Translator’s Introduction

McCambly’s Introduction

Richard McCambly's own essay on the book and its preacher — where Ecclesiastes sits in Scripture, the shape of all eight homilies, and the ascent Gregory reads in them. The scholarly apparatus lives here: all 41 of the translator's notes are gathered on this page.

❧

The book of Ecclesiastes occupies a unique position in the Bible due to its prevalent sense of pessimism and absence of God's intervention in our world. In fact, the all-pervading mood of a God remote from our human condition sets the tone for Ecclesiastes which seems incongruent with the other books of the Old Testament. It contains reflections more philosophical in nature rather than a testimony of belief which we would normally associate with the Hebrew scriptural tradition. For the traditional author, Ecclesiastes, God is the inscrutable originator of the world who determines the fate of humankind. Just as the natural world is in constant movement minus the presence of real change, so the human expenditure of energy comes to nought; despite the fact that reason leaves us baffled, the author affirms that life is worth living with all its limitations.1

1It has been argued that a Greek influence came to bear upon the composition of the book of Ecclesiastes. As Roland F. Murphy has pointed out, the author is in the mainstream of ancient Near Eastern wisdom, especially Mesopotamian literature. Cf. Jerome Biblical Commentary, (New Jersey, 1968) p.534.

It is Ecclesiastes' sharply critical attitude towards human conduct and the instability of earthly existence that has caught the attention of that great Cappadocian bishop, Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-c.395), who composed his own commentary on this book. He takes up the task by subjecting the book of Ecclesiastes to exhaustive analysis to the third chapter, verse thirteen. Gregory attempts to explore the book's meaning and bearing upon Christian faith and conduct, for Ecclesiastes reveals a profound gulf between its dominant motif, "vanity of vanities," and Christian hope as presented in the Gospel. However, we must acknowledge that no book of the Old Testament so challenges Christian faith for a response to the questions it asks which are as old as our search for life's meaning. Even a cursory reading both of the book of Ecclesiastes and Gregory of Nyssa's commentary upon it show the fundamental theme of vanity, another word for the transitory character of this world. The phrase "vanity of vanities" does not condemn creation but simply our misuse of what God had entrusted to our guardianship. As Gregory's On Virginity briefly says, the outcome of our misuse of the patrimony entrusted to us is the illusion that we are masters of ourselves and of the earth. Two passages may be compared to illustrate this point:

The text [Ecclesiastes] says that appearances are not simply vain; rather, they are characterized by a special kind of vanity as if someone were claimed to be more dead than the dead and more lifeless than the lifeless. Any exaggeration is out of place here, yet it serves to clarify a point. Just as we employ the phrase "service of works" and "holy of holies" to represent something outstanding, so does "vanity of vanities" demonstrate the incomparable excess of vanity. (Commentary on Ecclesiastes, J.283)

The earth, says Ecclesiastes, abides forever and ministers to every generation: first one, then

another which succeeds it. However, even though men are scarcely their own masters, they are brought into life without knowing it by their Maker's will. Before they wish it, they are

withdrawn from life; nevertheless, in their excessive vanity, they think that they are her

lords and that they who are now born, now dying, rule that which remains continually.

(On Virginity, J.270)

When a person begins to grow spiritually, he or she realizes that former ways of life and the world view resulting from them no longer suffice for a new manner of living which has come to birth. That is, what we once held dear is no longer considered to be so precious. The book of Ecclesiastes clearly provides expression for such a realization, and Gregory of Nyssa did not fail to consider the role Ecclesiastes would play in his scheme for the spiritual life. He saw it divided into three stages, an outline inherited from his illustrious predecessor, Origen of Alexandria: praktike theoria or "practical, applied" contemplation, phusike theoria or "physical" contemplation and theologia or "theology" which pertains to God proper. In Origen's scheme the book of Proverbs represents the first stage, the book of Ecclesiastes the second and the Song of Songs the third and final stage. Gregory himself speaks of the these three books of Solomon with reference to the three stages of spiritual growth at the beginning of his Commentary on the Song of Songs:

The purpose of the book of Proverbs is to teach, while that of Ecclesiastes is to preach. The

philosophy of the Song of Songs transcends both by its loftier doctrine (J.18). "For Gregory of Nyssa, Proverbs is the first way, Ecclesiastes is the second,2 and the Song of Songs is the third. That is, he re-arranges the scheme originally developed by Origen. The Song Commentary goes to relatively great lengths to demonstrate the role of Proverbs in the First Homily.3 In Gregory's view we see a need to be instructed in things spiritual before advancing to a realization that our former perceptions were subject to vanity. Despite this basic difference, both Origen and Gregory agree that the Song of Songs holds pre-eminence by reason of "its loftier doctrine."4

2At the very beginning of his Commentary Gregory mentions the role played by the book of Proverbs: "For when the sense of the book of Proverbs has first exercised our minds by its obscure words, wise sayings, riddles, and various twists of words as contained in the introduction (1.6), we find an ascent for those persons who have advanced to more perfect lessons with regard to this lofty, divinely inspired book. If a toilsome, arduous meditation on Proverbs prepares us for these lessons, how much more laborious and difficult must it be to now examine such sublime matters proposed for our contemplation! (J.277-78) For more information on the relationship between Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, cf. Platonisme et Theologie Mystique by Jean Danielou (Paris 1943), p.17-26 and Gregoire de Nysee et L'Hermeneutique Biblique by Mariette Canevet (Paris 1983), p.127.

3The rather lengthy quotes from Proverbs may be found on J.18-22. In the First Homily, Gregory says with reference to the role of Ecclesiastes, "Then Solomon adds the philosophy contained in Ecclesiastes for the person who has been sufficiently introduced by proverbial training to desire virtue. After having reproached in that book men's attitudes towards external appearances, and after having said that everything unstable is vain and passing, Solomon elevates above everything grasped by sense the loving movement of our soul towards invisible beauty," that is, the doctrine contained in the Song of Songs (J.22).

4For a discussion on this three fold division, cf. Platonisme et Theologie Mystique,pp.17-26. Louis Bouyer comments on this division--"We cannot, without distorting the texts, make the succession of light, cloud, and darkness with Gregory coincide with the three divisions of Origen." The Spirituality of the New Testament and the Fathers (New York and Tournai, 1963) pp.355-56. Compare with these words what Danielou says further on (Platonisme, p.185): "La theoria est donc en un sens un accomplissement, comme l' apatheia en etait un sur le plan de la praktike theoria [Origen's first step which is equivalent to Proverbs], mais pour autant elle n'est pas un terme. Et c'est ice que l'originalite de Gregoire de Nysse apparait le plus, et qu'on peut voir en lui le vrai fondateur de la theologie mystique. Sa grade idee, en effet, est que, meme pour l'ame parvenue a la theoria --qu'il integre--' ousia divine rest encore infiniment inaccessible."

