07 — Anthropology
Gregory of Nyssa’s theology of the human person — among the richest in the Fathers, and, on the question of the body and sexual difference, among the most discussed. These files present On the Making of Man (the image of God, the “double creation,” the relation of mind and body) and the eschatological anthropology of On Virginity (the pre-/post-lapsarian body and the “angelic” resurrection life), with the modern scholarly debate named throughout.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Church Father)
For Gregory the human person is, above all, the image of God — and the image is located in the mind, the soul’s rationality, and its freedom (autexousion). His reading of Genesis 1:27 in two moments (humanity “in the image,” then “male and female”) yields the so-called “double creation,” in which sexual differentiation belongs to a providential provision in view of the foreseen Fall rather than to the image itself, and is transcended in the resurrection. This is among the most contested of patristic teachings, and the guide presents it carefully — distinguishing Gregory’s actual claim from the dualist or two-creator misreadings it never was, and naming the scholars (Behr, Harrison, Coakley, Zachhuber) who read it variously.
Files in this Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| On the Making of Man | The image of God in the mind and freedom; the “double creation” reading of Genesis 1:27; mind and body; the rejection of the pre-existence of souls. |
| Gender, Virginity, and Eschatology | On Virginity; the much-debated view of the pre-/post-lapsarian body and sexual differentiation; the “angelic” resurrection life — handled carefully, with scholars named. |
See Also
- On the Soul and the Resurrection — the soul and the resurrection body
- The Universal Restoration — the restoration of human nature of which this is part
- Mystical Ascent — the image restored through the ascent to God
- Theosis — the image and likeness as the ground of deification
- The Church Fathers — patristic anthropology in its wider setting
References
- Gregory of Nyssa. On the Making of Man (De hominis opificio) [PG 44:123–256]. Translated in NPNF II/5; and by John Behr, Gregory of Nyssa: On the Human Image of God. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.
- Gregory of Nyssa. On Virginity (De virginitate) [GNO VIII/1; PG 46:317–416]. Translated in NPNF II/5.
- Zachhuber, Johannes. Human Nature in Gregory of Nyssa. Leiden: Brill, 1999.