Common elements within the writings of Gregory of Nyssa and Dionysius the Areopagite

Abstract

The common elements to be found in the works of Gregory of Nyssa and Dionysius the Areopagite are as follows: 1) the existence of three main stages of spiritual life; 2) the affirmation that, from an ontological point of view, evil does not exist; 3) the belief in the actuality of free will; 4) intimations that the progress of the soul – epektasis – continues in the afterlife, and 5) analogous conceptions regarding the creation of the world. In this text I will only refer to the first two of those similarities. I need to underline that the perspectives of the two authors on the above issues are not identical in every regard; they agree on those in principle, but on some aspects of them each has a specific view.