How would Gregory of Nyssa have understood evolutionism (original) (raw)

2016

Abstract

The three famous Cappadocians who formed a ‘school’ in the fourth century AD complement one another in the way they envisaged the evolution of creation. St. Basil of Caesarea explains in his writings how this ‘mechanism’ operates in nature and his view is the closest to those of contemporary evolutionists. Gregory of Nyssa completes his ‘system’ with details concerning human evolution and proposes the doctrine of apokatastasis (restoration) of humankind after the Fall. St. Gregory Nazianzus subscribes to the latter, but he does not do it overtly – the respective notion is implied in his work in a “cautious, undogmatic” way, in Hanson’s qualification. All three Fathers of the Church believe that God will bring all creation into harmony with the Kingdom of Heaven. This paper attempts to detect a conception of human evolution within the writings of Gregory of Nyssa; in order to do that, Basil’s thoughts are used as an introduction. The universal restoration which Gregory of Nyssa belie...

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