The bishop of Nyssa claims in Ecclesiastes that the sensible life usually associated with the phrase "vanity of vanities" can act as a vehicle to put us in contact with a transcendent reality not generally accessible to us.5 In Gregory's view, our very own thoughts are potential enemies, which are to be destroyed. For a passage related to this theme, refer to Ecclesiastes:

5With regard to the sensible world as a means to the invisible world, cf. Hubertus Drobner, Die Drei Tage Zwischen dam Tod und der Auferstehung Unseres Herrn Jesus Christus (Leiden, 1982), p.163: "Dahinter steht gregors Theorie die geistlichen Sinne, eine Idee, die auf Origenes zuruckgeht: alle korperlichen Sinne analog auch im seelischen Bereich vorhanden. (Cf. Ecclesiastes, J.357). Die aromata der Menschen sind ihre Tugenden ( aretai ) wobei 'Glaube und reines Gewissen' die 'grundlegenden Lebensausserungen des Leibes der Kirche' sind. Also, cf. the Song Commentary, J.419.

As a result, many traitors from the crowd, that is, our thoughts, will be summoned to assist the spy. These traitors are the ones of whom the Lord says, "A man's foes shall be of his own household." He refers to the utterances of his heart which can defile him as we clearly learn from the Gospel. (J.431)

Our perception of the everyday world which also engaged Ecclesiastes' attention as king over Israel needs to be transcended. For Gregory of Nyssa a prototype for transcendence is St. Paul who was transported into the third heaven (cf. 2Cor.12.2-4), the place of beatitude. Let us compare two passages which illustrate this:

But these things pertain to life here below while Paul kept his eyes fixed on heaven. However, he was raised to the third heaven where Christ the head is. Paul had his eyes set there, rejoiced at the unutterable mysteries of paradise and gazed upon unseen, hidden realities which transcend both the senses and mind. (Ecclesiastes, J.359-60)

Even if someone like St. Paul was initiated into the ineffable mysteries of paradise and heard words not to be spoken, any understanding of God remains unutterable. Paul himself says that such concepts are ineffable. (Song of Songs, J.86)

This rapture6 into heaven lies in sharp contrast to both the Ecclesiastes' personal situation and the world about him. In his commentary upon Ecclesiastes Gregory views such rapture as the antidote to the cyclic nature of vanity. Later in his more mature work, the Song Commentary, Gregory does not abandon this insight but develops it in relation to the unsurpassable nuptial relationship between bride and bridegroom. The origin of our alienation from God depicted in Ecclesiastes is our initial incapacity of adequately attending to real truth by such a transcendental seizure. As J. Gaith has observed.7 our spirit is attracted to sensibility instead of being drawn upward as the following passage shows:

6With regard to the passage from J.359-60 Monique Alexandre observes, "La vision de Paul que Gregoire commente en termes de contemplation du Beau, comme en termes de vision du Tabernacle, est retour au Paradis de la Genese, elle est le modele du retour paradisiaque obtenu par l'ascese et particulierement la virginite, par la contemplation, elle est anticipation du Paradis de l'apres-mort, de la resurrection." Taken from Protologie et Eschatologie chez Gregoire de Nysse in Arche e Telos, L'Anthropologia di Oregene e di Gregorio di Nissa (Milan 1981), p.159, footnote #189.

7With reference to J.420: "Aussi, la connaissance du vrai bien lui devient-elle difficile. Cette tragique situation initiale, a laquelle les psychologues anciens et modernes n'ont jamais donne une importance suffisante, joue chez Gregoire un role primordial. C'est elle qui commande toute sa conception de la servitude psychologique individuelle et collective." Jerome Gaith, La Conception de la Liberte chez Gregoire de Nysse (Paris, 1953) p.119.

It is difficult for us to comprehend the true good because we are preoccupied with sense criteria which constrict the beautiful by enjoyment and pleasure. Just as we cannot see the beauty in heaven when the sky is darkened, so the soul's eye cannot see virtue

obscured by pleasure's mist. (Ecclesiastes, J.428)

The first of eight homilies in Ecclesiastes approach the theme of death from an ascetical point of view.8 While discussing the vanity of human existence, Gregory explains that we have two forms of life present in us according to the two-fold constitution of human nature, the visible and invisible. The former is given to man as a means to attain the latter, knowledge of Him Who is. As David Balas points out,9 the bishop of Nyssa gives a much longer treatment of the death of the soul:

8"Only one [aspect of man's existence] is concerned with the present while the other looks for that which abides forever. Since a great difference exists between mortal and immortal, temporal and eternal, Ecclesiastes urges us not to dwell upon this sensible, non-existent and insubstantial life in comparison to true life." (J.284)

9David Balas, Metousia Theou: Man's Participation in God's Perfections according to Saint Gregory of Nyssa (Rome, 1966), pp.90-1.

The living Word cannot be present in us (I mean the pure, invisible bridegroom who unites the soul to himself by incorruptibility and holiness), unless we remove the veil of flesh by the mortification of our bodies on earth. In this way we will open the door to the Word that he may enter and dwell with the soul. This is clear, not only from the Apostle's divine teachings, but from the bride herself. (Song of Songs, J.342-43)

The divine power holds all things in existence10 by a cosmic harmony and permanence on a purely ontological level. There is no "physical contact," so to speak, between God and creation as Reinhard Hubner has demonstrated.11 Yet the following passage from Ecclesiastes speaks of a smooth transition from this ontological connection with God to a moral and religious one which is necessary for a person to live virtuously:

10Cf. De Anima et Resurrectione, PG#46.28A; Oratio Catachetica, PG#45.80D.

11"Alle Teile des Ganzen [members of Christ's body] sind potentiell in die Wirkung im ersten Teil eingeschlossen...Dieses Modelle, das Gregor aus dem paulinischen Gleichnis des 'Erstlings' und 'Teiges' durch die Hinzufugung des philosophischen Terminus te dunamei entwickelt hat, benutzt er, weil er es aus seiner Sicht fur geeignet halt, zur Darstellung der Okonomie. So sehr die Konnaturalitat oder Homogenitat Christi und der Menschen in realem Sinne der Ermoglichungsgrund der Erlosung aller zu sein scheint, so kann doch nicht behauptet werden, das er sich die Leibwerdung als ein physisches Geschehen...das Christus in physische Gemeinschaft mit dem als ein Wirkzusammenhang aufgefasten Menschheitsganzen trat." Reinhard Hubner, Die Einheit des Leibes Christi bei Gregor von Nyssa (Leiden, 1974), p.113.

