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Life
He believed reason and revelation could not conflict, and was condemned as a heretic three centuries after he died for arguing that even the devil might eventually be reconciled to God.
He argued that the soul's journey toward God has no endpoint, because an infinite God offers infinite room to grow, a strange comfort to build a whole spirituality on.
Connection
Origen allegorical method and universal restoration Gregory of Nyssa — Gregory took up Origen's allegorical way of reading Scripture and his hope that all souls might eventually be reconciled to God, but grounded both in a more careful account of divine infinity, softening the parts of Origen's system that a later council would condemn as heresy.
Ideas
Words
“Human nature is not sufficient to seek out God, unless helped by the very one it seeks.”
“The Scriptures have a meaning not only such as is obvious, but also another which is hidden from the majority of readers.”
“Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything.”
“The perfection of human nature consists perhaps in its very growth in goodness.”
Key Moments
c. 240s CE
Compiles the Hexapla
250 CE
Tortured during the Decian persecution
c. 380s CE
Condemns slavery in his Homilies on Ecclesiastes
381 CE
Helps finalize Trinitarian doctrine at Constantinople
Works
On First Principles
The Life of Moses