On What It Means To Call
ON WHAT IT MEANS
TO CALL ONESELF
A CHRISTIAN
INTRODUCTION
i\l RITTEN MANY YEARS LATER than the treatise on virginity, this work, in the form of a letter, is addressed to a young admirer of St. Gregory named Harmonius.
Its warm personal tone goes beyond the conventional epistolary style and, despite its length, the impression is given that it is a real letter written to a friend for whom the saint had an affectionate regard. We learn that, in the past, the two men had had the pleasure of long and enjoyable discussions about virtue and man's service of God, that during a long separation St. Gregory had neglected to reply to the many letters sent by his friend, that he now intends to pay the debt for the unanswered letters by writing a long letter which will imitate in style and content their former conversations.
He begins, as in a philosophical dialogue, by setting a problem directly related to man's conduct. The question he proposes is: What is meant by the term 'Christian'? Christianity had been the state religion for some decades and it is not unlikely that certain persons were calling themselves
Christians for reasons of prestige and personal advantage. In order to illustrate the absurdity of assuming the name of Christian without conforming in one's life to its essential meaning, St. Gregory makes use of a story taken from secular literature about a monkey disguised by a clever entrepreneur as a dancer whose masquerade was revealed when, in the midst of his performance, he was unable to resist the temptation of sweetmeats thrown before him. The same story had been used by Lucian to satirize the philosophers whose lives did not correspond to their precepts. The adaptation is in keeping
SAINT GREGORY OF NYSSA
with St. Gregory's propensity for equating the philosophical life with that of the Christian ascetics.
In his discussion of the etymology of the word 'Christian,'
St. Gregory lists a number of qualities mentioned in Scripture as being inherent in the incorruptible nature of Christ, and he maintains that anyone who sincerely calls himself a Christian must reflect these qualities. In this treatise, no effort is made to analyze the appellations applied to Christ in the Bible, but in his later treatise On Perfection} he returns to them and explains in detail how each of them can and should be applicable to the person striving to be a Christian. Here, for the time being, he is content merely to define Christianity as 'an imitation of the divine nature.' This, he asserts, can only be achieved by an earnest attempt on man's part to perfect his nature to such an extent that it will resemble the nature of God. The interrelation of man's perfection resuIting from a life of virtue and man's assimilation to God is a favorite Gregorian motif. If it is true that becoming a true
Christian means the perfecting of oneself through an imitation of God, it is clear that Christianity involves much more than symbol and gesture. It is a deeply personal experience of transformation which can be had only if man alienates himself completely from evil and elevates himself through the impetus of thought to God upon whose generous aid and cooperation Scripture has assured us that we can depend.
According to St. Gregory, then, Christianity is equated with the perfection of man's nature and it is the mark of the true
Christian that, in his attempt to assimilate himself to God, he is living as far as possible a life of perfect virtue.
ON WHAT IT MEANS TO CALL ONESELF A CHRISTIAN
U N SENDING THIS LETTER to your Reverence, I am behaving like those debtors who happen upon some good fortune and pay the entire amount owed at one fell swoop. For after being constantly in your debt in the matter of letter writing (because for Christians a promise is a debt), I now wish to pay in full the past debt, which I contracted unwillingly, by extending this letter to such a length that it will count as many when it is judged by the customary length of letters. But, in order that I may not go on idly writing at length, I think that it will be good for me to imitate in my epistolary style the conversations we used to have when we were face to face. Indeed, I remember very well that the starting point of our discussions on every occasion was a concern for virtue and exercise related to the service of God. You always reacted attentively to what was said, although you did not accept it without examining it, while I, on account of our having anticipated it, came to a final solution to what we were seeking on each occasion as a consequence of our discussion. Surely, if it were possible, even now, for the impetus to argument to be derived from your presence, it would be better in every way; there would be a mutual benefit from our seeing each other (what in life is sweeter to me than this?) and, under the plectrum of your intelligence, our old lyre would reawaken. But, since the necessity of life causes us to be separated in body, even if our souls are always united, I shall be forced to assume your role also, if some logical conclusion is to develop for us.
First of all, however, it would be best to propose a hypothesis profitable to the soul for the scope of our letter, and, then,
SAINT GREGORY OF NYSSA
to direct our argument to what lies before us. Therefore, let us ask as in a logical problem: What is meant by the term
'Christian'?
For surely, a look at this question will not be without profit, since, if what is indicated by this name is determined accurately, we shall have much assistance for a life in accordance with virtue, provided, of course, that we are eager through a lofty discipline to be truly what the name signifies. For just as a person who longs to be called a doctor or an orator or a geometrician is not worthy of a title until he has some education as to what it means, that is, until he discovers from experience what he is being called, and just as the person wishing to be thus addressed in accordance with truth, so that the form of address will not be a misnomer, will want the use of the title to depend on the practice itself; in the same way, if we seek the true meaning of the word 'Christian' and find it, we will not choose not to conform to what the name implies when it is used of us, in order that the story about the monkey in secular literature! may not also be applicable to us.
They say that a certain showman in the city of Alexandria, having trained a monkey to dance with some grace, and having dressed him in a dancer's mask and a costume suitable for the occasion, and having surrounded him with a chorus, gained fame by the monkey's twisting himself in time with the music and concealing his nature in every way by what he was doing and what he appeared to be. While the audience was enthralled by the novelty of the spectacle, one of the clever persons present, by means of a trick, showed those watching the performance that the dancer was a monkey. When everyone was crying out and applauding the gesticulations of the monkey, who was moving rhythmically with the music,
1 Cf. Lucian The Fisher 36. For a discussion of St. Gregory's adaptation of this story, cf. Werner Jaeger, 'Von Affen und Wahren Christen,'
Scripta Minora II (Rome 1960) 429 ff., and H. W. Janson, Apes and Ape Lore in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (London 1952), 155.