https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4265-506X
The article analyses the apophatic theology of Gregory of Nyssa. The thought system of Gregory Nyssen in its soteriological and ontological structure resides on a twofold division between God – uncreated intellectual being and intellectual creation. Its dynamic is determined on the one hand (soteriological perspective) by the goodness of God and freedom of creation and on the other hand (ontological perspective) by different ontological statuses of the Creator and creation. Developing this scheme, Gregory of Nyssa underlines the fact that God in his nature, as the absolute foundation of created reality, being beyond time and space, is absolutely unknowable to human minds and impossible to describe in human diastematic language. Created beings can only adequately understand God’s deeds (energeia) or describe him in negative terms – what he is not. Nothing properly reveals God’s nature (ousia, physis) to mankind. Such aspects as Scripture, God’s names, the incarnation of Logos, the fact that humans are created in God’s image or even mystical experiences refer at best to the energeiai of the Creator or his total incomprehensibility for creation. The concept of diastema, total division between created and uncreated reality underlines the consequent apophatic theology of Gregory of Nyssa. The concept of metousia provides a balance to the idea of diastema, showing the dependence of creation on the Creator, however it does not reveal the nature of God as such to intellectual beings.
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https://doi.org/10.36124/rt.2023.02