NATURE MAKES AN ASCENT FROM THE LOWER TO THE HIGHER: GREGORY OF NYSSA ON HUMAN DISTINCTIVENESS

John Behr

doi:10.1111/zygo.12895

NATURE MAKES AN ASCENT FROM THE LOWER TO THE HIGHER: GREGORY OF NYSSA ON HUMAN DISTINCTIVENESS

John Behr^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Divinity

Radboud University Nijmegen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

This essay explores the way in which early Christian writers held an eschatological understanding of what it is to be human, something that is to be attained, through the transformation of death and resurrection, and something that requires our assent. In this context, the article offers a new reading of the late fourth-century work entitled On the Human Image of God (otherwise known in English as On the Making of Man) by Gregory of Nyssa. It argues that Gregory structured his text in parallel to the three parts of Timaeus’ speech in Plato's dialogue. The resulting picture sees creation as a dynamic ascent from the lower forms of life to the higher, a growth which is recapitulated in the life-span of each human being, and also the growth of the human race into the totality of human beings that together constitute the human being in the image of God, the body of Christ.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	539-553
Number of pages	15
Journal	Zygon
Volume	58
Issue number	2
Early online date	1 May 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12895
Publication status	Published - 1 Jun 2023

Keywords

creation
eschatology
evolution
Gregory of Nyssa
human nature
image of God (imago dei)
Plato Timaeus

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10.1111/zygo.12895Licence: CC BY

Behr_Z_Nature_Makes_An_A_VoR
© 2023 The Authors. Zygon® published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Joint Publication Board of Zygon. ISSN 0591-2385 539 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 162 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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NATURE MAKES AN ASCENT FROM THE LOWER TO THE HIGHER: GREGORY OF NYSSA ON HUMAN DISTINCTIVENESS

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