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Synopsis
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Gregory did not follow his older brother to the
centres of learning of his day. He claimed that he owed his education mainly to
Basil,[1] but he was also deeply influenced by his sister
Macrina[2] as well as firsthand study of the works of Plato
and Plotinus. He is remembered primarily as a scholar and champion of Nicene
orthodoxy rather than for his administrative skill as a bishop, which was often
lacking. Gregory's theology was the result of a subtle blending of Platonism
and the Scriptures.[3] Gregory wrote On the Making of
Man to complete the work of his brother Basil had started on Genesis, which
did not include the origin of man.[4] Gregory's
interpretation was highly Platonic and rendered the account as an allegory of
the fall and return of the human soul. Gregory believed that the world was
created by God ex nihilo,[5] but identified this creation
with the Platonic idea of emanation from God. (The Platonist Plotinus
[c.205-270] had likened the emanation of the world to heat being produced by a
fire or light from the sun.)[6] Gregory was probably the
first of the fathers to make this identification.[7] He
believed that the world was created in a single act in the form of seminal
principles,[8] which developed automatically to form the
world that we now know.[9]
Rob Bradshaw, Webmaster
References
[1] Gregory of Nyssa,
Letter 13 (NPNF, 2nd series, Vol. 5, 535-538; Frances Young, Nicaea
To Chalcedon. (London: SCM, 1983), 95.
[2] David L.
Balás, "Gregory of Nyssa," Everett Ferguson, editor, Encylopedia of
Early Christianity. (New York: Garland, 1990), 400.
[3] Young,
Nicaea, 117.
[4] Gregory of Nyssa,
On the Making of Man, Preface (NPNF, 2nd series, Vol. 5,
387).
[5] Gregory of Nyssa,
On the Making of Man, 23.3-5; 24.3 (NPNF, 2nd series, Vol. 5,
413-414).
[6] Plotinus,
Enneads, 5.1.6.
[7] Harry A. Wolfson,
"The Identification of Ex Nihilo With Emanation in Gregory of Nyssa,"
Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 63 (1970): 55.
[8] Gregory of Nyssa,
Apologia in Hexaemeron, 77D.
[9] Gregory of Nyssa,
In Psalm 6; Apologia in Hexaemeron, 72B-C, 113B, 121D.
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