Ilaria Vigorelli: Gregory of Nyssa’s and Cyril’s Theology of the Unity of the Two Natures in Christ

At the Council of Constantinople II (553), the union of the divine Logos with humanity askata schesin was condemned, while it was accepted as kath’ypostasin. The first theologian to use the latter expression in a Christological sense was Cyril in his II Epistle to Nestorium. It is interesting to compare Cyril’s and Gregory’s expressions on the union of the two natures in Christ in order to verify if the Cappadocian Father already differentiates the predicationkata schesinfrom kath’ypostasin. The Nyssean theology of unity emerges through his Christology, rooted in the Trinitarian elaboration of the philosophical category of relation (schesis) and of the consequent apophatism.