Within the workshop 'The image of God in "Nicene" Theology' my paper will illustrate the Cappadocian contribution, esp. that of Gregory of Nyssa, to the notion of 'image'. I shall suggest that of the three strands Frances Young identified in fourth-century theological discourse on the image, only one, the archetype-image relationship between God and human nature is of central importance in Cappadocian theology. While there is only passing interest in the issue of icons and of visual representation, more centrally the image-relationship between Father and Son in the Trinity is transposed, on account of Cappadocian trinitarianism, into a relationship between God and Christ’s humanity. It thus effectively becomes a variant of the type required by Gen 1,27. This last one, then, assumes absolutely central importance especially within the thought of Gregory of Nyssa. My paper will explore the causes of this narrower focus and its significance for the Cappadocians and for subsequent theology. I shall argue that Gregory’s adoption of physis-terminology to describe both the intra-trinitarian unity and the unity of created reality leads to a levelling of vertical ontological hierarchy both within God and within the world. A precise conceptualisation of the divine-human image relation becomes crucial, therefore, for maintaining and defining the difference between created and uncreated. It is easy to see, I shall argue, how Gregory’s approach would lead to either Eriugena’s panentheism or to the volontaristic duality of God and world characteristic of later medieval theology.
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