habitus: disposition, habit; understood either as intrinsic to a subject and a subset of the category of quality (qualitas, q.v.) or as extrinsically originated and—together with action, passion, place, posture, and time—one of the final series of categories, or praedicamenta (q.v.). Understood as an intrinsic quality, a habit is a quality that disposes a being in a particular way, either in relation to its being, as an entitative habit or disposition, such as health; or in relation to actions, as an operative habit, such as virtue or vice. Understood extrinsically, a habit or disposition is an added or incidental characteristic such as results from wearing clothing, bearing arms, and so forth.
In the Peripatetic psychology habitus refers specifically to a spiritual capacity belonging to either of the faculties of soul, i.e., to mind or to will. The scholastics assumed that, in addition to defining the faculties of the soul, they also had to acknowledge the capacities or dispositions of those faculties. A faculty cannot receive a datum or act in a manner for which it has no capacity. See anima; categoria; facultates animae; intellectus; mens; voluntas.
habitus fidei: habit or disposition of faith; the God-given spiritual capacity of fallen human beings to have faith: i.e., if the mind and will are not disposed to have faith, faith is impossible. Since the fall involves a loss of spiritual capacities, the human being will not come to faith unless the habitus fidei is once again instilled. See actus fidei; habitus infusus; medium lēptikon; semen fidei.
habitus gratiae: habit or disposition of grace; a divine gift infused into the soul in such a way as to become a part of human nature. The identification of such as habitus (q.v.), like the identification of a disposition for knowing, or habitus sciendi, in any of the particular bodies of knowledge, belongs to the common assumption of the Christian Peripatetic tradition that, for something to be received by the mind, will, or affections, there must be a resident disposition, or habitus, present to receive it.
The habitus gratiae can therefore also be called gratia creata, created grace, as distinct from the uncreated power of God that brings it into existence, gratia increata. In addition, according to its function, the habitus gratiae can be called justifying grace (gratia iustificans) or sanctifying grace (gratia sanctificans). This concept, when conjoined with the related concept of an infused righteousness (iustitia infusa, q.v.), was rejected by the Reformers insofar as it cannot be correlated with the doctrine of a forensic justification (iustificatio, q.v.) on the ground of the alien righteousness (iustitia aliena) of Christ imputed to believers by grace alone through faith. Specifically, when the habitus gratiae implies an intrinsic righteousness in the believer, it conflicts with the Reformers’ concept of imputed righteousness as extrinsic. Righteousness can, however, be viewed by the Reformers and the orthodox as inherent, or intrinsic (see iustitia inhaerens), albeit still imperfect, when understood as a result of the Spirit’s work in sanctification (sanctificatio, q.v.), and the concept of an inward habitus, or disposition, is expressed as arising from the cleansing or renovation of the believer (renovatio, q.v.).
habitus infusus: infused habit or disposition; i.e., a disposition of mind or will not naturally present in a human being, usually because of the damage done to the imago Dei (q.v.) in the fall, that is graciously instilled or infused in mind or will by God. See gratia infusa; habitus gratiae.
habitus supernaturalis sive spiritualis: supernatural or spiritual habit; a disposition, capacity, or aptitude that does not belong to a human being’s natural capacities but rests on the divine work of grace in a person and is therefore both of the Spirit (spiritualis) and from beyond human nature (supernaturalis). See habitus gratiae.
habitus vitiosus acquisitus: an acquired corrupt habit or disposition. See peccatum habituale acquisitum.
Hades (from the Greek ᾅδης, hadēs): Hades; the Greek equivalent of Sheol, the abode of the dead. Following the usage of the New Testament, the Protestant scholastics view Hades as the abode of the souls of unbelievers between the death of the body (mors temporalis sive corporalis, q.v.) and the final resurrection (resurrectio, q.v.). The unbeliever’s soul is separated from God and consigned to the punishment of Hades according to the particular and hidden judgment (iudicium particulare et occultum, q.v.) that occurs at death. The souls of believers are not consigned to Hades but rather are brought into fellowship with God in paradise (paradisio, q.v.). See anima.
haecceitas: literally, thisness; namely, the principle of individuation. See principium individuationis.
haeresiarchus: heresiarch; viz., an arch heretic, the originator of a heresy or the founder or leader of a heretical group or sect. See haeresis.
