The Body and Desire: Gregory of Nyssa's Ascetical Theology

Description

The first 2 parts are a sort of commentary on St. Gregory's De virginitate.

Chapters

• 1, "Marriage, Celibacy, and Pederasty" (ref:13.1),
  • ref:13.6: "Gregory sees companionship, not procreation, as the principal purpose of marriage: 'Truly, what is chiefly [to kephalaion] sought after in marriage is the joy of living with someone [symbiōsis]' (De virginitate III:2:7–9). [Callahan p. 13, PDF p. 41]"
  • ref:13.45:

“ it would be profitable ,” Gregory says, “to go through life without the experience of marriage, lest . . . the passions should make their entry against the soul” (De virginitate VIII:1:39–42; emphasis mine). [Callahan p. 34, PDF p. 62] It is “advantageous,” he says elsewhere, for the weak to embrace celibacy (De virginitate IX:2:1). [Callahan p. 35, PDF p. 63] To put it another way: their moral weakness is converted into moral strength through virginity, patterned on the Pauline theme of weakness in 2 Corinthians 12:9–11. Gregory is not suggesting that all celibates are morally weak. He is singling out for particular praise the person who is aware of his or her moral vulnerability and decides to embark upon the life of virginity as a means of transformation.

* ref:13.49: Argument for *not* marrying young: "To young people intent on marrying, Gregory’s advice is to defer the decision to marry until they have reached a degree of physical and spiritual maturity, appealing to the example of Isaac (*De virginitate* VII:3:8–11). [[Callahan](https://isidore.co/calibre/#panel=book_details&book_id=8845) p. 33, PDF p. 61]" 
* Interestingly, Plato was against acts of sodomy, saying they are "'contrary to nature' (*para physin* , [*Leges*](https://isidore.co/calibre/#panel=book_details&book_id=6015) 636c; [*Phaedrus*](https://isidore.co/calibre/#panel=book_details&book_id=6015) 251a)." (ref:13.64).
* ref:15.8:

De virginitate (VI:2) [Callahan pp. 30-1, PDF pp. 58-9] […] recalls Plato’s Respublica, in which the philosopher diverts the stream of desires (epithymiai) toward the pleasures of the soul rather than the body through the channel of learning (mathēmata , VI:485d–e). For Gregory, however, the practices of the Christian life—the reading of Scripture, liturgy, the teaching of the Church, and especially the ascetical practices of monastic life—replace pagan mathēmata.

• 4, "A Worldly Life of Desire: Marriage, Children, Money, and Sex" (ref:17.1),

• "chapter XXVIII of the Oratio catechetica , where Gregory in his defense of the Incarnation provides his most positive evaluation of human genitalia. He insists that genitalia should not be condemned as worthless or wicked. On the contrary, they must be viewed as more worthy of honor than any other bodily member because of their role in the continuation of our race" (ref:17.20) seems contrary to his view that Adam & Eve would have reproduced like the angels before the Fall (De Hom. Opif. xvii).

• §"Physical Fecundity" of marriage contrasted with usury's para physin (against nature) sterility, ref:17.21-24 (τόκος: “childbirth,” “parturition,” and (metaphorically) “produce of money lent” as well, and hence “interest.”)
• ref:17.45: "Plato’s view that there is a sexual inevitability in relations between men and women who live in close proximity (Respublica 458d) may be underlyingly at play here."

on marriage are particularly interesting.

This book is one of the few discussing both marriage and asceticism/virginity (another being Brown's The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity).

The Problems of Marriage

06/13/25The Problems of Marriage : 195

chastity (sōphrosynē

Aristotle use?

06/13/25The Problems of Marriage : 196

In the In Ecclesiasten, Gregory decries “lonely celibacy” alongside “the burdensome marriage”, “the troublesome multitude of children,” and “sterile childlessness” (GNO V 387:10–13).12

Physical Fecundity

06/13/25Physical Fecundity : 204

On the contrary, they must be viewed as more worthy of honor than any other bodily member because of their role in the continuation of our race

Would St. Tom think this?

06/13/25Physical Fecundity : 204

observation about physical procreation: Gregory contrasts the goodness of procreation with the wicked practice of usury, which had been condemned at the Council of Nicaea (Canon 17).

