Synodality and the glory of communion in Gregory of Nyssa (In Cant. XV). Contributions to a pneumatic ecclesiology

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Alejandro E. Nicola
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7116-5094

Abstract

This article is based on the observation of the data that shows the richness of the experience and understanding of the synodality of the Church in the first centuries. On the one hand, the synodal praxis carried out in its various expressions: local, regional, universal. On the other hand, the theological principles that sustain it can be discovered. This paper is based on an approach to one of the final passages of the fifteenth Homily on the Song of Songs by Gregory of Nyssa. The Nisenus does not literally use the expression synodos and any of its derivatives on this occasion. However, the ideas that appear there referred to allow an intellection of the concept from the symbolic image of the Church from its processional dynamism and in a clear baptismal context. Gregory was able to examine the complex and contradictory ecclesial reality of his time (4th century), traversed and animated by the Holy Spirit. The quotation analyzed here from In Cant. XV becomes a text of great historicaldogmatic value, which allows us to find a very rich conceptual matrix on the synodal expression of the Church. Thus, a contribution is made to the theology of the Church by showing its pneumatic dimension, reaching a better understanding of the concept of synodality starting from the mystery of the glory of communion. This ecclesiological conception is profoundly pneumatological and allows to think the entitative nucleus of the notion in question from the harmonious and dynamic union of the contrary elements according to the whole. From the points indicated above, a contribution can be made to the current debate on the theology and praxis of synodality in the Church of the 21st century, which still needs to be deeply analyzed.

Keywords:
Synodality Ecclesiology Pneumatology Holy Spirit Gregory of Nyssa Song of Songs

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Article Details

Author Biography

Alejandro E. Nicola, Universidad Católica de Córdoba

Doctor en Teología. Universidad Católica de Córdoba, Argentina. Correo electrónico: aenicola@gmail.com