Gregory's Differences with Origen.
These conceptions are clearly influenced by Origen, and yet in
many respects Gregory's thought is very different. Gregory denies the
pre-existence and transmigration of souls and he rejects the idea that "there is
some tribe or citizenry of souls which exists before life in the body." Gregory
admits that there is a mode of increase in the angelic world. He conceives of
time as a process of development during which the complete number of human
hypostases will be realized and have existence. He emphasizes that a soul does
not have existence without a body, or a body without a soul, but that both have
a single source for their being. Man is not composed from two separate elements
but he is generated as a body and as a soul simultaneously. The development of
the human embryo is a single organic process which takes place by virtue of a
"hidden element in the seed." "The soul is also present in the seed but it is
not yet discernible." That which is animate generates that which is animate,
flesh which is living, not dead. In conclusion Gregory writes: "We consider that
it is impossible for the soul to adapt itself to other dwelling places."
Gregory does not share Origen's distrust of physical matter.
Everything created by God is, in the words of the Bible, "very good." Therefore,
"we should discern good in every thing." "Every element by itself is filled with
goodness in a way that is suited to its nature." "Whether it is a myriapod, or a
green frog, or an animal born from some filth, it is all very good." For Gregory
matter itself is not impure, especially since it was created first. That which
is proper to animals is not impure by itself but only as it appears in man
because "that which irrational life has been given as a means of self-protection
becomes a passion in man." Furthermore, Gregory agrees with Basil that the lower
motions of the irrational soul in man should "each be transformed into a virtue"
by the power of reason. Finally, in Gregory's conception the "second operation"
in the creation of man, the distinction of the sexes, is also the work of God.
"The ordering of nature has been established by God's will and law. It should
not be considered a flaw." "All of man's members have been designed for one
goal: that mankind may continue to have life." Even man's animal and passionate
mode of increase is not to be despised because it "ensures the succession of
mankind." It is the way that "nature fights with death." "The sex organs assure
mankind of immortality so that death, which is always striving against us, be
comes ineffectual and powerless. Nature is always renewing itself and
compensating for the limitations of those who are born." This idea is foreign to
Origen.
Gregory never specifies the exact moment at which this "second
operation," the actual differentiation of the sexes, occurs. Since in his
conception the "fleshly robe of the body" refers to the physical status of man
after the fall, it may seem that he considers that man in his pure state of
equality with the angels did not share the corporeality of animal natures and
was not actually distinguished by sex. Divine providence only foresaw the coming
coarsening of human nature and its division by sex and allowed this to take
place. However, it is unlikely that Gregory considered that man was fully
incorporeal before the fall because this would contradict his doctrines of man's
intermediate status in creation as the link between immaterial and earthly
beings, and of man's calling to be sovereign in nature. Gregory probably agreed
with the idea introduced by Methodius of Olympus and later supported by Gregory
the Theologian that man's "fleshly robe" is an indication of the coarsening of
human nature and the subjection of the body to death which took place after the
fall and in which respect man is similar to the animals. This is not just
corporeality but mortality and the "subjection to death." This mortality is a
"robe which has been imposed on us from outside. It temporarily serves the body
and is not a part of our nature." It is a robe, a shell, a "deathly mantle."
Thus Gregory departs from Origen by insisting on the integrity of man's being
even in this life, and on the absolute simultaneity of the development of the
body and the soul.
Gregory's view that there was no marriage before the fall, that
the "conjugal state" is a result of sin, and that no marriage can be entirely
pure, was also shared by a number of earlier theologians, especially those who
were not influenced by the school of Alexandria. This conclusion was later
supported by John Chrysostom (although he ultimately altered his position),
Theodoret of Cyrus, Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus, and later by
Byzantine theologians, until the statement of Patriarch Jeremiah to the
theologians of Tübingen in 1576.
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