For it is better to guard the grace we have already found. One such example is a person who discovers faith and purity through purification, but it is more difficult to guard what we have found than to find what we did not have. Similarly, the time to seek is not limited to a fixed occasion; rather, one's entire life should be an opportunity [ kairos ] for seeking that good. And so we must carefully measure out the time to guard our entire life as that prophetic voice now says. (J.404-5)

Such an ontological-moral connection with God in Gregory's writings does not occur in isolation; rather, it takes place within a sphere larger and more comprehensive than the individual person, the universal Church. This corporate body enables the individual to ratify his ontological-moral union with God, thereby giving him or her greater security in the truth than a person would be able to discover on his or her own. Within this Church we see sacraments, that is, those "physical" means to reach the "incorporeal" reality of Christ. In Gregory's eyes, the sacrament of penance plays a key role in the process:

If the book of Ecclesiastes says that passion can prevent us from transgressions, we should consider the Church's teaching as expressed through the confession of sins because this practice arms the soul against falling by means of the shield of shame...so the shame caused by passion will instruct a person for this future life if he accuses himself and reveals the secrets of his memory. (Ecclesiastes, J.316-17)

Once a person is established in virtue ( arete ) by the confession of personal sinfulness, he or she is then prepared to make contact with the consubstantiality of the Church's members with Christ.12 These members which constitute the "physical" body of Christ on earth form a whole, that is, humanity. It is in this relationship between individual members of the Church and Christ that soteriology and Christology converge.13 In other words, the Church functions not only as a koinonia between her members but an inward orientation towards her source, Christ the head:

12For a reference, cf. Gregory of Nyssa's On Perfection: "There is one pure nature in Christ, and it is the same in the person participating in it. However, one springs up while the other being a part of it, is drawn from the fountain and brings beauty to his life in thoughts. As a result, the hidden man conforms with the manifest when life concurs and is conformed to thoughts activated according to Christ." (J.212)

13Cf. Die Einheit des Leibes Christi bei Gregor von Nyssa, p.33. Hubner's book studies Gregory's conception of the body of Christ in relation to the Church and creation including the sources which came to bear upon his conclusions.

Why, then, does the head of a wise person have eyes? Does this mean that an analogy exists between members of the soul and the body? Just as the head presides over the entire body, so does the soul hold preeminence as the governing principle. (Ecclesiastes, J.357).

Here Gregory uses the term hegemonikon 14 with respect to the soul which functions as a governing or guiding principle for the body. Nevertheless, there is a need to show a connection between head and members, and the term which the bishop of Nyssa employs for such a connection is akolouthia , the relationship between two elements.15 The beauty of Gregory's theology and philosophy lies in the fact that he is able to synthesize the physical and spiritual constitution of an individual person, his relationship to others in a larger body (the Church) and the final orientation of this corporate body to an ultimate goal, Jesus Christ.16

14For a fuller definition of this term, cf. A Patristic Greek Lexicon by G. Lampe (Oxford, 1961), p.599-601. The Stoic notion of hegemonikon as situated in the heart has biblical roots as pointed out by Hubertus Drobner in Die drei Tage zwischen Tod und Auferstehung unseres Herrn Jesus Christus, p.86: Job 5.13; Is 19.11, 29:14; Rom 1.22; 1Cor 1.19, 3.19.

15Akolouthia plays a major role in the thought of Gregory of Nyssa. It has strong Aristotelian overtones and can be used variously as order, sequence, arrangement. For a thorough treatment of this word in Gregory's thought, refer to L'Etre et le Temps chez Gregoire de Nysse by Jean Danielou (Leiden 1970). Danielou translates akolouthia as "'enchainement des idees" (p.18), "la suite" (p.42), "une suite necessaire" (p.44), "le lien necessaire de deux propositions" (p.45).

16"Das Ganzheitsdenken Gregors, das die sinnliche und ubersinnliche Welt als grose Einheit empfindet und ach zu einer anderen Wertung des Fleisches furhrt, korrigiert frielich die alexandrinische Konzeption." Gregor von Nysser als Mystiker by Walther Volker (Wiesbaden, 1955), p.284.

The perfection of the body of Christ, the Church, is for the bishop of Nyssa an escatalogical reality. In other words, the Church's perfection is attained by subjection ( hupotasis ) of its members to the head, the subject of Gregory's treatise on First Corinthians 15.28. An image of the subjection of creation to Christ as head is related to a another concept of Gregory is fond, pleroma , as we see in the following passage:

As a chorus looks to its leader, sailors to their pilot, and soldiers to their general, so do those in the assembly [ pleroma , in the sense of fullness, a full body persons] of the Church look to Ecclesiastes. (Ecclesiastes, J.299)

This text immediately continues with a statement from Ecclesiastes himself, "I have been king over Israel in Jerusalem" (1.12). Here the Church is constituted as the Logos which is permeated by the "first-born (Christ) of the common dough," an expression with roots in St. Paul (lCor.5.6 & Gal.5.9) and may be seen in the context of the following two passages:

The great Apostle Paul joins us as virgins to Christ and acts as an escort for the bride. He says that the clinging together of two persons in the union of one body is a great mystery of Christ's union with the Church...This could not have happened unless the Lord had appeared to us 'overshadowed' with a human body. (Song of Songs, J.108-109)

However, from the entirety of human nature to which the divinity is mixed, the man constituted according to Christ is a kind of first fruits of the common dough [ phurarma ]. It is through this [divinized] man that all mankind is joined to the divinity. (A Treatise on First Corinthians 15.28, PG#44.1313B)

Hans Urs von Balthasar remarks17 that the "physical" unity of humankind as a whole forms an image which Christ assumes, not the individual members. However, this insight of the entire human race as one body does not exist theoretically as in a Platonic sense; when a person loosens the bond to his or her own ego-consciousness through the program of self-denial as set forth by the Church and her liturgical cycle (Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter), he or she is then able through grace to realize the "mystery which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col.1.27).

17"Hier [regarding the Incarnation of Christ] aber wird eine andere Grundlehre Gregors wesentlich...die Lehre von der ontologischen, ja physischen Einheit der Menschennatur. Nach Gregor ist der eigentliche Trager des Gottesbildes nicht die Einzelseele, sondern die eine, einzige Menschennatur, von der die individuellen Menschen nur Ausdruck und Darstellung sind." Gregor von Nyssa, Der versiegelte Quelle (Saltzburg/Leipzig, 1939), p.30-31. Refer Balthasar's remarks to Gregory's treatise on First Corinthians 15:28: "To have God means nothing else than to be united with him. Unity then means to be one body with him as Paul states, for all who are joined to the one body of Christ by participation [ dia tes metousias ] are one body with him. When the good pervades everything, then the entirety of Christ's body will be subject to God's vivifying power [ hupotagesetai te zoopoio exousia ]." PG#44.1317A.

Gregory is fond of borrowing Stoic terminology for describing the union of Christ with humankind.18 Such vocabulary was originally used with reference to the created realm, the cosmos, and served to explain the inter-relationship of beings with each another. A passage from the Commentary on Ecclesiastes demonstrates this point well:

18For a brief discussion on the Stoic terms used by Gregory, refer to Traite de la Virginite, Source Cretiennes, #119 (Paris, 1966), pp.103-5.

[The text] shows that the universe is entirely consistent with itself, and its harmony [ harmonia ] does not admit the dissolution of created beings; instead, we have concord [ sumpnoia ] between them all. Neither is the universe severed from any of its parts but all things remain in their essence by the power [ dunamis 19] of him who truly exists. (J.406)

19Gregory relates this Stoic concept of dunamis with dough or leaven ( phurama to swell or grow, but only with an end ( peras ) in view. Cf. Hubner's remarks: "Er [Gregory] interpretiert te dunamei im Sinne der stoischen Entwicklungsdynamis (Prinzip, Keimkraft), die sich auf dem Wege der konsequenten und gesetzmassigen Entfaltung bis zu ihrem Endstadium befindet. Das ubernommene Schema: aparche - te dunamei - phurama hat also folgende Umformung erfahren: arche - te dunamei (akolouthia) - peras : das Endstadium (Auferstehung des 'Breis') ist keimhaft und in seiner konsequenten Entwicklung angelegt im Anfang (der Auferstehung des 'Erstlings') enthalten. "Die Einheit des Leibes Christi bei Gregor von Nyssa, p.161.

