Slavery criticism in the ‘Homily IV on the Ecclesiastes’ of Gregory of Nyssa
By taking as its leitmotiv the words of Eccl. 2, 7: Ektésamen doúlous kaì paidískas, Gregory of Nyssa points out the absurdity of slavery through three main arguments: 1) on the level of pure natural reason, man cannot be the master or the owner of his equal, of the one who is of the same species, w...
Guardado en:
| Autor principal: | |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Artículo publishedVersion |
| Lenguaje: | Español |
| Publicado: |
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires
1990
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/petm/article/view/8743 https://repositoriouba.sisbi.uba.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=patris&d=8743_oai |
| Aporte de: |
| id |
I28-R145-8743_oai |
|---|---|
| record_format |
dspace |
| institution |
Universidad de Buenos Aires |
| institution_str |
I-28 |
| repository_str |
R-145 |
| collection |
Repositorio Digital de la Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) |
| language |
Español |
| orig_language_str_mv |
spa |
| topic |
Libertad civil Libre albedrío Esclavitud Voluntad Libertad externa Civil Freedom Free Will Slavery Will External Freedom |
| spellingShingle |
Libertad civil Libre albedrío Esclavitud Voluntad Libertad externa Civil Freedom Free Will Slavery Will External Freedom Bergadá, María Mercedes Slavery criticism in the ‘Homily IV on the Ecclesiastes’ of Gregory of Nyssa |
| topic_facet |
Libertad civil Libre albedrío Esclavitud Voluntad Libertad externa Civil Freedom Free Will Slavery Will External Freedom |
| description |
By taking as its leitmotiv the words of Eccl. 2, 7: Ektésamen doúlous kaì paidískas, Gregory of Nyssa points out the absurdity of slavery through three main arguments: 1) on the level of pure natural reason, man cannot be the master or the owner of his equal, of the one who is of the same species, who is homophylos to him; 2) on the theological level, Gn 1,26 tells us that God created man in his own image and constituted him lord of all the visible creation. Therefore, it’s only evil the one that could make another man claim that he can reduce those who are the image of God and who have dominion over the whole earth to servitude. 3) A third argument, which could be considered the most characteristic of Gregory, who sees in free will the main feature of man’s resemblance to God: only evil could claim to reduce to servitude a man whose freedom was so respected by God himself that man retained this freedom by God’s will even after man abused from it and offend Him. The argument seems very strong. However, it must be pointed out that these are two different things: on the one hand, the external civil or political freedom (eleuthería) of the one who is not the doûlos, the slave subject to servitude; on the other hand, freedom as a faculty of the will, that is to say, liberum arbitrium, which Gregory usually and in his most important works designates with the word autexousía and which in our text is referred to with the terms eléutheros and eleuthería, which everywhere else in this same homily refers to the case of external freedom. Notwithstanding this terminological quibble that facilitates the shift from one concept to another, we must pay attention to the fact that it is not the same situation in one case as in the other. Because if it is a question of freedom of the will, then the liberum arbitrium that God has respected for all mankind, even when it has fallen, the slave retains it as well as his master, although in fact he cannot always implement his free decisions. |
| format |
Artículo publishedVersion |
| author |
Bergadá, María Mercedes |
| author_facet |
Bergadá, María Mercedes |
| author_sort |
Bergadá, María Mercedes |
| title |
Slavery criticism in the ‘Homily IV on the Ecclesiastes’ of Gregory of Nyssa |
| title_short |
Slavery criticism in the ‘Homily IV on the Ecclesiastes’ of Gregory of Nyssa |
| title_full |
Slavery criticism in the ‘Homily IV on the Ecclesiastes’ of Gregory of Nyssa |
| title_fullStr |
Slavery criticism in the ‘Homily IV on the Ecclesiastes’ of Gregory of Nyssa |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Slavery criticism in the ‘Homily IV on the Ecclesiastes’ of Gregory of Nyssa |
| title_sort |
slavery criticism in the ‘homily iv on the ecclesiastes’ of gregory of nyssa |
| publisher |
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires |
| publishDate |
1990 |
| url |
https://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/petm/article/view/8743 https://repositoriouba.sisbi.uba.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=patris&d=8743_oai |
| work_keys_str_mv |
AT bergadamariamercedes slaverycriticisminthehomilyivontheecclesiastesofgregoryofnyssa AT bergadamariamercedes lacriticaalaesclavitudenlahomiliaivsobreelecclesiastesdegregoriodenyssa |
| _version_ |
