Gregory of Nyssa
(330-394 AD)

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Synopsis

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]

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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.

Primary Sources

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	Gregory of Nyssa (Christian Classic Ethereal Library)
	Gregory of Nyssa, Ascetical Works. Fathers of the Church, Vol. 58. Virginia Woods Callahan, trans. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. Hbk. ISBN: 0813209692.
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	James Herbert Srawley, ed., The Catechetical Oration of Gregory of Nyssa. Cambridge Patristic Texts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1903. pp.181.

Secondary Sources

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