The article argues that the Easter narrative played a decisive role in shaping Gregory of Nazianzus’s view on free will and sovereignty. The formation of the new concept of freedom was a result of the innovative reading of Scripture, which the church father elaborated in his anti-Arian polemics. Defending the absolute divine sovereignty of the humble and suffering Son and his equality with the Father Gregory questioned the ethical values of the traditional understanding of sovereignty, which presupposed liberation from passions and attaining self-sufficiency of will. Instead, he proposed an idea of sovereignty exercised in an act of loving sacrifice and self-denial. Hence, Gregory’s theology of freedom is represented by a paradoxical coincidence of sovereignty and humiliation, autonomy and heteronomy. The article analyses the logic of interrelation between these seemingly mutually exclusive aspects of his concept of freedom. In conclusion, it is stated here that the Theologian’s vision of free will is quite consistent and can bring a significant contribution to the contemporary debates on the relationship between faith and reason.
No comments:
Post a Comment