The human person
A human being is a concrete person made in God's image and called to communion with God and neighbor. Person and nature answer different questions: who someone is and what a human being is.
Key points
- The image of God grounds human dignity and vocation.
- A person's distinct identity does not make that person a different species or nature.
Scripture
- Genesis 1:26-27 — Humanity is created in God's image.
- James 3:9 — The likeness of God matters for how people speak about one another.
Primary sources
Gregory writes in On the Making of Man:
Gregory of Nyssa treats virtue as a voluntary reality rather than an externally compelled state.
virtue is a voluntary thing, subject to no dominion
Passage context and translation
Gregory discusses the human capacity for freely chosen virtue in connection with the divine image; he then distinguishes created human nature from the uncreated God.
Before the excerpt
we are free from necessity, and not in bondage to any natural power
After the excerpt
that which is the result of compulsion and force cannot be virtue.