haeresis (from the Greek αἵρεσις, hairesis): heresy, indicating a choice, which even in classical usage came to mean a course of action or system of thought, such as a set of philosophical principles or a school holding a particular set of beliefs. In Christian usage it referred to an erroneous belief characteristic of a sect and opposed to right teaching, or orthodoxy.
haereticus: n., heretic; adj., heretical. See haeresis.
hagiasmos (ἁγιασμός): holiness (Rom. 6:19, 22) or sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30). See sanctificatio; sanctitas.
haplōs (ἁπλῶς): simply, absolutely, essentially; also, with reference to exegesis, “literally,” as distinct from “figuratively” or “allegorically.”
hēgemonikon (ἡγεμονικόν): that which has hegemony; specifically, that which has rule, leadership, or authority among the faculties of the soul. The term passes over into later thought from Stoicism, where it refers to the entire moral character in its regulation of knowing and willing.
In theological usage the hēgemonikon is the inmost part of spirit or of mind, which must be regenerated if the intellect (intellectus, q.v.) is to overcome its blindness and assent to knowledge of God. The hēgemonikon is usually seated in the heart and identified by the fathers as the source of free choice and as the seat of the contemplative life, which, as a result of the creation of human beings in the imago Dei (q.v.), was capable of seeking God and of perceiving the divine light; in the fall, the hēgemonikon lost its capability of seeking and finding the divine and thus became the source of humanity’s inability to choose freely for the good. In the context of a Christianized Aristotelian faculty psychology and the debates over the priority of intellect and will, the question could arise as to which, intellect or will, functioned as the hēgemonikon, a question raised by Calvin in his discussion of the fallen will. Depending on a philosopher’s or theologian’s view of the seat of choice, it is variously identified, sometimes as intellect itself, sometimes as the underlying intellective appetite, and sometimes as will.
hekousios (ἑκούσιος): voluntary.
henōsis hypostatikē (ἕνωσις ὑποστατική): hypostatic or personal union. See unio personalis.
heteroousios (ἑτεροούσιος): of a different essence; a term used by Aetius and Eunomius, radical Arians of the mid and late fourth century, similar in implication to the extreme Arian term anomoios (q.v.), unlike. See homoousios.
heurēma (εὕρημα): invention; used by the orthodox as a negative epithet, roughly synonymous with heresy, since, following patristic usage, heresy was innovation. See haeresis.
hexaemeron: literally, the six days; from the Greek ἕξ, hex (six) and ἡμέρα, hēmera (day); specifically, the six days of creation, or six days of divine work, as recounted in the first chapter of Genesis. There is a significant theological literature on the hexaemeron, extending from the work of church fathers like Basil, Ambrose, and Augustine, to the medieval doctors, and into the early modern era. The understanding of the six days of Genesis 1 in relation to philosophical questions of the origin of things—primary and secondary matter, form, and substance—was emphasized in early modern Christian natural philosophy or physics, in particular by the writers of works on so-called Mosaic physics (physica Mosaica, q.v.). See creatio; ex nihilo; forma; materia; materia prima.
Hic est sanguis meus: This is my blood; i.e., the words of institution of the Lord’s Supper (Mark 14:24), or coena sacra (q.v.). See verbum institutionis.
hic et nunc: here and now; i.e., in the present circumstance. This expression is often found in discussions of the activity of the practical intellect (intellectus practicus, q.v.).
hilastērion (ἱλαστήριον): expiation or propitiation; specifically, in the objective sense of that which makes expiation or propitiation (e.g., Rom. 3:25); therefore Christ as the propitiation for our sins. See munus triplex; sacerdotium; satisfactio vicaria.
historia revelationis: the history of revelation; a term applied to the historical course of the revelation and fulfillment of God’s law and promises, especially to the historical course of the covenant of grace (foedus gratiae, q.v.) from Abraham to Christ.
historicus, -a, -um (adj.): historical; also historicaliter (adv.): historically; by extension, particularly in exegetical usage, historicus indicates “literal”; e.g., sensus historicus, the historical sense, is the sensus literalis, or literal sense, of the text as opposed to the sensus allegoricus. See authentia historica; sensus literalis.
