Gregory Nyssen

Gregory Nyssen

His charges against Eunomius

….As for his charges that Eunomius makes too much use of pagan phi­losophy and Aristotelian logic, there is in fact ‘not a little of these ele­ments to be found in him’.  He uses the Categories to refute his opponent, and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest philosophical minds of the early church.  His Dialogue on the Soul and the Res­urrection is a Christian Phaedo, a literary account of a conversation with his Macrina on the eve of her death, Mac­rina be­coming Gregory’s mouthpiece as Socrates had been Plato’s.  Both this and many of his other works reveal that Gre­gory knew the Platonic dia­logues and was able to make a constructive adaptation of Plato’s reasoning.  It is also clear that Gre­gory knew the works of the Neoplatonists, Plotinus, Porphyry and Iamblichus, as well as the traditions of the contemporary Platonic school at Athens (emphasis mine).  It is not at all clear where and how he acquired his philosophical education, but he cer­tainly had it [emphasis mine].[1]

It is widely accepted that modern studies, largely initi­ated by Danielou, have established Gregory Nyssen’s origi­nality and genuine philosophi­cal ability [emphasis mine], and have rediscovered the fundamental impor­tance of his mysticism for his theological thought (emphasis mine).  That Gregory was no mere eclectic compiler of ideas but a Christian Neoplaton­ist (emphasis mine) who expressed his mystical experience through scrip­tural symbols allegorically interpreted, has be­come the standard judgment….the influence of Plotinus has been established, and one is probably justified in ask­ing whether the pendulum has not swung too far.  Philoso­phy in Gregory’s day was not a ra­tional thought without presuppositions, but a way of life (emphasis mine).[2]

In fact , the extant works of all three Cap­padocians reveal how much they assim­ilated contemporary culture and phi­losophy.  The roots of their education re­mained alive, even where they are unwill­ing to admit it.  Rhetoric and philoso­phy are renounced for their own sake, but be­come the hand­maid of theology [emphasis mine]. [3]

[1] Young, p. 105.

[2] Ibid., p. 116.

[3] Ibid., p. 104.