6 - Gregory of Nyssa

Summary

There is a heated debate in scholarship on Gregory of Nyssa as to whether Gregory is a proponent of physicalism. Gregory does teach a physicalist soteriology, but what can easily give rise to the mistaken impression that Gregory’s soteriology is not physicalist is that Gregory posits a temporal delay when he is speaking of the internal transformation of human nature caused by the incarnation. While physicalism is not necessarily connected to universal salvation, Gregory’s temporal delay between the incarnation and its effects is revealed as part of a physicalist soteriology only in light of his belief in universal salvation. Gregory believes in a necessary progression initiated by the christological mixture between divinity and the particular human nature of Christ that concludes with the salvific transformation of all humans. Despite the time gap between the incarnation and individual salvation, and despite the addition of later sacramental mediations, Gregory manifests true physicalist thought by maintaining that the cause-and-effect connection between incarnation and individual salvation does not absolutely require any of these later mediations.