Editing Gregory of Nyssa (section)

== Theology ==
The traditional view of Gregory is that he was an orthodox [[Trinitarianism|Trinitarian theologian]],<ref name="Ramelli 2020">{{cite journal |last=Ramelli |first=Ilaria L. E. |date=August 2020 |title=Religion and Science in Gregory of Nyssa: The Unity of the Creative and Scientific Logos |url=https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0004/article/view/8299/8103 |journal=[[Marburg Journal of Religion]] |publisher=[[University of Marburg]] |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=1–16 |doi=10.17192/mjr.2020.22.8299 |issn=1612-2941 |access-date=23 May 2022}}</ref> who was influenced by the [[Neoplatonism]] of [[Plotinus]] and believed in [[Christian universalism|universal salvation]] following [[Origen]].<ref>For example, see {{cite book|last=Knight|first=George T.|title=Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge|year=1908–14|publisher=Funk and Wagnalls|location=London and New York|pages=96–8|title-link=Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge}}</ref> However, as a highly original and sophisticated thinker, Gregory is difficult to classify, and many aspects of his theology are contentious among both conservative [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] theologians and Western academic scholarship.<ref name="Ramelli 2020"/><ref name=Coakley>Coakley et al., pp.&nbsp;1–14</ref> This is often due to the lack of systematic structure and the presence of terminological inconsistencies in Gregory's work.<ref name = SDOT>Davis et al., p. 14</ref>

===Conception of the Trinity===
Gregory, following Basil, defined the Trinity as "one essence <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[ousia|οὐσία]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> in three persons <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Hypostasis (philosophy)|ὑποστάσεις]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>", the formula adopted by the Council of Constantinople in 381.<ref>Larson, p. 42</ref> Like the other Cappadocian Fathers, he was a [[homoousian]], and ''Against Eunomius'' affirms the truth of the [[consubstantiality]] of the trinity over Eunomius' Aristotelian belief that the Father's substance is unengendered, whereas the Son's is engendered.<ref name=Brill-750>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 750</ref> According to Gregory, the differences between the three persons of the Trinity reside in their differing hypostatic origin, and the triune nature of God is revealed through divine action (despite the unity of God in His action).<ref name=Brill-751>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 751</ref><ref>Jenson, pp.&nbsp;105–6</ref> The Son is therefore defined as begotten of the Father, the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father, and the Father by his role as progenitor. However, this doctrine would seem to [[subordinationism|subordinate]] the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to the Son. [[Robert Jenson]] suggests that Gregory implies that each member of the [[Godhead (Christianity)|Godhead]] has an individual priority: the Son has [[epistemology|epistemological priority]], the Father has [[ontology|ontic priority]] and the Spirit has [[metaphysics|metaphysical priority]].<ref>Jenson, p. 167</ref> Other commentators disagree: [[Morwenna Ludlow]], for instance, argues that epistemic priority resides primarily in the Spirit in Gregory's theology.<ref name = Ludlow>Ludlow 2007, p. 43</ref>

Modern proponents of [[social trinitarianism]] often claim to have been influenced by the Cappadocians' dynamic picture of the Trinity.<ref>Ludlow 2007, p. 51</ref> However, it would be fundamentally incorrect to identify Gregory as a social Trinitarian, as his theology emphasises the unity of God's will, and he clearly believes that the [[Identity (philosophy)|identities]] of the Trinity are the three persons, not the relations between them.<ref name=SDOT /><ref name = Ludlow />

===Infinitude of God===
[[File:St. Gregory of Nyssa.jpg|thumb|11th-century [[mosaic]] of Gregory of Nyssa. [[Saint Sophia's Cathedral, Kyiv|Saint Sophia Cathedral]] in [[Kyiv]], [[Ukraine]].]]
Gregory was one of the first theologians to argue that God is [[infinity|infinite]]. His main argument for the infinity of God, found in ''Against Eunomius'', is that God's goodness is limitless, and as God's goodness is [[essence|essential]], God is also limitless.<ref name=Brill-424>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 424</ref>

An important consequence of Gregory's belief in the infinity of God is his belief that God, as limitless, is essentially incomprehensible to the limited minds of created beings. In ''Life of Moses'', Gregory writes: "...every concept that comes from some comprehensible image, by an approximate understanding and by guessing at the Divine nature, constitutes an idol of God and does not proclaim God."<ref>The life of Moses / Gregory of Nyssa; translation, introd. and notes by Abraham J. Malherbe and Everett Ferguson; pref. by John Meyendorff Page 81</ref> Gregory's theology was thus [[apophatic theology|apophatic]]: he proposed that God should be defined in terms of what we know He is not rather than what we might speculate Him to be.<ref name=Brill-68>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 68</ref>