This passage forms part of an exegesis on the biblical text of Ecclesiastes 3.6, "a time ( kairos ) to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to cast away." Heinrich Dorrie remarks20 that this passage sees a union between Gregory's theology and cosmology in a Stoic context where creation is regarded as the expression of an artist. The source of such inspiration derives from Poseidonius.21 However, Gregory does not succumb to a pantheistic conception of our union with God and creation where no distinction is made between the respective parts. This is evident enough from a brief reading of his treatise on First Corinthians 15.28 where all things are oriented towards Christ as head, that is, they are given direction and purpose towards a predetermined goal. Similarly, Gregory's notion of our upward motion in knowledge and love of God is a directed movement going "from glory to glory," a phrase dear to Gregory which he borrowed from 2Cor.3.18. As the Greek text has it, we move "from glory into ( eis ) glory." Such movement is well expressed in the Commentary on the Song of Songs:

20"Hier gibt Gregor, den Sinn des zur Rede stehenden Wortes Eccl.3,6 freilich sehr uberdehnend, eine auf Kosmologie sich grunende Theologie in nuce . Der Hintergrund dieser Argumentation ist der Beweis e creatione createm ; aber hier geht Gregor nicht von der Schonheit und der Sinnhaftigkeit der Welt aus, sondern es findet ein ontologischer Beweisgang statt: Das All tendiert dahin, zusammenzubleiben-- suneches estin . Die Kohaesionskraft-- sunapheia --die aus dem All ein Eines macht, ist die domminierende Kraft. Und diese Kraft ist nicht als eine mechanisch werkende Grosse zu denken; ihr Wesen wird erlautert durch Termini wie harmonia und sumpnoia ." Gregor von Nyssa und Die Philosophie by Dorrie, Altenburger and Schramm (Leiden, 1977), p.35.

21On the Stoic influence of Poseidonios on Gregory of Nyssa, cf. Poseidonios und die Judisch-christliche Genesisexegese (Leipzig, 1914), pp.112-256.

Thus it is among persons advancing in virtue; being transformed from glory to glory, they do not always remain in the same character, but according to the degree of perfection established in each person, a different character will shine in their lives; a different one succeeds the other because of their increase in the good. (J.186)

In his treatise On Ecclesiastes Gregory does not expressly touch upon this refined notion of movement which belongs to his more mature years. However, this work, like many of his others, does contain elements not yet explicitly formulated in his celebrated phrase "from glory to glory." For example, the following passage expresses concern over the negative aspects of change as opposed to the stability of unchanging Being or God:

But the person guided through such temporalities to an understanding of him who exists and comprehends [God's] eternal nature through transitory reality and sees with his mind him who is always the same, beholds the true good and possesses what he sees, for knowledge is the possession of this good. (Ecclesiastes, J.285)

This early work of Gregory cannot expected to contain elements belonging to his maturity, yet we see a foundation on which he later builds his more sophisticated theology of constant transformation and growth in God. Ecclesiastes is concerned more with the fact that everything outside God ('the Being', J.406) consists of non-existence ( anuparxia ). However, God is absolute virtue, and the evil not belonging to him consists in non-existence or the deprivation of goodness. It exists insofar as we freely chose to separate ourselves from this good (God). Gregory employs the vivid expression of "sewing" ourselves onto God which works against the "rending" tendency of sin:

Thus Paul knows the opportune time for cutting off the soiled part of the Church's garment and for sewing it back on again, that is, when we wash it from defilement through our repentance...Realize from what we are cut off and are always sewn on. Having been severed from heresy, we are sewn on to the true religion. (Ecclesiastes, J.408)

As G. Christopher Stead has remarked in an article,22 Gregory of Nyssa starts from the long-accepted principle that pure Being is identical with perfect Goodness and that evil, the absence of goodness, is somehow an absence of being. He describes evil as to me on , and uses such terms as anuparktos , anupostatos which suggest that evil is not really actual but a mere fiction:

22Ontologie und Terminologie bei Gregor von Nyssa, from Gregor von Nyssa und die Philosophie, Dorrie, Altenburger, Schramm (Leiden, 1976), pp.108-19. This article has a German title but is in English.

Evil cannot exist because it is of non-existence, and non-existence has no nature belonging to itself; nevertheless, vanity dominates those things which resemble it. (Ecclesiastes, J.300-301).

It seems that for Gregory evil takes on substance in the person committing it through free will or choice ( proairesis ). This capacity of free will assumes the nature of sin and vice and is therefore subject to change of the most degrading kind. However, our ability to choose is man's most noble faculty. It is three-fold as Jerome Gaith states23

23"Si Gregoire insiste tant sur cette notion de transcendance, c'est qu'elle est, selon lui, synonyme et de l'absolu inconditionnel et de la plenitude une et indivise, et qu'elle exprime la triple liberte: psychologique, morale et metaphysique." La Conception de la Liberte chez Gregoire de Nysse, p.29.

in his important book which centers upon this aspect of Gregory's thought. Gaith continues to say that terms like musterion aduton (Holy of Holies) and apatheia (detachment or freedom from passion) express for Gregory the highest summit of moral liberty: the first term is hidden and sacred while the second is revealed in persons.

Since a human being is endowed with free will, he or she can never be totally identified with his natural condition. In other words, a person has the capacity of being alienated from the downward pull of matter, dominated as it is by senses and appetites. The movement of proairesis is upward, a prefiguration (as in Ecclesiastes) of the mature teaching on our ascension "from glory to glory." The following passage demonstrates the "added on" nature of the senses in Gregory's thought:

Since sense perception comes into being at our first birth, our minds await a return to mature age so that it might appear, however so little, in a person. And so the senses gradually dominate our minds and always have a strong affinity to any thought our minds put forth. We accordingly judge [ krino , an exercise of our proairesis ] good or bad whatever sense perception accepts or rejects. (Ecclesiastes, J.419)

As this excerpt shows, human nature has the ability to make definitive choices when we open ourselves up to the world of appearances and our response to them. A person as image ( eikon ) of God is the expression of true liberty with its double aspect: the (active) capacity to destroy passions and the passivity of our interior disposition. This is a process which, according to Gaith,24 is a dynamic synthesis of spiritualization and sublimation. Evil, on the contrary, is a dispersion and materialization by which our eikon looses intellectual liberty and spiritual liberty (pertaining to apatheia ), thereby making us slaves to passion:

24Ibid, p.119.