Hoc est corpus meum: This is my body; i.e., the words of institution of the Lord’s Supper (Matt. 26:26), or coena sacra (q.v.). See verbum institutionis.
holōs (ὅλως): generally.
homo: man, human being; the Latin generic term corresponding to the Greek anthrōpos, as distinct from vir, a male, and femina, a female. Scholastic theology draws distinctions between a carnal person (homo carnalis), the human being conceived as material or fleshly and as given over to things of the flesh or fleshly desires (see appetitus), and a spiritual person (homo spiritualis), the human being conceived as guided by one’s higher faculties. A similar distinction can be made between homo exterior, the exterior or physical person, and homo interior, the interior or spiritual person; or again, between homo infidelis, unbelieving or unfaithful person, and homo fidelis, believing or faithful person. These distinctions, in turn, rest upon the highly developed theological anthropology, or doctrine of human nature, held by the medieval scholastics, modified in light of the doctrine of salvation by grace alone, and refashioned by the Reformers and Protestant orthodoxy. The Protestant orthodox make a basic distinction between the human condition before the fall (ante lapsum) and that after the fall (post lapsum; see lapsus). Man, male and female, was created in the image of God (imago Dei, q.v.), a creature of body (corpus) and soul (anima, q.v.), capable by virtue of the liberty of its nature (libertas naturae, q.v.) of choosing freely (see liberum arbitrium) between good and evil, able not to sin (posse non peccare) and able to sin (posse peccare). Since human beings were, even in this state, sustained by God’s grace (gratia, q.v.), the Protestant orthodox deny both the idea of a purely natural condition (status purorum naturalium, q.v.) and the idea of a divine grace bestowed on human beings for initial meritorious acts done on the basis of human will alone (see donum concreatum; donum superadditum; facere quod in se est). Nonetheless, before the fall, Adam and Eve were capable of relying on a resistible divine grace and of learning the natural law (lex naturalis, q.v.), or law of paradise (lex paradisiaca, q.v.), by means of the light of nature (lumen naturae, q.v.). The Reformed describe these conditions of obedience before the fall as a covenant of works (foedus operum, q.v.). Since man was created good, as were all things made by God, evil cannot be described as a thing (res, q.v.) or as a substance (substantia, q.v.) but must be understood as a privation of the good (privatio boni, q.v.), which results from a defective willing (see voluntas). Thus sin (see peccatum) is not a substance but a stain (macula, q.v.) or a liability (reatus, q.v.). Once fallen away from this pristine fellowship with God, human beings can return to God only through illumination (illuminatio, q.v.) by the light of grace and through the work of the Spirit in regeneration (regeneratio, q.v.). Human beings regenerated and illuminated by grace can be described as pilgrims (see viator) on the way (in via, q.v.) toward salvation (salus; see ordo salutis). The true knowledge of God necessary for salvation is no longer accessible to human beings by means of the light of nature: general revelation in nature only leaves human beings without excuse in sin—a special revelation of saving truth (see revelatio generalis / revelatio specialis) is required for salvation (see Scriptura Sacra). Since all have sinned and death is the wages of sin, all must die (see mors), but the faithful (fideles), the members of the church militant (ecclesia militans; see ecclesia), pass, by way of death, into the ranks of the blessed (beati, q.v.), illuminated now by the light of glory (lumen gloriae), unable to sin (non posse peccare, q.v.), in the heavenly homeland (see in patria), the city (civitas, q.v.) or commonwealth of God, the church triumphant (ecclesia triumphans). The unfaithful (infideles), following the resurrection of the dead (see resurrectio) and the final judgment (iudicium extremum, q.v.), will suffer eternal punishment (see poena) and destruction (exitium, q.v.).
homo Deifer: a God-bearing human being; a heretical christological position, ascribed to Nestorius because of his assertion of the hypostatic or personal character of Christ’s human nature.
homo peccator: man the sinner, man after the fall; specifically, man as the one for whom theology exists, insofar as theology is intended to teach the doctrines necessary to salvation.
homo renascens: man being reborn or in the process of being reborn; a view of conversion denied by the orthodox, who all argue—even those who speak of praeparatio ad conversionem (q.v.), or preparation for conversion, and of terrores conscientiae (q.v.), or terrors of conscience, leading toward conversion—that the conversio (q.v.) itself occurs in the moment of the application of saving grace by the Spirit. There is, then, no status medius, or middle state, between the sinful condition in which we are born and the status gratiae (q.v.), or state of grace, into which we are drawn by grace in conversion and justification. There is no homo in statu medio constitutus, no human being established in a middle state or condition.
