From Eros to Epektasis

The love of God in Gregory of Nyssa

Abstract

Taking into account the Trinitarian debate that spanned the 4th century, this article explores the anthropological articulation of being “in the image and likeness” of the divine, starting from the divine intentionality revealed in Christ as an open and intrinsically relational configuration. The distinction between essence and disposition (eudochía) made by Gregory of Nyssa allows the creature to consider God’s freedom in creating and thus to turn to Him with the freedom to respond with one’s own love to the love of the origin. Gregory, as a father and pastor, will indicate this through the image of the source, the mirror, and growth, making it possible to maintain that the Christian’s relationship with others and with the world is to be taken as that of the Son turned toward the Father, in the divine Trinity, and of the Bridegroom turned toward the bride who seeks him, in the economy of salvation.