1851375465631055872 |
| spelling |
I28-R145-8743_oai2025-11-17 Bergadá, María Mercedes 1990-07-02 By taking as its leitmotiv the words of Eccl. 2, 7: Ektésamen doúlous kaì paidískas, Gregory of Nyssa points out the absurdity of slavery through three main arguments: 1) on the level of pure natural reason, man cannot be the master or the owner of his equal, of the one who is of the same species, who is homophylos to him; 2) on the theological level, Gn 1,26 tells us that God created man in his own image and constituted him lord of all the visible creation. Therefore, it’s only evil the one that could make another man claim that he can reduce those who are the image of God and who have dominion over the whole earth to servitude. 3) A third argument, which could be considered the most characteristic of Gregory, who sees in free will the main feature of man’s resemblance to God: only evil could claim to reduce to servitude a man whose freedom was so respected by God himself that man retained this freedom by God’s will even after man abused from it and offend Him. The argument seems very strong. However, it must be pointed out that these are two different things: on the one hand, the external civil or political freedom (eleuthería) of the one who is not the doûlos, the slave subject to servitude; on the other hand, freedom as a faculty of the will, that is to say, liberum arbitrium, which Gregory usually and in his most important works designates with the word autexousía and which in our text is referred to with the terms eléutheros and eleuthería, which everywhere else in this same homily refers to the case of external freedom. Notwithstanding this terminological quibble that facilitates the shift from one concept to another, we must pay attention to the fact that it is not the same situation in one case as in the other. Because if it is a question of freedom of the will, then the liberum arbitrium that God has respected for all mankind, even when it has fallen, the slave retains it as well as his master, although in fact he cannot always implement his free decisions. Al tomar como leitmotiv las palabras de Eccl. 2, 7: Ektésamen doúlous kaì paidískas, Gregorio de Nyssa señala lo absurdo de la esclavitud a través de tres argumentos principales: 1) en el plano de la pura razón natural, el hombre no puede ser el amo o el dueño de su semejante, del que es de la misma especie, que es homophylos; 2) en el plano teológico, Gn 1,26 nos dice que Dios creó al hombre a su imagen y lo constituyó señor de toda la creación visible. Por lo tanto, es solo el mal el que puede hacer que otro hombre afirme que puede reducir a la servidumbre a aquellos que son la imagen de Dios y que tienen el dominio sobre toda la tierra. 3) Un tercer argumento, que podría considerarse el más característico de Gregorio, que ve en el libre albedrío el principal rasgo de la semejanza del hombre con Dios: sólo el mal podría pretender reducir a la servidumbre a un hombre cuya libertad fue tan respetada por Dios mismo que el hombre conservó esta libertad por voluntad divina incluso después de que el hombre abusara de ella y lo ofendiera. El argumento parece muy fuerte. Sin embargo, hay que señalar que se trata de dos cosas diferentes: por una parte, la libertad civil o política externa (eleuthería) del que no es el doûlos, el esclavo sometido a servidumbre; por otra parte, la libertad como facultad de la voluntad, es decir, liberum arbitrium, que Gregorio suele designar en sus obras más importantes con la palabra autexousía y que en nuestro texto se denomina con los términos eléutheros y eleuthería, que en todas partes en esta misma homilía se refiere al caso de la libertad externa. A pesar de esta argucia terminológica que facilita el paso de un concepto a otro, debemos prestar atención al hecho de que no se trata de la misma situación en un caso que en el otro. Porque si se trata de la libertad de la voluntad, entonces el liberum arbitrium que Dios ha respetado para toda la humanidad, incluso cuando ha caído, el esclavo lo conserva tan bien como su amo, aunque en realidad no siempre puede poner en práctica sus decisiones libres. application/pdf https://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/petm/article/view/8743 spa Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires https://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/petm/article/view/8743/7551 Patristica et Mediævalia; Vol. 11 (1990); 69-78 2683-9636 Libertad civil Libre albedrío Esclavitud Voluntad Libertad externa Civil Freedom Free Will Slavery Will External Freedom Slavery criticism in the ‘Homily IV on the Ecclesiastes’ of Gregory of Nyssa La crítica a la esclavitud en la ‘Homilía IV sobre el Ecclesiastés’ de Gregorio de Nyssa info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion https://repositoriouba.sisbi.uba.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=patris&d=8743_oai |