Thinking the World: Gregory of Nyssa on the Definitive Calling of Humanity

Abstract In this response essay to John Behr’s Gregory of Nyssa: On the Human Image of God , Rowan Williams highlights Gregory’s exposition of the complex account of nous and its meaning in relation to sensory embodiment. Nous , in Gregory’s treatise, is the presence of unified divine activity in the diversity of creation. Created nous , in turn, refers to how the creature harmonizes a diversity of experiences and is thus intrinsic to the life of the senses. Its immateriality and ‘non‐locatability’ suggest that it cannot be described as a faculty of the intellect or soul but rather exists as the body’s responsive and coherent life. Several implications follow: some concerning physical growth and the unfinished character of human life, other questions about the differentiation of the sexes, and still others concerning the intricacies of unity and identity in the divine nature. Through these intersections, Gregory’s writing opens up key lines of inquiry for modern theological anthropology, not least the possibility of seeing anew contemporary questions about human consciousness and the relation of the human creature’s divine imaging to intelligible communication and speech.