Abstract

The creation of the world was a highly debated topic in the first centuries of Christianity with the advent of many attempts to synthesize the views of Greek philosophers on cosmogenesis with the biblical tradition. In the fourth century, theological controversy arose which, as in the case of Arius and his followers, treated the Son as a creature, the most perfect indeed, but a creature that did not have the same dignity and majesty as the Father. To the treatise of St. Basil on the six days of creation (Hexaemeron), St. Gregory of Nyssa responds with his own treatise De opificio hominis. Where the deceased brother ends his series of homilies, Gregory of Nyssa begins his interpretation. It was written probably in the years 380-381, so after the death of the Bishop of Caesarea. Most likely, it was intended as a defense, but also as a correction to the more famous homilies on the history of the creation of the world, presented in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis. At the same time, the treatise of St. Gregory of Nyssa contains his own observations on the text of Genesis, which reflect his deep desire to show the coherence between Scripture and the philosophy of his time.

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