Anything delighting the senses is considered good. If it were possible to discern for the mind what is good right from the beginning, we would not be subject to our irrational senses and be transformed into beasts reduced to slavery. Thus confusion results with regard to anything worthy of love in our nature along with that which we perceive as wrong. (Ecclesiastes, J.420)

It seems that the origin of our alienation from the good is the initial incapacity of our intelligence to attend to the real truth by a transformation coming from God. And so, we are attracted to a sensibility and knowledge different from the one originally intended for us:

Such is the nature of the good of which we partake, for by necessity it transforms anyone who shares it. A sweet fragrance becomes part of a person's mouth...We become what we love, either a good or foul odor of Christ. The person who loves beauty will become beautiful once he has been transformed by the good he received. (Ecclesiastes, J.422-23)

Under the sway of God's power we experience a victory of that which is positive over the negative (evil), of interior passivity over the exterior activity of the downward-tending passions mentioned above. It should be stressed that taken in themselves, neither desire nor pleasure are condemnable. But when spirit is opposed to the body, Gregory gives to the reality of pleasure a passionate sense (cf. J.319, "delighting the senses," te aisthesei ten hedonen pherein ). He employs the world hedone as corporeal pleasure or more properly, love of one's body which subjects both soul and spirit to itself. A passage from Gregory's treatise On the Inscriptions of the Psalms clearly brings out this point:

Human nature has difficulty in accepting any aversion to pleasure (I call pleasure love of one's body. The soul's happiness does not partake of anything unreasonable and is not slavishly devoted to pleasure)...Evil seduces our sense perceptions while virtue gladdens

our souls by directing them aright. (J.28)

Our human spirits are now trapped in the tragedy of deception, apate , a term frequently used throughout the Ecclesiastes treatise. This word signifies the seducing appearances of the world and our intellect's attempt to justify itself in its abnormal position. Gregory uses the expression proairesis pneumatos , "waywardness of spirit," for the soul's predicament. Refer to two passages from the Commentary on Ecclesiastes:

So I hated life because the work that was wrought under the sun was evil before me, for all is vanity and waywardness of spirit. (J.362)

"Anything I have accomplished does not endure except my opinion and free choice [ proairesis ] with regard to my pursuits." He [Ecclesiastes] says that all things are vain and waywardness [ proairesis ] of spirit. (J.367)

As we have briefly seen above, proairesis means choice, but it can also assume the connotation of a course of action which has deviated from the intended goal or end one originally had in mind. Hence, the ability to interchange the two meanings in the passage above (J.367). Since the soul has freely chosen this path of apate , it is now blind to God's light and true liberty; it prefers the prison of unrestrained activity such as engaging in all kinds of projects, a fact well documented throughout Ecclesiastes.

Dominated as we are by a compulsive bond to things of this earth and the desire to propagate or extend ourselves through such projects as the construction of buildings and monuments, hope of redemption from this compulsion still exists which stems from a realization of our present aischune (disgrace, shame). This is a profound awareness of sin and its results which in turn begets a desire to escape our predicament. From God's point of view aischune is both a warning and powerful ally against any further tendency to sin. And from our human point of view, aischune is united to the capacity for self-expression. A passage from Ecclesiastes reveals how Gregory perceives the positive side of aischune as related to memory which forms the first step of our ascension to God:

Because nature tends towards evil, we are forgetful of the good; but when enjoyment of the good returns, oblivion envelopes evil. We have no remembrance of the first and last things...No such memory will exist in the future, that is, the last state [ he eschate katastasis ] will utterly destroy the memory of evil deeds. (J.297-98)

This "last state" for Gregory corresponds to the "original blessed state" (cf. J.297) which we had before our fall into sin. We therefore have a beginning and end rooted in God, yet our awareness of this linear dimension stretching from a past into a future is often shadowed over by existential knowledge of our fallen condition. Nevertheless, hope is given to us by Christ's resurrection from the dead. This event stands midway between our original blessed state25 and our final existence.

25With regard to this original blessed state and the resurrection, Monique Alexandre remarks, "Par la resurrection du Christ, par la resurrection des morts, l'humanite accede de nouveau a une certaine view angelique, l'isaggelie du texte de Luc sur la resurrection: des anges, elle a, on l'a vu, l'apathie, c'est-a-dire la vie hors de la mortalite, de la sexualite, et encore la vie de purete hors du peche et des passions, la stabilite incorruptible, et cette nourriture des anges, Dieu seul--tous traits qu'anticipent dans la vie virginale les ascetes." Protologie et Eschatologie chez Gregoire de Nysse in Arche et Telos: L'Anthropoligie di Origene e di Gregorio di Nissa, p.155.

Gregory claims that a third element is integrally united to the other two conditions, "the resurrection which is nothing other than the restoration ( apokatastasis ) of all things to their original state" (J.296). The commentary which the bishop of Nyssa elaborates upon the book of Ecclesiastes essentially revolves around the vanity or transitory nature of this world and man's involvement in it. In sharp contrast to such vanity, Gregory juxtaposes for our contemplation the positive means to transcend such futility or our efforts unaided by grace. Note how in another passage from Ecclesiastes that Gregory posits wholeness or apokatastasis in contrast to vanity's insubstantiality:

When one sheep strayed from the heavenly way of life, evil drew our nature to an arid, uncultivated place; no longer does this number [one] pertain to the sheep which have not strayed, but refers to the ninety-nine sheep. Vanity does not belong to the flock which is

why "deficiency cannot be numbered." Therefore Christ comes to seek and save the lost sheep. He places it upon his shoulders, thereby restoring [ apokatastasis ] the sheep lost in the vanity of insubstantial things in order to make whole the number of God's creation by saving the lost along with those who have not been destroyed. (J.305)

This example of the Good Shepherd (Christ) who places the lost sheep on his shoulders plays an important role in Gregory's thought. As Hubner points out, it appears in connection with his struggle against the Apollinarian heresy.26 Gregory loves to see in this lost sheep concrete individuals whose unity, according to von Balthasar, is similarly concrete27, that is, it has real existence now as the visible Church. Time and sexuality are destined to pass away; rather, they will be fulfilled in the pleroma , a term which implies the fullness of reality or integration of every created being once they have attained the re-constituted state of apokatastasis as found on J.299 of the Ecclesiastes commentary ("the assemble, pleroma , of the Church"). We find two important reference pertaining to the redemption of the lost sheep in Gregory's Commentary on the Song of Songs:

26Die Einheit des Leibes Christi bei Gregor von Nyssa, pp.126-27. The point which concerned Gregory of Nyssa regarding Apollinarios was his teaching that Christ's flesh pre-existed and that the Spirit is none other than man (cf. p.130-31). Gregory's concept of the lost sheep has its roots in Origen and Irenaeus. For a detailed account of these sources, refer to footnote #127 on page 127. Regarding sheep, Hubner remarks on p.129, "Gregor...bedeutet probaton , das ursprunglich die reine Geistigkeit der gleichberechtigt zum Engel- Pleroma zahlenden Menschheit anzeigte, die konkrete irdisch sinnliche Natur der Menschheit."

27Presence et Pensee (Paris 1943), p.26.

Where do you feed, good Shepherd, you who take the entire flock upon your shoulders? For there is one sheep which you have taken upon your shoulders, our human nature. Show me the verdant place. (J.61)

With his [Christ's] body, that is, the ass, he hastened to the place where evil had befallen man, healed his wounds, put him upon his own beast, and made for his loving providence a resting place in which all those who labor and are burdened can rest. (J.428)28

28With these two passages in mind from the Song Commentary, refer to a passage from Gregory's treatise on lCor 15.28: "He who is in the Father and has lived with men accomplishes intercession. Christ unites all mankind to himself, and to the Father through himself...having united himself to us, he who is in the Father effects our union [ sunapheia ] with this very same Father" (PG#44.1320B). Here we have an expression of the total extension of the divine leaven in the entire mass of the dough. Cf. Adversus Apollinarem, PG#45.1152C: "through that primacy [of Christ] the entire mass [ phurama ] of our human nature is sanctified."

