Plato's Origins of the Dichotomies of St. Gregory of Nyssa in his Views on the Problems of Apokatastasis

Since the Middle Ages, there have been many theories on the problem of apocatastasis in the works of St Gregory of Nyssa. However, their authors have mainly considered the idea of "all restoration" from different positions, practically without touching the opposing thoughts in the works of Saint Gregory, but they exist and require special analysis. Moreover, there have been practically no studies that have examined the development of opposing thoughts in his works during his lifetime. Partly, the reflection has been carried out from the position of anthropology, to a certain extent the problem of antinomy is considered in the book of the author of this article (2017), but it does not examine ancient sources. Therefore, this work investigates the roots of the problem in ancient Greek philosophy, namely in Plato, and this is its scientific novelty. The subject of the study is therefore the development of the dualism of thought in the works of Saint Gregory of Nyssa, which has its origin in the ancient Greek philosophy of Plato. As the study has shown, Plato's dichotomy is linked to the aporia between the traditional ideas of the ancient Greeks about Hades, where the souls of the dead languish endlessly, and the cosmological system developed by Plato himself. In Plato and St Gregory of Nyssa we also find opposing views on the affirmation of rationally free individuals, both in good and in evil. The first thesis confirms the hypothesis of universal apocatastasis, the second refutes it. Perhaps the Shepherd of Nyssa inherited this dualism of thought from Plato. In addition, the work shows traces of the origin of Origen's ideas about the round shape of the bodies of the heavenly dwellers, about the stars as living beings, about the pre-existence of souls from Platonic philosophy. Plato's cosmological system, as presented in the "Timaeus", is identified here as one of the variants of the concept of universal apocatastasis.