Freedom and Creation

Ὁ γὰρ ἐπὶ μετουσίᾳ τῶν ἰδίων ἀγαθῶν ποιήσας τὸν ἄνθρωπον, καὶ πάντων αὐτῷ τῶν καλῶν τὰς ἀφορμὰς ἐγκατασκευάσας τῇ φύσει, ὡς ἄν δι' ἐκάστου πρὸς τὸ ὅμοιον ἡ ὅρεξις φέροιτο, οὐκ ἄν τοῦ καλλίστου καὶ τιμωτάτου τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀπεστέρησε, λεγω δὴ τῆς κατὰ τὸ ἀδέσποτον καὶ αὐτεξούσιον χάριτος. Εἰ γὰρ τις ἀνάγκη τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ ἐπεστάτει ζωῇ, διεψεύθη ἄν ἡ εἰκὼν κατ’ ἐκεῖνο τὸ μέρος, ἀλλοτριωθεῖσα τῷ ἀνομοίῳ πρὸς τὸ άρχέτυπον. Τῆς γὰρ βασιλευούσης φύσεως ἡ ἀνάγκαις τισὶ ὑπεζευγμένη τε καὶ δουλεῦουσα, πῶς ἄν εἰκὼν ὀνομάζοιτο; Ούκοῦν τὸ διὰ πάντων πρὸς τὸ Θεῖον ὡμοιωμένον ἔδει πάντιος ἔχειν ἐν τῇ φύσει τὸ αὐτοκρατὲς καὶ ἀδέσποτον, ὥστε ἀθλον ἀρετῆς εἴναι τὴν τῶν ἀγαθῶν μετουσίαν.    Ἅγιος Γρηγόριος Νύσσης, Λόγος Κατήχητικος Ὁ Μέγας

For He who made man for participation in His own good, and established in his nature inclinations for all things sublime, that through each one of them desire might carry toward its like, would never have deprived him of that most fair and noblest of all goods, that is, the grace of being independent and free. For if necessity ruled the life of man, the image would have been falsified in that part, being estranged in its difference to its archetype. How can that nature which is yoked and enslaved to necessity be called an image of self rule? Therefore that that which is in every way like the Divine should have in its nature a self-rule and independence, that thus the reward of virtue is to participate in the good. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism