(Physis)
The common essence shared by beings of the same kind. The Fathers distinguished nature from person: nature answers the question of “what,” while person answers the question of “who.” Both protologically and eschatologically, nature and person/hypostasis “co-exist” harmoniously as two aspects of every being. Nature is endowed with movement, will, etc., but it is the person who makes this movement and will move toward the fulfillment of its purpose (τέλος, σκοπός), which is the liberation from self-existence to an existence for the other and as other.