Here we see a refinement upon the passage quoted above, Ecclesiastes J.305 where the flock is identified with human nature in its entirety which Christ had assumed. Now the character of Ecclesiastes can assume something of a "man of sorrows" after Isaiah's suffering servant (Is. 52.13-15). Ecclesiastes himself did not suffer after the fashion of Isaiah's servant, but he certainly depicted the human suffering and vanity around him. With a play on the Greek word ekklesia and its derivative ekklesiastes , Gregory sees Christ as leader of the Church. When reading this passage, we may keep in mind the apokatastasis or restoration of scattered members into his one body:

Perhaps this inscription refers to the leader of the Church [ ekklesia ]. The true Ecclesiastes [ ekklesiastes , that is, Christ] gathers into one assembly [ eis hen pleroma ] those persons who have been scattered often and frequently deceived. Who is he except the true king of Israel to whom Nathaniel said, "You are the son of God and the king of Israel?" (Ecclesiastes, J.280)

The divinization of humanity by reason of Christ's role as our true ekklesiastes is already accomplished in time through his resurrection. The apokatastasis of fallen humanity, an alternate term Gregory employs for the resurrection, extends to its original state of equality with the angels ( isaggelos ).29 Although this mention of angels is not explicit in Ecclesiastes, it nevertheless is implied with Christ's role as "leader of the Church:" "He who summons every creature, seeks the lost, and gathers the scattered into one, ponders this earthly existence which lies under heaven" (J.314). Unlike his famous predecessor Origen, Gregory denies the pre-existence of souls; rather, the basis for unity between humankind and the angels lies in their spiritual nature. A passage from the Song Commentary bears this out:

29For further information on this angelic state, cf. Platonisme et Theologie Mystique by Jean Danielou, chapter two of part two, "La Cite des Anges," pp.152-82 (Paris 1943).

They [souls or disciples of Christ] are not to swear by the passing world, but by the angelic nature [ eis phuseos ton aggelon ] which always exists. They are exhorted to be attentive to the angels who ratify the stable, constant life of virtue. After the resurrection we have been promised a life similar to the angels, and he who promised it does not lie. It follows, therefore, that life in this world should be a preparation for the one we hope for later. (J.134)

Here we have a mature realization in Gregory's Song Commentary of what he had examined so thoroughly in his Ecclesiastes Commentary, the transitory nature of this present existence. Note, though, how the theme of virtue ( arete ) resounds throughout Gregory's works as in Ecclesiastes: "The teaching of Ecclesiastes pertains only to suitable behavior in the Church, that is, how to direct a person in virtue" (J.279-80). And from the Song Commentary: "We are not to regard just one of the virtues while neglecting other right actions" (J.82). Thus virtuous action is enjoined upon us regardless of the stage of our spiritual progress, whether it is symbolized by the biblical book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes or the Song of Songs.

Gregory of Nyssa's famous Life of Moses stands midway, so to speak, between his first two ascents on high to God symbolized by Proverbs and Ecclesiastes on one hand, and the Song of Songs on the other.30 Moses is a more sophisticated treatise on the spiritual life coming after Ecclesiastes which also has a lot to say about the instability of this world and our pursuits. A comparison of two passages from these works shows a development in the thought of Gregory:

30"The Life of Moses has the form of a logos , that is, a formal treatise, dealing with 'Perfection in Virtue.'" Gregory of Nyssa: The Life of Moses, translated by Malherbe and Ferguson (New York 1978), p.3. Moses, like Gregory's other treatises, rigorously stresses the need for a Christian to be virtuous. It prepares us to ascend the mystical mountain of God's habitation (cf. J.157-58).

What is this influx of water which never fills the ever-constant sea? Ecclesiastes speaks like this in order to explain the insubstantiality of our frenzied pursuits by these elements which constitute man's existence. (Ecclesiastes, J.286)

For he who ascends certainly does not stand still, and he who stands still does not move upwards. But here the ascent takes place by means of the standing. I mean by this that the firmer and more immovable one remains in the Good, the more he progresses in the

course of virtue. The man who in his reasoning is uncertain and liable to slip, since he has no firm grounding in the Good. (Moses, J.243)

One can see in these passages that the created spirit moves with respect to two orientations, towards the good and towards that which is contrary to it. The character of a created spirit endowed with intelligence such as human beings is that they have the capacity for a perpetual increase in being. As the first passage above shows, transitory material elements comprise our mortal frame. Hence, a human being cannot but help act in the same way, only in this case the moral dimension to reality is introduced which involves the conflict between good and evil. The passage from Moses better articulates that movement which is channelled upwards towards God. Such upward direction tends towards our true homeland or politeia in fellowship with the angels.

Faced with such an ontological gap between Creator and creation, we resemble persons at the edge of a promontory over an abyss who is subject to vertigo or hiliggia :

A person's foot can therefore touch that ridge falling off to the depths below and find neither step nor support for his hand. To me, this example pertains to the soul's passage through intervals of time in its search for [God's] nature which exists before eternity and is not subject to time. His nature cannot be grasped, for it lacks space, time, measure and anything else we can apprehend; instead, our mind is overcome with dizziness and stumbles all over the place because it cannot lay hold of transcendent reality. Being powerless, it returns to its connatural state. (Ecclesiastes, J.413-14)

This passage occurs towards the end of the Seventh Homily. By the precision of his analysis, the vigor of dialectic and the elevation of thought and emphasis, these pages are perhaps the most beautiful which Gregory of Nyssa has written where he reveals himself both as a poet and a Christian leader steeped in the best metaphysical traditions of the ancient world. Shortly after this passage, the bishop of Nyssa brings his commentary upon Ecclesiastes' words, "A time to keep silence," to a close by saying that our human intelligence must remain in silent awe and adoration at the mystery of God's transcendence. It is on these last several pages of the Seventh Homily that Gregory sets forth his insights regarding the utter transcendence of God:

Thus when reason confronts that which transcends reason it is time to be silent and marvel at his unutterable power which cannot be explained since it is hidden in one's consciousness. It knows that the great prophets speak of God's works, not of God himself. "Who can tell of the Lord's power" [Ps 105.2]?; "I will tell of all your works" [Ps 9.2] and "Generation after generation will praise your deeds" [Ps 144.4].

Roger Leys has remarked with regard to this section of Ecclesiastes that Gregory of Nyssa proceeds in a dialectic fashion, that is, he philosophically analyzes the conditions which logically lead to our awareness of God's transcendence.31 Leys continues to say that the two dialectical elements of both our possession of the Good (God) and our hiliggia 32 or vertigo before his infinite beauty are united in the Life of Moses where both themes are synthesized as a mystical presentation of the spiritual life. The access to Mt. Sinai symbolizes an intense preparation which is simultaneously moral and spiritual:

31"It est manifeste que la VIIe Homelie sur l'Ecclesiaste procede d'une facon presque exclusivement dialectique: c'est une analyse philosophique des conditions de la connaissance qui aboutit logiquement a reconnaitre la transcendence Divine." L'Image de Dieu chez Saint Gregoire de Nysse, (Paris 1951), p.32.

