BASIC OUTLINE OF THE TRINITARIAN CONCEPT IN THE WORKS OF SAINT GREGOR OF NYSSA
/ZÁKLADNÝ NÁČRT TRINITÁRNEJ KONCEPCIE V DIELE SVÄTÉHO GREGORA NYSSKÉHO/

Pavol KOCHAN

asistant professor, Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Presov, Masarykova 15, 080 01 Presov, Slovakia, pavol.kochan@unipo.sk, 00421517724729, ORCID: 0000-0002-9692-9310

Abstract

The subject of this article is a look into the foundations of the concept of the triadology of St. Gregory of Nyssa, the younger brother of St. Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea Cappadocia (Pontus), who was active between two important councils of the Church that dealt with the most important dogma of the whole doctrine - the dogma of the Holy Trinity. The First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325) represented the first important success of Orthodoxy in the theological struggle. It directly influenced the lives of whole multitudes of Christians in their right development of the faith. However, the theological effort to express the ineffable as clearly as possible and to know the unknowable was still at the beginning of its long journey. It is a fact that in reading the work of Gregory of Nyssa one can get a sense of the proximity of philosophy, but within the overall framework of Gregory's work we see the full development of orthodoxy in his theological thought, as he confirms by his own life. This is confirmed by the basic idea underlying his view of triadology - the distinction between essence (ousia) and hypostasis. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is based on the liturgical, catechetical and ascetical life of the Church, in which God is lived as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and cannot be separated from this life. The delimitation of the persons of the one God is not based on space, but of the flow from one through the second to the third, and designations "first, second, and third" being not according to greatness, but according to mutual reverence.

Keywords

Holy Trinity, triadology, Gregory of Nyssa, ecumenical council, salvation

SUMMARY

St. Gregory of Nyssa sought to build on the biblical witness to the one God in the three hypostases, so he attempted to outline a trinitarian doctrine that would be logical, but at the same time based on Holy Scripture itself. The beginning of his theological reflection is the fact that there is a God and that God is Trinity. His dynamic line of argument lies in the tracing of energy, i.e., in God's activity, action, and power, which are observed in the causal connection of the "from-to-in" order of each of the hypostases. In this way Gregor was able to articulate convincingly the monarchist formula of God's power and activity from God the Father mediated through the only begotten God the Son and in God the Spirit. The triune God thus constitutes not a tri-deity, but a single Deity whose fullness is the three hypostases.

(Language: slovak)

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