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Ousia

Being or substance: the essential reality of a thing, in Greek philosophy and theology.

Also: substance, essence

Greek philosophy and Neoplatonism

Ousia, from the verb to be, means substance or essence. For Aristotle it is primarily the individual thing and its form. Christian theology used it for the one divine essence shared by the three persons, and Orthodox theology distinguished God’s unknowable ousia from his energies.