Accordingly, the Nyssen taught that due to God's infinitude, a created being can never reach an understanding of God, and thus for man in both life and the afterlife there is a [[Theosis (Eastern Orthodox theology)|constant progression]] <nowiki>[</nowiki>ἐπέκτασις<nowiki>]</nowiki> towards the unreachable knowledge of God, as the individual continually transcends all which has been reached before.<ref name=Brill-425>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 425</ref> In the ''Life of Moses'', Gregory speaks of three stages of this spiritual growth: initial darkness of [[ignorance]], then spiritual [[Light (theology)|illumination]], and finally a darkness of the mind in mystic [[theoria|contemplation]] of the God who cannot be comprehended.<ref name=Brill-522>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 522</ref>

===Universalism===
Gregory was one of the earlier proponents of [[Christian universalism]]. Gregory argues that when Paul says that God will be "all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28), this means that though some may need to undergo a long period of purification, eventually "no being will remain outside the number of the saved"<ref>In Illud 17; 21 (Downing)</ref> and that "no being created by God will fall outside the Kingdom of God".<ref>In Illud 14 (Downing)</ref> Due to the unity of human nature in Christ "all, thanks to the union with one another, will be joined in communion with the Good, in Jesus Christ Our Lord".<ref>On the Song of Songs XV</ref> Christ's incarnation, death and resurrection results in "total salvation for human nature".<ref name="Against Apoll">{{cite web |last1=McCambly |first1=Richard |title=Against Apollinarius by Gregory of Nyssa |url=https://www.lectio-divina.org/images/nyssa/Against%20Apollinarius.pdf |website=Lectio-Divina.org |access-date=9 April 2023 |ref=Against Apoll}} p. 39</ref>

Gregory also described God's work this way: "His [God's] end is one, and one only; it is this: when the complete whole of our race shall have been perfected from the first man to the last—some having at once in this life been cleansed from evil, others having afterwards in the necessary periods been healed by the Fire, others having in their life here been unconscious equally of good and of evil—to offer to every one of us participation in the blessings which are in Him, which, the Scripture tells us, 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,' nor thought ever reached."<ref>{{Cite web|title = Church Fathers: On the Soul and the Resurrection (St. Gregory of Nyssa)|url = http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2915.htm|website = www.newadvent.org|access-date = 2015-10-18}}</ref> That this is what Gregory believed and taught is affirmed by most scholars.<ref>Ilaria Ramelli: The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis (Brill 2013), p. 432</ref><ref>Morwenna Ludlow: Gregory of Nyssa, Ancient and Postmodern (Oxford: University Press 2007)</ref><ref>[[Hans Boersma]]: Embodiment and Virtue (Oxford 2013)</ref><ref>J.A. McGuckin: "Eschatological Horizons in the Cappadocian Fathers" in Apocalyptic Thought in Early Christianity (Grand Rapids 2009)</ref><ref>Constantine Tsirpanlis: "The Concept of Universal Salvation in Gregory of Nyssa" in Greek Patristic Theology I (New York 1979)</ref> A minority of scholars have argued that Gregory affirmed only the universal resurrection.<ref>Giulio Maspero: Trinity and Man (Brill 2007), p. 91</ref>

In the ''Life of Moses'', Gregory writes that just as the darkness left the Egyptians after three days, perhaps redemption <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[apocatastasis|ἀποκατάστασις]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> will be extended to those suffering in [[hell]] <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[gehenna|γέεννα]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>.<ref name=Brill-57>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 57</ref> This salvation may extend not only to humans; following [[Origen]], there are passages where he seems to suggest (albeit through the voice of Macrina) that even the [[demon]]s will have a place in Christ's "world of goodness".<ref name= Ludlow-80>Ludlow 2000, p. 80</ref> Gregory's interpretations of 1 Corinthians 15:28 ("And when all things shall be subdued unto him&nbsp;...")<ref>{{Bibleverse|1|Corinthians|15:28|KJV}}</ref> and Philippians 2:10 ("That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth")<ref>{{Bibleverse||Philippians|2:10|KJV}}</ref> support this understanding of his theology.<ref name= Ludlow-80/>

