Might be of interest:
(It seems to me better to read a great deal more of the ECFs and also try to understand from within their mindset instead of from some sort of "objectivity.)
Haven't read the whole thing, but seems to agree with my own reading (both meanings
). Full article at link.
In some ways sympathetic to pagan learning, Gregory suggests that "moral and natural philosophy, geometry, astronomy, [and] dialectic"[3] are all useful in supplying reason with the tools for contemplation of God. And yet, Gregory also warns of the limits of pagan understandings. He points out that both Stoics and Platonists believe God exists, but denies the Stoic claims that God is made of matter or that God is bound by fate rather than possessing absolute freedom.[4] He agrees with Platonic thought on the immortality of the soul; however, he rejects metempsychosis which claims the transmigration of human souls to another human or to an animal after death.[5] He also denies the eternal existence of matter (another Platonic idea), asserting instead the doctrine of creation
ex nihilo.[6] In his less charitable moments Gregory attacks philosophy, which he characterizes as forever laboring, but never giving birth, instead being full of air and miscarrying before coming to understand the knowledge of God.[7] Thus, while various disciplines may provide some help during the storms of life,[8] nonetheless the teachings of "philosophy's generative faculty" (γονή
remain "fleshly and uncircumcised," "contaminated by
absurd additions." [9] Gregory's choice of metaphors alluding to the biblical motifs of circumcision and purity is one of many references that continually remind his readers of the primacy of scripture in his thought. [
Instructor Comment: And of his eschatological horizon.] In contrast to philosophy, Gregory sees scripture as a counselor and a beacon light that shows the way back to safe harbor for those "who wander outside of virtue."[10] As mentioned above, he breaks with Platonic mind/body dualism, insisting instead that the flesh can commune with God in what he refers to as the eternal progress (ἐπέκτασις
[11] or epecstasy. Eschewing the Platonic idea earlier embraced by Origen that souls (ψυχαί
somehow cooled in their love for God and became entrapped in human flesh, Gregory turns to envy as the source of the Fall from Paradise that estranged Adam and Eve from God and sank humanity deeper and deeper into despair through the stories of Cain and Abel, Lamech, and Joseph.[12] The antidote to envy is the mystical ascent, which Gregory exegetes from the story of Moses' continuous successes culminating in entering into God's presence at the cleft of the rock: "the one who is going to associate intimately with God must go beyond all that is visible and (lifting up his own mind [νοῦς] to the mountaintop, to the invisible and incomprehensible) believe that the divine is
there where the understanding does not reach."[13]
Gregory of Nyssa and Greco-Roman Philosophy | fides quaerens intellectum