homoeousios. See homoiousios.
homoios (ὅμοιος): like, similar; a term used by the party that dominated the councils of Nice (Ustodizo, a small city in Thrace, 359) and Constantinople (360). It was offered as a term of compromise between the Athanasian and radical Arian positions and indicated that the Son was “like the Father.” Although homoios may be regarded as less pointedly Arian than the anomoios (q.v.), or “unlike,” of radical Arianism of Eunomius and the Council of Sirmium (357), it does not argue for likeness of essence (homoiousios, q.v.) and may indicate only a moral or ethical likeness. The so-called homoean position therefore not only fails to satisfy Athanasian or Nicene orthodoxy, but also fails to address the views of the true middle party, the homoiousians. The term is occasionally used by the Protestant orthodox as a characterization of Arian error.
homoiousios (ὁμοιούσιος): of like substance; a term used to describe the relation of the Father to the Son by the non-Athanasian, non-Arian party in the church following the Council of Nicaea. The term represents an attempt of the conservative majority of the bishops of the mid-fourth century to avoid the radical distinction, typical of Arianism, between Father as fully God and the Son as creature without adopting the much-debated Athanasian term homoousios (q.v.) and the Nicene formula. Homoousios seemed to imply a Sabellian, or modalistic monarchian, view of the Trinity, particularly in light of the theology of Marcellus of Ancyra, one of the advocates of the Nicene formula. The middle position represented by the term homoiousios is frequently called semi-Arian because of Athanasius’s opposition, but it clearly represents an alternative to both the Athanasian homoousios and the Arian anomoios (q.v.). Ultimately the large homoiousian party in the church was reconciled to the Athanasian, or Nicene, language of homoousios through the positive efforts of the Cappadocian fathers and because of the negative impact of the hyper-Arian Anomoean party.
homologoumena: things [specifically books] spoken for or agreed upon, with reference to their canonical status. See antilegomena.
homoousios (ὁμοούσιος): of the same substance, consubstantial; the term central to the argument of Athanasius against Arius and to the solution of the trinitarian problem offered at the Council of Nicaea (325). It ultimately indicates the numerical unity of essence in the three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, against the Arian contention of three distinct substances. The term had been used earlier by Origen and in Greek philosophy to indicate a generic equality or sameness of substance, and even by the gnostics to indicate the continuity of substance between the emanated aeons that have come forth from the abyss of spiritual being. The Nicene usage of the term homoousios was probably limited to the refutation of Arianism and the affirmation of the substantial equality of the Father and the Son. In the theological development of trinitarian theology, however, the Nicene language was rapidly interpreted as pointing to the concept of the oneness and indivisibility of the Godhead; in addition, it was read in terms of the Western, Latin usage inherited from Tertullian, unius substantiae, of one substance. Both the Latin understanding of homoousios and the development of Greek doctrine typical of the Cappadocian fathers and of the Council of Constantinople (381) argue for a numerical unity of indivisible divine essence in which the three divine persons subsist and which is fully present in each of the persons. Thus homoousios indicates the fullness of the indivisible ousia, or substance, of the Godhead in each of the divine persons and implies the essential coinherence (circumincessio, q.v.) of the three persons. (It was part of the Cappadocian contribution to extend the language of homoousios to the Holy Spirit.)
Following the declarations of the Council of Chalcedon (451), the term also indicates the fullness of Christ’s humanity: Christ, as Son of God, is homoousios with the Father, and as Son of Mary is homoousios with all human beings. In the Chalcedonian formula, therefore, homoousios has the root meaning of consubstantiality or coessentiality. Protestant orthodoxy maintains the patristic usage. See Trinitas; unio personalis.
honor adorationis: the honor of adoration; specifically, adoration accorded to Christ as the Son of God. The whole person of Christ is the object of worship and adoration, but that worship and adoration rests on Christ’s divinity, not on his humanity. See latria.
huioi basileias (υἱοὶ βασιλείας): sons (children) of the kingdom; a term applied to the baptized. In Reformed theology it even extends to the nonelect, since by baptism they belong (if only outwardly) to the covenant people.
