The final years: Gregory as mystical theologian, 387–394
biography in 385 at the earliest, the year Theophilus became bishop of Alexandria.
In these treatises/letters, Gregory reveals a Christology of the Antiochene Word/Man type, in which he strongly defending the integrity in Christ of both the divine and human natures. Christ is not whole
God and a 'half man', but definitely whole God and whole man, however precisely his unity be accounted for, and Gregory makes an earnest attempt to do so. Gregory refutes the Apollinarian notions that the body of Christ somehow descended from heaven or that the Divine Word took the place of Christ's rational soul, and lays great stress on the assumption of all that is human in the conception in the womb of Mary. These vital concerns of his theological ministry inform his letter 32, to the monk Philip, which bridges the themes of Theology and Christology, of Arianism and Apollinarism.
Gregory's interest in the figure of Mary should also be noted. She appears surprisingly often in his writing. It has perhaps not yet attained to personal devotion, we are not sure, but it is certain that a latent Mariology is emerging. His interest in Mary was prompted by several concerns: his esteem for dedicated virginity as the loftiest form of spiritual endeavour, the extraordinary concomitants of her virginity in particular and by the necessity of giving as accurate an account as possible for the conception of Christ in her womb. Lest
Gregory's Antiochene type of Christology mislead us into thinking him some kind of pre-Nestorian, Gregory acquits himself of statements that Cyrillians of the following century would be very pleased to hear. He employs the ancient Alexandrine epithet of Mary as the Theotokos, the 'God-bearer' (letter 3.24).
The final years: Gregory as mystical theologian, 387–394 While Theodosius remained in Constantinople, Gregory of Nyssa had high standing among the bishops of the Eastern empire. As we have seen, he acted on important occasions as the official orator of the imperial court. But the winter of 387/388 marked a watershed for both men.
In 387 Emperor Valentinian II of the west fled to the protection of Theodosius. The following year the Eastern emperor departed for Italy to deal with the usurper Maximus who had broken his oaths.127
127 See A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire 284–602 vol. 1 (Oxford: Blackwell,
1964), 'Gratian and Theodosius I', 156–169 at 159.
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The turbulent political affairs of the west preoccupied Theodosius for the remainder of his life, so that he came to spend most of his time in Italy and Thrace. Ambrose of Milan was the church leader of major importance in this phase of his life. For a few months before he died at Milan on 17 January 395, Theodosius was the last sole Roman emperor of both Eastern and Western empires.
Meanwhile church affairs in the Eastern empire had somewhat settled down, thanks not the least to Gregory's labours through the early–mid 380s. These and other circumstances, such as his age, and the many deaths of family, friends and associates, one after another, the estrangement from Helladius of Caesarea which never found a cure, all contributed to a gradual change in the tenor of Gregory's life. 'The end of the year 387 seems to mark the beginning of a new period in Gregory's life. He retired from the milieu of Constantinople. He ceased to be occupied with theological controversy.
He was henceforth to dedicate his life to strengthening the spiritual and doctrinal bases of Basil's monastic work. From this moment he began to write his mystical commentaries on the Old Testament and develop his own spiritual doctrine of epectasis. The two are connected for he needed to ensure a scriptural foundation for his mystical theology.'128
Thus in the last ten years of his life, c. 385–394 Gregory's writings focussed increasingly on the nature of progress in the spiritual life, which he expounded chiefly by means of the spiritual interpretation of Scripture. To this period belong the Life of Moses, perhaps written in c. 391–392, and his final testament as it were, his Homilies on the Song of Songs, completed with a dedicatory letter to St Olympias of Constantinople.129 It is in this last phase of Gregory's life that Pouchet130 would situate the intriguing letter to Theodore which is included in this collection as letter 36.
Gregory was now freer to give himself to a task which had always been his concern: the encouragement of the monastic communities which had been fostered by St Basil. Yet in continuing Basil's role of spiritual fatherhood Gregory did not concern himself with the 128 A translation of Daniélou, 'Chronologie', 368.
129 I was tempted to include the prefatory letter in the supplementary collection as an example of a letter to an educated woman of high spiritual purpose, but the letter is intended expressly as the preface to his exegetic homilies on the Song.
130 'Une Lettre Spirituelle de Gregoire de Nysse identifiee', 46.
biography practical arrangements of the communities. That had been largely taken care of by the long years of Basil's catecheses which had been collected and edited in the Great Asketikon, and no doubt by Peter's continuing role as a monastic leader in Basil's lineage, and by other competent superiors in Basil's mould. The reform of the Christian ascetic life spearheaded by Basil in eastern Anatolia was fairly established. Gregory addressed himself instead to the inner quality of the spiritual life of the monks and virgins who lived in those monasteries, which was essentially the same thing as a concern with the ultimate goal of the life in Christ of all Christians. As he focussed his thinking in this direction he gathered together the spiritual strands of his own life, the slow stages of mistakes, adversities and struggles through which he had passed, the labours of rational thought and argument and pastoral generosity to which he had given himself, and the maturation that had been wrought in him over the years, into a brilliant and inspiring spiritual synthesis. We find him now in complete command of a substantive mystical theology. In his doctrine of the spiritual life, based intimately on both faith and dogma— on 'true theology' (letter 34.1), forensic reason, imagination, humble obedience to the commandments and life in the Church attain their end in an unswerving desire for the supremely and infinitely beautiful that is God alone.
Whether his earlier speculative writings are adequately characterized as 'religious philosophy' or not, one cannot avoid the impression that in these latter writings Gregory himself has moved to another spiritual echelon. His words are lit up from within by a profound spiritual élan. He is deeply, personally engaged in the ultimate truths and beauties of which he speaks so eloquently. Just one passage from these later writings might be called upon here as a last signature in these pages of his mature mind and heart. He speaks of the Bride of the Song of Songs, the figure of every soul that truly seeks God:
The soul, having gone out at the word of her Beloved, looks for Him but does not find Him . . . In this way, she is in a sense, wounded and beaten because of the frustration of what she had been longing for, now that she thinks that her yearning for the Other cannot be fulfilled or satisfied. But the veil of her grief is removed when she learns that the true satisfaction of her desire consists in continuing to go on with her quest and never ceasing in her ascent, seeing that every fulfilment of her desire continually generates a further desire for the Transcendent.
Thus the veil of her despair is torn away and the bride realizes that she will always discover more and more of the incomprehensible and
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unhoped for beauty of her Spouse throughout all eternity. Thereupon she is torn by an even more urgent longing, and she . . . communicates to her Beloved the affections of her heart. For she has received within her God's special dart, she has been wounded to the heart by the barb of faith, she has been mortally wounded by the arrow of love. And God is love.131
The last record of Gregory alive is his presence in a synod at Constantinople in 394, where his name appears on a list of participants. 'The prophecy of Basil had come true. Nyssa was ennobled by the name of its bishop which appeared on the roll of this Synod between those of the metropolitans of Caesarea and Iconium. Even in outward rank he is equal to the highest.'132
After that he fades from the historical record. Gregory therefore seems to have died forever to this world late in 394 or in 395.
131 From Glory to Glory, texts from Gregory of Nyssa's mystical writings, selected and introduced by J. Daniélou, translated and edited H. Musurillo (Crestwood N.Y.: St Vladimir's Press, 1995), pp. 270–271.
132 NPNF, ser. 2, 5.8.