more fully. The doctrine of

544-484: The Lord’s Supper and say, 'This is my body,' then it is his body, not because of our speaking or of our efficacious word, but because of his command in which he has told us so to speak and to do and has attached his own command and deed to our speaking." Bible Translators Theologians This view is sometimes erroneously identified as consubstantiation in that it asserts the simultaneous presence of four essences in

576-606: The Miaphysite position maintains that although the nature of Christ is from two, it may only be referred to as one in its incarnate state because the natures always act in unity. In 1989 and 1990, leaders from the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches signed joint statements in an attempt to work towards reunification (for more, see Miaphysitism ). Likewise the leaders of the Assyrian Church of

608-505: The Oriental Orthodox persistently specified that they have never believed in the doctrines of Eutyches , that they have always affirmed that Christ's humanity is consubstantial with our own, and they thus prefer the term Miaphysite to be referred to as a reference to Cyrillian Christology, which used the phrase " μία φύσις τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου σεσαρκωμένη ", " mía phýsis toû theoû lógou sesarkōménē ". The term miaphysic means one united nature as opposed to one singular nature (monophysites). Thus

640-482: The Son of God only by grace and not by nature, and deposed him as a heretic. In his letter to Nestorius, Cyril used the term "hypostatic" (Greek, καθ᾽ ὑπόστασιν kath' hypóstasin ) to refer to Christ's divine and human natures being one, saying, "We must follow these words and teachings, keeping in mind what 'having been made flesh' means .... We say ... that the Word, by having united to himself hypostatically flesh animated by

672-797: The Syriac language. In 451, the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon promulgated the Chalcedonian Definition . It agreed with Theodore that there were two natures in the Incarnation . However, the Council of Chalcedon also insisted that hypostasis be used as it was in the Trinitarian definition: to indicate the person ( prosopon ) and not the nature as with Apollinaris. The Oriental Orthodox Churches , having rejected

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704-516: The bread … Nor do we say that his body comes into existence out of the bread [i.e. impanation]. We say that his body, which long ago was made and came into existence, is present when we say, "This is my body." For Christ commands us to say not, "Let this become my body," or, "Make my body there," but, "This is my body." The Lutheran doctrine of the sacramental union is also distinct from the Reformed view . The Calvinistic view of Christ's presence in

736-432: The eucharistic bread via his body. This view is similar but not identical to the theory of consubstantiation associated with Lollardy . It is considered a heresy by the Roman Catholic Church and is also rejected by classical Lutheranism . Rupert of Deutz (d. 1129) and John of Paris (d. 1306) were believed to have taught this doctrine. Groups associated with Impanation: This Christian theology article

768-401: The integrity of the bread and wine remain though united with the body and the blood of Christ. In the sacramental union the consecrated bread is united with the body of Christ and the consecrated wine is united with the blood of Christ by virtue of Christ's original institution with the result that anyone eating and drinking these "elements"—the consecrated bread and wine—really eats and drinks

800-466: The mother of Christ. Nestorius argued for two distinct substances or hypostases, of divinity and humanity, in Christ. He maintained that divinity could not be born from a human because the divine nature is unoriginate. The Council of Ephesus in 431, under the leadership of Cyril himself as well as the Ephesian bishop Memnon, labeled Nestorius a neo- adoptionist , implying that the man Jesus is divine and

832-595: The one Christ is both God and human. The Greek term hypostasis ( ὑπόστασις ) had come into use as a technical term prior to the Christological debates of the late fourth and fifth centuries. In pre-Christian times, Greek philosophy (primarily Stoicism ) used the word. Some occurrences of the term hypostasis in the New Testament foreshadow the later, technical understanding of the word. Although it can translate literally as "substance", this has been

864-559: The sacramental union is more consistent with this type of Christology. The Lutheran scholastics described the Reformed Christological position which leads to this doctrine as the extra calvinisticum , or "Calvinistic outside," because the Logos is thought to be outside or beyond the body of Christ. Reformed theology also uses the term "sacramental union", not as an explanation of Christ's presence but in reference to

896-466: The sense of "subject", "essence" but not "person") which co-existed. However, in Theodore's time the word hypostasis could be used in a sense synonymous with ousia (which clearly means "essence" rather than "person") as it had been used by Tatian and Origen . The Greek and Latin interpretations of Theodore's Christology have come under scrutiny since the recovery of his Catechetical Orations in

928-425: The term with the circumlocution ("in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine") used among Lutherans to further define their view: For the reason why, in addition to the expressions of Christ and St. Paul (the bread in the Supper is the body of Christ or the communion of the body of Christ), also the forms: under the bread, with the bread, in the bread [the body of Christ is present and offered], are employed,

960-469: The true body and blood of Christ as well. Lutherans maintain that what they believe to be the biblical doctrine of the manducatio indignorum ("eating of the unworthy") supports this doctrine over and against the Reformed idea of Spiritual Presence , which teaches that only believers partake of Christ in the Supper. The manducatio indignorum is the contention that even unbelievers eating and drinking in

992-484: The union between "sign and thing signified." Hypostatic union Hypostatic union (from the Greek: ὑπόστασις hypóstasis , 'person, subsistence') is a technical term in Christian theology employed in mainstream Christology to describe the union of Christ's humanity and divinity in one hypostasis , or individual personhood. In the most basic terms, the concept of hypostatic union states that Jesus Christ

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1024-405: Was the first to use the term hypostasis in trying to understand the Incarnation . Apollinaris described the union of the divine and human in Christ as being of a single nature and having a single essence — a single hypostasis. In the 5th century, a dispute arose between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius in which Nestorius claimed that the term theotokos could not be used to describe Mary,

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