Definition
Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-395 AD) was a Cappadocian Church Father and co-formulator of Trinitarian orthodoxy (Nicaea-Constantinople, 381). He is also the most systematic defender of apokatastasis in the early church after Origen, particularly in his work On the Soul and the Resurrection (De anima et resurrectione) and the Great Catechism. Unlike Origen, Gregory was never formally condemned.
Usage in the Corpus
Stephen Jones
Jones names Gregory of Nyssa in his genealogy of apokatastasis teachers as proof that the restoration vision was not a marginal fringe position but was held by orthodox-Trinitarian theologians. Gregory’s combination of Trinitarian orthodoxy and universal restoration vision undermines for Jones the suggestion that apokatastasis implies heresy. [Jones, Creation’s Jubilee, Ch. 5]
Origin
Gregory was Bishop of Nyssa (Asia Minor) and brother of Basil the Great. His apokatastasis doctrine is primarily an eschatology of purification: evil is finite and parasitic, good is eternal and substantial — so that ultimately evil exhausts itself and good fills everything.