The Moral Evocations of Male and Female Characteristics

06/13/25The Moral Evocations of Male and Female Characteristics : 213

harmartiological [= theology of the doctrine of sin]

?

“No Longer Male and Female . . . in Christ Jesus”

06/13/25“No Longer Male and Female . . . in Christ Jesus” : 236

wisdom [phronēsis

I thought this meant freewill.

Refinements in Gregory’s Theory of Desire

06/13/25Refinements in Gregory’s Theory of Desire : 266

proairesis (“free will

Gregory’s Doctrine of God: Intra-Trinitarian Relationships and the Ascetic Life

06/13/25Gregory’s Doctrine of God: Intra-Trinitarian Relationships and the Ascetic Life : 286

“passive potency” (pathētikē dynamis)—

06/13/25Gregory’s Doctrine of God: Intra-Trinitarian Relationships and the Ascetic Life : 287

Eunomius’s claim that “nothing can come into being without passivity [pathos] and activity [energeia] concurring to produce it” (Contra Eunomium III:2:69:2

creatio ex nihilo can

06/13/25Gregory’s Doctrine of God: Intra-Trinitarian Relationships and the Ascetic Life : 288

Aristotle’s De generatione animalium links what is passive (to pathētikon) and what is active (to poiētikon) to female and male, respectively: “the female . . . provides the matter, and the male . . . provides the principle of movement” (De generatione animalium II:740b21–25).

Conclusion

06/13/25Conclusion : 290

Gregory regards male headship as fallen (he does not say so explicitly

I doubt he thinks not exist prelaparian hierarchy.

Part Three. The Late Phase, 387–394: Erotic Intimacy with Christ and the Maturation of Desire

06/13/25Part Three. The Late Phase, 387–394: Erotic Intimacy with Christ and the Maturation of Desire : 296

adumbration

Why’s he use this word so much?

Recasting Virginity

06/13/25Recasting Virginity : 299

Since the prohibition against moicheia makes sense within the context of the conjugal life, it follows that for Gregory, married Christians can be virgins of Christ if they govern their desires in accordance with God’s holy laws

The Diachronic Train of Moral and Spiritual Progress

06/18/25The Diachronic Train of Moral and Spiritual Progress : 325

For love that is strained to intensity [Philippians 3:13] is called ‘desire’ [epitetamenē gar agapē ho erōs legetai]” (GNO VI 383:6–9).75 Here, spiritual erōs and agapē are aligned—but in contrast to Origen, they are not straightforwardly equivalent.76 Rather, erōs is a particular aspect of agapē—the stretching forth of agapē

agape -> eros

06/20/25The Diachronic Train of Moral and Spiritual Progress : 328

overlooked passage in the In Cant, Gregory argues that a husband’s level of spiritual maturity shapes the kind of love he expresses toward his wife

06/20/25The Diachronic Train of Moral and Spiritual Progress : 332

The implication seems to be that the ascetical pursuit of spiritual erōs is inexorably linked to the outpouring of fraternal erōs. In both, sexual self-restraint enables erotic desire to reach its proper spiritual end.

Intimacy with Christ

06/20/25Intimacy with Christ : 365

This is a core novelty of the In Cant (which is developed nowhere else in Gregory’s œuvre): the transcendence of male and female is, in other words, now firmly situated within the realm of human (and thus, by theological necessity, divine) ineffability.

Notes

06/13/25Notes : 452

Hall and Moriarty, “Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa: Homilies on Ecclesiastes,” in Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on Ecclesiastes, ed. Hall,

06/13/25Notes : 452

For an in-depth discussion of Aristotle’s reproductive hylomorphism, see Henry, “Understanding Aristotle’s Reproductive Hylomorphism.”

Although the reception of the Eastern Father Gregory of Nyssa has varied over the centuries, the past few decades have witnessed a profound awakening of interest in his thought. The Body and Desire sets out to retrieve the full range of Gregory’s thinking on the challenges of the ascetic life by examining within the context of his theological commitments his evolving attitudes on what we now call gender, sex, and sexuality. Exploring Gregory’s understanding of the importance of bodily and spiritual maturation for the practices of contemplation and virtue, Raphael A. Cadenhead recovers the vital relevance of this vision of transformation for contemporary ethical discourse.