Sacramentum Mundi Online

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Matter
(1,834 words)

1. Matter (from the Latin mater, materia) is primarily the “maternal element”, the raw material such as wood which can be worked upon and given shape. This technological and artistic notion of matter has two components. One is its property of being open to methods of working upon it and to being moulded to a certain end (the property which led to its being considered potentia). The other is the comparative solidity and durability of the material and the product into which it is worked. The durability does not change by reason of the work done upon it, which l…

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Gernot Eder, “Matter”, in: Sacramentum Mundi Online, General Editor Karl Rahner, SJ. Consulted online on 08 December 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2468-483X_smuo_COM_002530>
First published online: 2016



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