Editing Gregory of Nyssa (section)

===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}}