On the Soul and Resurrection 0881411205

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OM liO UND THE RESURRECTION

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prophet says, are telling the glory of God with silent voices.’ We see the harmony of the universe, of the heavens and the terrestrial marvels. We see how elements which are opposed to one another by nature are all woven together towards the same purpose by some inexplicable association, each one contributing its own power for

the permanence of the whole. Things which cannot be mixed or joined together according to their proper qualities nevertheless do not separate from one another, nor are they destroyed in one another by a confusion of their opposite qualities. Those whose

nature tends upward are carried downward, as the warmth of the sun streams down in its rays. Heavy bodies are lightened and rarified in vapors, as when water contrary to its own nature moves

upward, carried through the air by winds. The ethereal fire comes down to earth, so that the low places are not lacking in warmth.

The moisture of rain poured out on the earth, although it is one in nature, begets a multitude of different plants, producing appropri7

Proverbs 26:4-5.

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Psalm 13(14):1.

9

Allusion to the phrase from Euripides’ lost play Melanippe quoted by Plato (Symposium 177A): “Not mine is the word which I am about to speak.”

10

Psalm 18(19):1-4.

THE SOUL AND RESURRECTION

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ate growth in all that exists. The swift revolution of the celestial sphere, the reverse movement of the inner orbits,’’ the occultations and conjunctions, and the harmonious oppositions of the stars: when we see all these with the intellectual eye of the soul, are we not taught plainly from our observations that a divine Power, appearing skillful and wise in the universe and permeating everything, fits the parts

together with the whole and fulfills the whole in the parts? It maintains everything by one power, remaining in Itself and revolv-

ing around Itself. It never ceases its motion nor migrates into another place than that in which It is.”

“And how,” I said, “can a faith in the existence of God prove also that the human soul exists? The soul is not the same as God, so that, if we were to admit that the one exists, we would have to admit that the other exists as well.”

She replied, “It is said by the wise that the human being is a kind of small cosmos, containing in himself the same elements with which the whole is built up.’ If this is true (and it seems likely),

perhaps we would not need any other assistance to confirm for us what we have assumed concerning the soul. We have assumed that it exists in itself, with its own nature, utterly different from the

solidity of the body. As we observe the whole universe through sensual apprehension, by the very operation of our senses we are led to conceive of that reality and intelligence which surpasses the

senses.'* Our eyes become interpreters of the omnipotent wisdom which is contemplated in the universe, the wisdom which reveals

through itself the One who maintains the whole in accordance with it. In the same way, when we look at the cosmos in ourselves, we 11 The planets appear to move back and forth in the sky relative to the fixed stars. The geocentric astronomical theory of Pto-

lemy accounts for these motions by a system of “epicycles.” 12 Various Greek thinkers, perhaps beginning with Anaximenes of Miletus (sixth century B.C.), drew an analogy between man as the microcosm and the universe as the macrocosm.

13 Compare Wisdom 13:5.

ST GREGORY OF NYSSA

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have found a good place to start conjecturing about what is hidden from what appears. By ‘hidden’ I mean that which escapes the

observation of the senses because in itself it can be known only by the intellect and not by sight.”

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