Nevertheless, in the ''Great Catechism'', Gregory suggests that while every human will be [[resurrection|resurrected]], salvation will be accorded only to the [[baptism|baptised]], although he also states that others driven by their passions can be saved after being purified by fire.<ref>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 56-57</ref> While he believes that there will be no more evil in the hereafter, it is arguable that this does not preclude a belief that God might justly damn sinners for eternity.<ref name=Brill-59>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 59</ref> Thus, the main difference between Gregory's conception of ἀποκατάστασις and that of Origen would be that Gregory believes that mankind will be collectively returned to sinlessness, whereas Origen believes that personal salvation will be universal.<ref name=Brill-59/> This interpretation of Gregory has recently been criticized, however.<ref name="Ilaria Ramelli 2013 pp. 433-4">Ilaria Ramelli: The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis (Brill 2013), pp. 433-4</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=Ilaria|last1=Ramelli|title=The Debate on Apokatastasis in Pagan and Christian Platonists: Martianus, Macrobius, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Augustine|journal=Illinois Classical Studies|issue=33–34|year=2008|volume=33-34 |pages=201–234|publisher=University of Illinois Press|doi=10.5406/illiclasstud.33-34.0201 |jstor=10.5406/illiclasstud.33-34.0201|s2cid=169733447 |doi-access=free}}</ref> After all, at the end of chapter XXXV of the ''Great Catechism'' Gregory writes that those who have not been purified by water through baptism "must needs be purified by fire" so that "after long succeeding ages, their nature may be restored pure again to God".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf205.xi.ii.xxxvii.html|title=NPNF2-05. Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises, Etc. - Christian Classics Ethereal Library|website=www.ccel.org|access-date=9 April 2023}}</ref>

Attempting to reconcile these disparate positions, [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] theologian Dr. Mario Baghos notes that "when taken at face value the saint seems to be contradicting himself in these passages; on the one hand he asserted the salvation of all and the complete eradication of evil, and, on the other, that the fire needed to purge evil is 'sleepless', i.e. everlasting. The only solution to this inconsistency is to view any allusion to universal salvation in St Gregory as an expression of God's intention for humanity, which is in fact attested to when his holy sister states that God has "one goal ... some straightway even in this life purified from evil, others healed hereafter through fire for the appropriate length of time." That we can choose either to accept or ignore this purification is confirmed by the saint's many exhortations that we freely undertake the virtuous path."<ref name=Baghos>{{cite journal|last=Baghos|first=Mario|title=Reconsidering Apokatastasis in St Gregory of Nyssa's On the Soul and Resurrection and the Catechetical Oration|journal=Phronema|year=2012|volume=27|issue=2|pages=125–162|url=https://www.academia.edu/13515695|access-date=17 August 2013}}</ref> Dr. [[Ilaria Ramelli]] has made the observation that for Gregory free will was compatible with universal salvation since every person would eventually accept the good having gone through purification.<ref name="Ilaria Ramelli 2013 pp. 433-4"/> Nevertheless, some interpret Gregory as conceding that Judas and similar sinners will never be completely purified when he wrote, "that which never existed is to be preferred to that which has existed in such sin. For, as to the latter, on account of the depth of the ingrained evil, the chastisement in the way of purgation will be extended into infinity".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fatherjohn.blogspot.com/2015/04/stump-priest-is-universalism-heresy.html|title=Fr. John Whiteford: Stump the Priest: Is Universalism a Heresy?|publisher=Blogger|date=April 23, 2015|access-date=July 1, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://theorthodoxlife.wordpress.com/2015/11/23/may-we-hope-for-universal-salvation|title=May We Hope for Universal Salvation? The Orthodox Life|publisher=WordPress.com|date=November 23, 2015|access-date=July 1, 2020}}</ref> However, Ramelli renders the original Greek "εἰς ἄπειρον παρατείνεται ἡ διὰ τῆς καθάρσεως κόλασις" as "the punishment provided for the purpose of purification will tend to an indefinite duration."<ref name="Ilaria Ramelli 2013 pp. 411">Ilaria Ramelli: The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis (Brill 2013), p. 411</ref>

===Anthropology===
Gregory's [[Christian anthropology|anthropology]] is founded on the ontological distinction between the [[Ex nihilo|created]] and uncreated. Man is a material creation, and thus limited, but infinite in that his [[immortal soul]] has an indefinite capacity to grow closer to the divine.<ref>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 38</ref> Gregory believed that the soul is created simultaneous to the creation of the body (in opposition to Origen, who believed in [[preexistence]]), and that [[embryo]]s were thus persons. To Gregory, the human being is exceptional, being created in the [[image of God]].<ref>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 39</ref> Humanity is [[Theomorphism|theomorphic]] both in having self-awareness and [[free will]], the latter which gives each individual existential power, because to Gregory, in disregarding God one negates one's own existence.<ref>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 41</ref> In the ''Song of Songs'', Gregory metaphorically describes human lives as paintings created by apprentices to a master: the apprentices (the human wills) imitate their master's work (the life of Christ) with beautiful colours ([[virtues]]), and thus man strives to be a reflection of Christ.<ref name=Brill-42>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 42</ref> Gregory, in stark contrast to most thinkers of his age, saw great beauty in [[Fall of Man|the Fall]]: from Adam's sin from two perfect humans would eventually arise myriad.<ref name=Brill-42/>

