Sarx

Have you ever noticed how many copies of the Confessions of St Augustine, Pre-Vatican II Missals and Good New Bibles can be found in the religion section of used bookstores? I’m not sure of the connexion between all of those, but, to get beyond them and find something deeper, one usually has to dig.

I was digging, today, at Rust Belt Books. I found a copy of Cosmic Man by Paulos Mar Gregorios. More than “by” Mar Gregorios, this book is his doctoral dissertation on St Gregory of Nyssa! For an overview of the book, see here:

According to the western Christian thought, which originated in Augustine, the essence of man is his sinful nature. Man is originally sinner. Gregory cannot agree with this idea. If man is sinner by nature, how can he be blamed for doing sin? According to Gregory, the essence of man is nothing but the essence of God. Man is the visible image of the invisible God. The original and the image differ in that the original is self-existent and remains unchanging whereas the image depends upon the original, and moves from beginning to end. Man is absolutely free as God is free. However, man is in a state of growing– growing upto the perfection of God. As man is in need of growth, he is immature. Immaturity often makes man misuse his freedom. This is what Gregory calls evil or sin. Whatever in our attitude and behavior that hinders the perpetual growth towards the perfection of God is evil.

Evidently, Mar Gregorios is from the Mar Thoma tradition in India.