ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the concept of nature (physis) in Greek philosophy, in Philo, in Christian thinking up to Origen, in Gregory of Nyssa, and in Christological speculation before and after the Chalcedonian definition of the two natures in Christ. It argues that Gregory of Nyssa’s definition of physis as both the totality of individuals and the common element shared by these individuals was accepted by most of his Christian successors but applied in different ways. The most successful defences of Chalcedon, above all that of Maximus the Confessor, were those which, following Origen and Gregory as well as the etymology of the noun physis, acknowledged the dynamic character of nature within the created order.