====Slavery====
Gregory was the first voice in the ancient world known to write against all forms of slavery, declaring the institution inherently sinful.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McGuckin |first1=John Anthony |editor1-last=Witte |editor1-first=John Jr. |editor2-last=Hauk |editor2-first=Gary S. |title=Christianity and Family Law: An Introduction |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-41534-7 |pages=100–115 |chapter=Theodore Balsamon |doi=10.1017/9781108233255.009 |quote=Gregory of Nyssa regarded the liberative force of law as a mark of the proper application of the evangelical spirit. He is the only church father, for instance, who completely denounces the institution of slavery as an indefensible evil.}}</ref>{{sfn|Hart|2001|pages=51–69}}<ref>{{cite book |author=Gregory of Nyssa |title=Homilies on Ecclesiastes |translator1=Hall |translator2=Moriarty |publisher=de Gruyter |location=New York |year=1993 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BReXJwwE_D8C&pg=PA74 |page=74|isbn=9783110135862 }}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=If [man] is in the likeness of God, ... who is his buyer, tell me? Who is his seller? To God alone belongs this power; or rather, not even to God himself. [...] God would not therefore reduce the human race to slavery, since [God] himself, when we had been enslaved to sin, spontaneously recalled us to freedom. But if God does not enslave what is free, who is he that sets his own power above God's?|author=St. Gregor of Nyssa|title=Homilies on Ecclesiastes, The evils of slave-owning; Hall and Moriarty, trs., de Gruyter (New York, 1993) p. 74.}}

Gregory used Plato's definition of virtue as ‘something that admits of no master [ἀδέσποτον]’ in the service of his own theological arguments against slavery: (1) each human is an image of God and therefore free, (2) the equality of all humans reflects the equality of the divine Persons and (3) just as the divine nature cannot be divided into slavery (δουλεία) and mastery (δυναστεία, κυριότης), neither can human nature; the whole creation is a slave but of God alone.<ref>Ilaria L.E. Ramelli (2016). Social Justice and the Legitimacy of Slavery: The Role of Philosophical Asceticism from Ancient Judaism to Late Antiquity. Oxford Scholarship Online, pp 182-89. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198777274.001.0001.</ref>

Although the stoic [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] had criticized cruel slave masters and [[Letter 47 (Seneca)|advised slave masters to treat slaves with kindness]] (or at least those of good character), the [[stoics]] never questioned the institution of slavery, which was considered an ordinary part of daily life in the ancient world; and other ancient philosophers such as [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]] also supported slavery.<ref>{{cite journal |first=P.G. |last=Kirchschlaeger |title=Slavery and Early Christianity - A reflection from a human rights perspective |journal=Acta Theologica |volume=36  |issue=23 |date=2016 |page=66 |issn=2309-9089 |doi=10.4314/actat.v23i1s.4|doi-access=free }}</ref> Gregory of Nyssa's critique was the first and only sustained critique of the institution of slavery itself made in the ancient world.{{sfn|Hart|2001|pages=51–69}}

===Neoplatonism===
There are many similarities between Gregory's [[theology]] and [[neoplatonism|neoplatonist]] [[philosophy]], especially that of [[Plotinus]].<ref>The perennial tradition of Neoplatonism, p. 188</ref> Specifically, they share the idea that the reality of God is completely inaccessible to human beings and that man can come to see God only through a spiritual journey in which knowledge <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[gnosis|γνῶσις]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> is rejected in favour of [[meditation]].<ref>The perennial tradition of Neoplatonism, p.&nbsp;188–94</ref> Gregory does not refer to any neoplatonist philosophers in his work, and there is only one disputed passage which may directly quote Plotinus.<ref>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 531</ref> Considering this, it seems possible that Gregory was familiar with Plotinus and perhaps other figures in neoplatonism. However, some significant differences between neoplatonism and Gregory's thought exist, such as Gregory's statement that beauty and goodness are equivalent, which contrasts with Plotinus' view that they are two different qualities.<ref>Maspero & Mateo Seco, p. 532</ref> However Plotinus does say "''And Beauty, this Beauty which is also the Good''" implying the Platonist One which is the Good is also Beauty.<ref>Enneads sixth tractate 1 Beauty :6</ref>

[[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] theologians are generally critical of the theory that Gregory was influenced by neoplatonism. For example, [[Hierotheos (Vlachos)|Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos]] argues in ''Life After Death'' that Gregory opposed all philosophical (as opposed to theological) endeavour as tainted with worldliness.<ref>Life after Death, ch. 8</ref> This view is supported by ''Against Eunomius'', where Gregory denounces Eunomius for placing the results of his systematic [[Aristotle|Aristotelean]] philosophy above the traditional teachings of the Church.<ref name=Brill-750 />