32This theme of hiliggia is transformed into inebriation ( methe ) as we find in the Song Commentary: "All inebriation makes the mind overcome with wine go into ecstasy. Therefore, what the Song enjoins becomes a reality by that divine food and drink of the Gospel; as then and always, this food and drink contains a constant change and ecstasy from a worse to a better condition" (J.308-9).

The contemplation of God is not effected by sight and hearing, nor is it comprehended by any of the customary perceptions of the mind...He who would approach the knowledge of things sublime must first purify his manner of life from all sensual and irrational emotion...When he is so purified, then he assaults the mountain. (Life of Moses, J.157)33

33Gregory begins the First Homily of his Song Commentary along the same lines: "Those of you who have stripped off the old man with his deeds and desires...and have wrapped yourselves by the purity of your lives in the bright garments of the Lord which he displayed upon the mount of transfiguration...Enter the inner chamber of the chaste bridegroom and clothe yourselves with the white garments of pure, chaste thoughts" (J.14-15). In this mature work of Gregory we have a unity of three themes: the need for moral purity, the transcendent mountain of the Divinity and the mystical chamber of the bridegroom.

A very important aspect of Gregory's thought which we find in his Commentary on Ecclesiastes is that of diastema which has the connotation of a standing apart, extended existence or an interval. When applied to theology, diastema cannot be understood as a spatial gap between Creator and his creation; more properly speaking, it is a gap existing on the side of creation which has a beginning ( arche ) and end ( telos ).34 Gregory expresses the temporal limitations of our present existence as follows:

34This linear direction of a person's advancement may be summed up in a passage from the Song Commentary: "[The bride] once again in the archer's hands became an arrow directed at the target of truth by the hands of the powerful bowman" (J.138).

All our notions are bound by time [ te diastematike paratasei ]; they attempt to transcend their proper limits but cannot. Intervals of time constitute all our thoughts as well as the thought content. Yet we have learned to seek and to cherish that which transcends all creation. (Ecclesiastes, J.412)

Here human thought must finally acknowledge its defeat and realize that it is bounded. Since our language functions in a diastematical world where it is suitable only for describing events within space and time, how, then, can it be employed to speak of something which is adiastaton ('God's nature which is not subject to temporal extension [ adiastaton ],' J.412) or that which pertains to God? Theological language35 is a necessary means to draw us beyond our diastematical world but it cannot communicate the Divinity to us. We need to experience this realm trans-conceptually, non-dogmatically, and therefore through symbolic means. Hence, the need for sacraments which play an important role throughout all of Gregory's writings. Instead of explaining the mystery of God, sacraments make present his saving grace.

35When we engage in theology, we use our faculty of epinoia , a concept difficult to render into English. Henri Crouzel defines this term as "La signification fondamentale du premier est celle de vue de l'esprit, de maniere humaine de considerer les choses, en insistant souvent sur l'aspect artificiel que cela comporte." Origene et la "Connaissance Mystique" (Toulouse 1959), p.389.

One of Gregory's most original insights for which he is justly renown is his teaching on our perpetual growth in the knowledge of God. The term he employs for this is epektasis , tension or expansion. Once we have realized the transcendence of God with respect to creation as contained in the term diastema and described so well in Ecclesiastes, another sort of change becomes possible, the movement of perpetual ascent. This movement reaches for the Immovable, the opposite pole of meaningless motion of the material world. Through

epektasis 36 unity with God is never achieved; instead, the soul undergoes eternal expansion towards God. Let us contrast two passages from Gregory's writings which depict both opposing motions:

36"It is clear that the Greek word epektasis is very suitable to express the double aspect of the soul's progress. On the one hand, there is a certain contact with God, a real participation, a divinization (Greek epi : 'at' or 'towards'). The soul is, in a true sense, transformed into the divine; it truly participates in the Spirit, the pneuma . But God at the same time remains constantly beyond, and the soul must always go out of itself (Greek ek : 'out of')--or, rather, it must continually go beyond the stage it has reached to make a further discovery." From Glory to Glory, edited by J. Danielou and H. Musurillo (New York 1961), p.59.

The wonders you consider in heaven or on earth, the sun or sea, should help explain your human nature. Sunrise and sunset resemble our human nature, for they both have in common the one course [circle] of life. When we come into existence, we later return to our natural place. (Ecclesiastes, J.287)

The Apostle's words are thus verified: the stretching out [ epektasis ] to what lies before is related to forgetfulness of earlier accomplishments. The good which is superior to the one already attained holds the attention of those participating in it while not allowing them to look at the past. (Song of Songs, J.128)

The Ecclesiastes passage reveals the blind, cyclic nature of existence when the guiding principle, hegemon , is lacking. If we follow our natural impulses, we too assume the nature of such non-directional movement. On the other hand, the Song passage takes up movement, gives it direction and posits a goal. Note how such movement lacks remembrance of the past, something which Ecclesiastes cannot escape. You might say that the former work depicts destiny, our slavish attachment to a goal which is unaware of a guiding principle. The latter treatise, however, implies the sense of mission, awareness of being sent from Someone towards a predetermined end. The presence of this awareness makes it only natural for the Song of Songs to be a dialogue between two persons in the same way a person is in communication with the person (God) who originated the mission.

Although Gregory does not develop his well-known doctrine of "from glory to glory" in Ecclesiastes, he does a superb job at detailing the negative side of this reality, "vanity of vanities." The latter is a movement downward or towards materiality, a descent into non-being dependent upon our free choice. Our spirits are therefore trapped in temporal illusions which have seduced us, and we attempt to justify our debased condition. Our freedom of choice ( proairesis ) assumes a kind of subjective estimation: "Ecclesiastes considers any worthwhile pursuit as despicable when he first passionately welcomed vanity as beneficial," J.361-62. The bishop of Nyssa draws a parallel between the expression "vanity of vanities" and the Holy of Holies:

That which is holy surpasses anything profane, while the holy of holies37 is considered most excellent by reason of its sanctity. Thus our comprehension of the good corresponds to the intensity of expression used in scripture which we correctly assume as meaning "vanity of vanities..." Just as we employ the phrases "service of works" and "holy of holies" to represent something outstanding, so does "vanity of vanities" demonstrate the incomparable excess of vanity. (J.283)

37Regarding this title, the Song Commentary says, "Now let us enter the Holy of holies, the Song of Songs. In the expression 'Holy of Holies' we are taught a certain superabundance and exaggeration of holiness. Through the title 'Song of Songs' the noble text also promises to teach us the mystery of mysteries." (J.26)

The opposite direction or movement upwards towards God consists in our transition from "glory to glory." It is also a process of liberation not only from the prison of cyclic movement graphically depicted in Ecclesiastes but towards a deeper love of God. The divisions of time in this commentary ("a time to keep quiet," etc) are stages of growth in our awareness of vanity. At each stage Gregory adds an antidote, so to speak, to the fleeting nature of these periods of time.38 Here we have a foreshadowing of his later development of movement, "from glory to glory," which will appear in such works as the Life of Moses. However, the Song Commentary shows the flowering of this expression borrowed from Second Corinthians 3.18:

38These "times": are not simply random periods in the space-time continuum but are true occasions for growth. The biblical term for this kind of time is kairos or eukairos which may be better translated as "opportunity." Cf. Ecclesiastes, J.373: "Everything has a time and season under the sun...The preceding sections condemn man's fruitless pursuit of vanity, and we are now shown the good which we must look upon."

