Jan

30

Gregory of Nyssa

January 30, 2008 |

Posted by joanied · Filed Under Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Christian Philosophy, Salvation 

I didn’t want to just take it from one place on the internet about what Gregory of Nyssa believed about “universal reconciliation” so I did read this paper on the internet by a Donald L Ross at http://www.iep.utm.edu/g/gregoryn.htm and part of what he writes is:”The freedom of the nous provides a necessary condition for Gregory’s famous theory of perfection. Because evil is a privation of the good and is therefore limited, Gregory believes that there is a limit to human degradation. At some point, everyone must turn around and strive for the good. Besides, the ultimate good, which is God, is infinitely attractive; thus, Gregory endorses Origen’s (On First Principles I 6.3, II 10.4 - 10.8, III 6.5 - 6.6) much-maligned theories of remedial punishment and universal salvation (Great Catechism 8 [36 - 37], 26 [69], 35 [92]; Making of Man 21 - 22 [201 - 205]; Soul and Resurrection [97 - 105, 152, 157 - 160]). In other words, for Gregory as for his intellectual ancestor Origen, everyone will eventually be saved. Perhaps it will be long after death, but in the fullness of time everyone will eventually be heading toward perfection; and at that point the apokatastasis—the restoration—will have arrived. This means that there is no such thing as eternal damnation. Hell is really purgatory; punishment is temporary and remedial. As Gregory puts it in a colorful metaphor, the process of purgation is like drawing a rope encrusted with dried mud through a small aperture: it’s hard on the rope, but it does come out clean on the other side (Soul and Resurrection [100]).”

And there is more about Gregory here: http://www.tentmaker.org/biographies/nyssa.htm

Some quotations there from Gregory are: “What is then the scope of St. Paul’s argument in this place? That the nature of evil shall one day be wholly exterminated, and divine, immortal goodness embrace within itself all intelligent natures; so that of all who were made by God, not one shall be exiled from his kingdom; when all the mixtures of evil that like a corrupt matter is mingled in things, shall be dissolved, and consumed in the furnace of purifying fire, and everything that had its origin from God shall be restored to its pristine state of purity.”

“This is the end of our hope, that nothing shall be left contrary to the good, but that the divine life, penetrating all things, shall absolutely destroy death from existing things, sin having been previously destroyed,”

“For it is evident that God will in truth be ‘in all’ when there shall be no evil in existence, when every created being is at harmony with itself, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; when every creature shall have been made one body. Now the body of Christ, as I have often said, is the whole of humanity.”

Joanie D.


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