huiothesia (υἱοθεσία): adoption. See adoptio.
humor: moisture; specifically, a bodily fluid that functions to sustain and preserve the body or, by extension, the disposition of a person. When in balance, the humors produce a moderate or temperate disposition; an immoderate or intemperate disposition of body or mind is brought on by an excess or lack of one or another of the bodily fluids. This balance of the humors reflects the balance of elements in the universal order: the human being, the microcosm, reflects the universe, the macrocosm. The four contraries in the world or in universal order—heat, cold, dryness, and moisture—which combine in the four elements also combine in the four humors of the body. See elementum.
Thus, according to traditional physiology, there are four principal humors: blood (sanguis); phlegm (pituita); yellow bile, or choler (cholera); and black bile, or melancholy (melancholia). The blood is hot and moist, also described as sweet, temperate, and red; it is made in the more “temperate” part of the liver and serves to nourish the entire body by being dispersed to all parts through the heart and arteries. A “sanguine” person will be ruddy of complexion, cheerful and hopeful, but when in a bad temper, easily angered.
The phlegm, likewise produced in a part of the liver, is cold and moist and has the function of moistening the members of the body, including the tongue. A “phlegmatic” person will be pale of complexion, mentally dull, and physically sluggish.
The choler, or yellow bile, is hot and dry, also described as bitter; its function is to conserve the natural heat of the body and, according to some, to help expel excrement. Like the blood and phlegm it is produced in a part of the liver. In excess, it is associated with dryness and pain in the stomach and bowels. In excess, the cholera is associated with dispositions of passion, anger, and wrath; as a disease, it is the cholera morbus. The “choleric” person will be pale in complexion, thin, tall, easily angered, and often unforgiving.
The melancholy, or black bile, is cold and dry, also described as thick, sour, and black; it arises out of nourishment and is purged out of the spleen. Melancholy, as cold and dry, serves to moderate the blood and the choler and to nourish the bones. In excess the black bile produces pensiveness and melancholy. A melancholy person will be withdrawn, quiet, meditative, but sometimes easily disturbed.
There are also subordinate or excremental humors, namely, urine, tears, saliva, milk, semen, mucus, and sweat. Some accounts also add spiritus, or spirits, to the humors, identifying it as arising from the blood and serving as an intermediary between body and soul, and as the means by which the soul performs physical actions. These spirits are identified as natural, associated with the liver and the performance of natural actions or operations; vital, associated with the heart and the continuance of life; and animal, associated with the brain and the nerves for the sake of conveying sense and motion.
hylē amorphos (ὕλη ἄμορφος): formless void, chaos; used by the Protestant scholastics as a synonym for the materia prima (q.v.) or materia inhabilis (q.v.) of the creatio prima. See creatio.
hyparktikōs (ὑπαρκτικῶς): really, substantially.
hyperdulia: exalted or high veneration. See latria.
hypēretikon (ὑπηρετικόν): a menial person, a servant; a subordinate thing.
hyperochē (ὑπεροχή): prominence, superiority.
hyperphysica (from the Greek ὑπερφυσικά, hyperphysika): hyperphysical, beyond the physical; a term applied to the eternal generatio (q.v.) of the Son in order to emphasize the difference between divine and creaturely generation. The term is also used by orthodox Lutherans to characterize the illocal presence of Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. See praesentia illocalis sive definitiva.
hyphistamenon (ὑφιστάμενον): something placed or set under something else; a subordinate thing.
hypodikos (ὑπόδικος): guilty; liable to punishment, e.g., Romans 3:19. See reatus.
hyponomos (ὑπόνομος): under law, subject to law; this usage does not appear in the standard lexica of classical, New Testament, or patristic Greek.
hypostasis (ὑπόστασις). See persona; subsistentia.
hypostatikōs (ὑποστατικῶς): hypostatically, personally; as opposed to ousiadōs (οὐσιαδῶς), essentially. See essentialiter.
hypothetikē (ὑποθετική): hypothetically, conditionally. See ex hypothesi; necessitas consequentiae.
hypotypōsis (ὑποτύπωσις): an outline or pattern.
hypsōsis (ὕψωσις): exaltation. See status exaltationis.