While the bridegroom exhorts the bride who is already beautiful to become beautiful, he clearly recalls the Apostle's words who bids the same image to be transformed "from glory to glory." By glory he means what we have grasped and found at any given moment. No matter how great and exalted that glory may be, we believe that it is less than that for which we still hope. (J.160)

Gregory's concept of perpetual growth resolves two difficulties Greek philosophy had with movement: it was perceived as the expression of a lack of tending to rest in the possession of the Good which the soul lacks. Also, desire is fulfilled at each instant but the Good communicated dilates the capacity of our spirit. This problem is why for the bishop of Nyssa growth is a synthesis of kinesis and stasis : movement is never compromised but stabilized in what we already have acquired. Compare two texts as follows:

But inasmuch as we perceive the good in pleasure, any delight sets desire aflame, for pleasure is united to desire and is always attractive to each stage of our growth. (Ecclesiastes, J.313)

All wells contain still water; only the bride has running water with both a well's depth and a

continuous flow of water...It seems that she has no further to reach once she has been compared to beauty's archetype. She closely imitates her bridegroom's fountain by one of her own; his life by hers and his water by her water. (Song of Songs, J.293)

Here are two radically opposed passages. The first one may be characterized by a sense of destiny as mentioned just above; the desire a person experiences in this condition is compulsive, leading as it does to a further intensification of desire. In other words, no sense of communion with another person is present, only a fusion between passionate desire and the object of its intent. The second passage presents a clear sense of mission, of being sent, which implies dialogue with the source of the sending (bridegroom). Note that imitation plays a large role here; a certain "space" exists between sender and sent in mission which allows each party to contemplate the other and thereby imitate each other. Hence union is characteristic of the Song Commentary as opposed to the compulsive behavior depicted in Ecclesiastes.

We are invited to detach ourselves from this world's mobility and imitate the stability which stands guard over the earth at the heart of the universe. Refer to a passage from Ecclesiastes which parallels the stability of our hearts39 in the good with that of the world:

39With regard to the human heart as seat of man's soul, cf. Ecclesiastes, J.440: "For our benefit God put into our hearts everything he made in eternity that we might contemplate their Creator by reason of their greatness and beauty." Here is a unity between God, man, and the created realm located within the human heart.

Do not be more inanimate than the earth nor more foolish than beasts which lack feeling, for you are endowed with reason and the capacity to administer...allow temperance to abide in your life along with firm faith, constant love, stability in every kind of beauty, that you may resemble the earth's eternal stability. (J.288-89)

Failure to abide by the promptings emanating from this heart, seat of the hegmonikon or guiding principle mentioned earlier, results in our becoming slaves not only to passions but to the world about us with its transitory pleasures. Recognition of our debased condition then gives rise to a nostalgia for our kinship with the angels that we may have total participation with God: "Now is the time to weep while the time to laugh consists in hope, for our present sadness, like a mother, begets joy which is stored up for the future" (J.386).

Gregory takes up Ecclesiastes' words and applies them to the Church's struggles with the transitory environment in which she finds herself. Only this Church can be a receptacle for a true teaching on virtue and appreciation of invisible beauty as stated at the beginning of Ecclesiastes:

The teaching of Ecclesiastes pertains only to suitable behavior in the Church, that is, how to direct a person in virtue. This book aims to elevate our minds above the senses and to attain what lies beyond them. (J.279-80)

In Gregory's eyes, only the Church can be a receptacle for a true teaching on virtue and source for appreciation of invisible beauty because it alone is endowed with the capacity to imitate God's stability. Only by situating ourselves within her through the sacrament of baptism can we move on to the final stage of spiritual development which Gregory perceives as the Song of Songs. In other words, Gregory desires to transform the natural restlessness caused by our involvement with material concerns as depicted in the Third Homily of Ecclesiastes into the bride's search for her beloved spouse as we find in his Song Commentary. Refreshment and joy lie in store for the person who has made the transition from Proverbs to Ecclesiastes and then at last to the Song of Songs:

The passions now disturbing us because of the flesh will not be restored with those bodies; rather, we shall become tranquil. No longer will the flesh's prudence dispute with the soul...Nature will then be cleansed from all such things, and one spirit will be in both. (Song of Songs, J.30)

But before a person attains such a blessed state, he or she must pass through a period of purification. There is always the temptation to leap forward immediately to later stages of spiritual development by imitating the external characteristics of this stage. Perhaps it is for this reason that Gregory went into such great details when he describes vanity's attendant evils. We have no mention of a mirror as image or eikon of the soul in Ecclesiastes where God reflects his goodness (and therefore virtues). Nevertheless, the relationship between the human heart as seat of God's presence does assume the reflective nature of a mirror which Gregory develops in later works. This mirror is not passive but active, for it absorbs the rays emanating from God.40 Note the alignment between God, virtue, mirror and detachment in the following passage from the Song Commentary:

40Von Balthasar remarks on this active role of soul/mirror: "Mais ce n'est pas un miroir passif qui ne recevrait qu'exterieurement l'empreinte, c'est un miroir libre et vivant." Presence et Pensee, p.86.

Such a person would not have it in his nature to look steadily upon the Word of God as upon the sun; rather he sees it within himself as in a mirror. For the rays of that true, divine virtue shine forth in a pure life by the out-flow of detachment [ apatheia ] and make the

invisible visible to us. (J.90)

Despite the initially negative tone of the book of Ecclesiastes and Gregory's development of its themes pertaining to human and created vanity, he brings his commentary to a close on a positive note. He quotes the book's author, "I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live" (Eccl. 3.12, J.441). A few pages earlier the bishop of Nyssa says in the same context that "God has made all things for man's good" (J.438). We see here the happiness willed by God for man even in this present existence, for "the enjoyment of good things enlivens those persons worthy to receive their eternal hope" (J.441). And Ecclesiastes concludes that "our eyes should be fixed on the good which is in Christ Jesus," that is, our "Ecclesiastes" or leader of the Church with which Gregory introduces his commentary.

* * * * *

A note regarding the text, Commentary on Ecclesiastes: The critical edition by Paul Alexander may be found in Gregorii Nysseni: In Inscriptiones Psalmorum, In Sextum Psalmum, In Ecclesiasten Homiliae, vol. 5, published by E.J. Brill (Leiden, 1962), pp.277-44241.

41All scriptural and references, brief notes, etc, within the translation are enclosed by brackets; those phrases and sentences enclosed within parentheses are by Gregory of Nyssa as indicated within the critical text.

Within the translation are the letters "J" and "M" followed by numbers. "J" refers to Alexander's critical edition of the text. The task of producing a critical edition of Gregory of Nyssa's works was begun under the direction of Werner Jaeger and has continued after his death. The letter "M" which is followed by a column number refers to the edition edited under the direction of J.P. Migne in Patrologia Graecae, volumn 44, columns 616-753 (Paris, 1958).

The Text

McCambly’s Notes