Double Creation versus Soteriology in Gregory of Nyssa

摘要

Gregory of Nyssa advocates the theory of a double creation, continuing, but also developingand modifying concepts sketched earlier by Philo of Alexandra and Origen. Similarly as the greatAlexandrians, Nyssa finds grounds for his theory in Greek philosophy and the books of the HolyScriptures, ascribing Gen 1,27a the first act of creatio, and the rest of the verse: „As man and womanhe created them” referring to the second act of creatio, preparing human being for the comingfall. Whether Gregory resolves aporiae of his predecessors remains an open issue. However, onlytaking into consideration his theory of the double creation, at least as it is portrayed in the tract Dehominis opifìcio, it is possible to define the place of human beings in the history of salvation bothin the universal and individual sense. Soteriology in the universal sense appears in the thought ofNyssa as a general, arbitral re-creatio, and in the individual sense it takes a form of faith and hopein metanoia and return all the humans to God.