{"id":432,"date":"2014-01-26T13:09:10","date_gmt":"2014-01-26T18:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=432"},"modified":"2014-02-03T08:00:14","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T13:00:14","slug":"learning-our-faith-from-the-church-fathers-st-gregory-of-nyssa-20140126","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=432","title":{"rendered":"Learning Our Faith from the Church Fathers \/ St. Gregory of Nyssa – 20140126"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"stgregorybig\"<\/a>In the fourth century, Gregory of Nyssa was asked a difficult question about children who die young. The ascetic who asked this question was\u00a0wondering what could really be achieved by his spiritual labors, when he knew for sure that he was going to commit sins that would hinder his\u00a0\u00a0 entrance into the kingdom. So it seems like the child who died young was better off. Gregory\u2019s answer reveals the basic orientation of Eastern Theology. He said, the human condition in the next life is not primarily a matter of justice, reward and punishment. God\u2019s aim is rather to fulfill the purpose for which he created human beings, namely to participate in God\u2019s life.\u00a0 The earthly life is for development and growth for this eternal communion.\u00a0 From this perspective it becomes truly \u00a0understandable that according to Irenaeus, God originally intended that humans would enter into Theosis through a natural process of growth. This process would have involved an education in love, a free collaboration with God. As we have seen, a synchronicity between man\u2019s free will and God\u2019s loving opportunities and help. Unfortunately, sin – that is man\u2019s self-centeredness – deflected humanity from this path and disrupted God\u2019s\u00a0 purposes. Does this mean that God made a mistake in the initial design of\u00a0\u00a0humankind? No!<\/p>\n

What then is the effect of the Fall in eastern theology? Rather\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 than thinking in terms of Augustine\u2019s transmittal of\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 corrupted nature from \u00a0generation, Eastern thought focuses on two interrelated effects of the Fall: physical death and the obscuring or distortion of the image of God. Adam\u2019s sin was a\u00a0 \u00a0personal choice and act, not\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a collective sin nor a \u201csin\u00a0of\u00a0 nature\u201d.\u00a0 Hence, inherited guilt is impossible. The\u00a0 \u00a0consensus of the Greek Fathers, especially of our Fathers John Chrysostom, Cyril of\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Alexandria, Athanasius the Great,\u00a0 \u00a0Gregory of Nyssa and Maximos\u00a0 Confessor, emphasize this critical point quite often.<\/p>\n

We must remember that we humans see all things in time. The Jewish nation, in the formulation of Genesis, tried to come to some understanding why life on earth is as it is. Moses, inspired by God, suggests that all of our difficulties began when the first couple to become like God, the Creator. Thy ate of the tree of truth and knowledge. They are cast out of the Garden because of this. This is a story that tried to help people understand why life is the way that it is, including the great mystery of death.<\/em><\/p>\n

As stated in this article last week,\u00a0humans were never created perfect. There could be no growth or free will if they were. We are involved in an eternal process of birth-growth-death-birth!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the fourth century, Gregory of Nyssa was asked a difficult question about children who die young. The ascetic who asked this question was\u00a0wondering what could really be achieved by his spiritual labors, when he knew for sure that he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-learning-our-faith-form-the-church-fathers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":448,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}