OBJECTIFICATION AND INTERIORIZATION / MYSTICISM

...The Cappadocians were all intellectuals, quite capable of engaging in academic debate and polemics without letting their own personal experiences intrude overtly. In particular, the debates with Eunomius might hardly have been conducive to anything remotely resembling mysticism, if what Vladimir Lossky has said is true (and I have no reason to doubt him):

<< As applied to the knowledge of God, the gnosiology of Eunomius reveals an intellectualism pushed to the extreme and deprived even of the religious element found in Platonism. It is an altogether rational dialectic dealing with abstract ideas. >> (Vladimir Lossky, _The Vision of God_, The Faith Press, 1963, 1973, p.63. This book outlines the transformation and replacement of Platonic Hellenism by Orthodox spirituality, Gregory of Nyssa being one of the significant figures in this process.)

Furthermore, as a general principle, I like to keep in mind Hans Jonas's interesting observation that a thinker might go on for years with little or no awareness of the transcendental categories and potential religious experiences already sedimented or embedded in his own philosophy and theology. (See Hans Jonas, _Philosophical Essays From Ancient Creed to Technological Man_, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1974, Essay 15: _Myth and Mysticism: A Study of Objectification and Interiorization in Religious Thought_.) If this is the case, the possibility would have to be entertained that Gregory of Nyssa could have held to a theology favorable to mysticism without himself necessarily being a mystic.

On the other hand, I note that Vladimir Lossky does appear to agree with Fr. Daniélou that *interiorization* is present in the theology of Gregory, and, since the Orthodox tend to not separate their theology from experience, I would tend to assume that some degree of this *interiorization* could also have been present in the personal experience of Gregory of Nyssa as well, although not clearly showing showing up in his debates (Vladimir Lossky, op.cit., pp.72-74, with reference to Commentary on the Song of Songs and the sixth Homily on the Beatitudes).

Also, Fr. John Meyendorff has gone so far as to number Gregory of Nyssa with the Hesychasts:

<< As W. Jaeger has shown so clearly, Gregory's spiritual and mystical teaching complements the exterior rules of discipline that his brother Basil had established for the monks of Asia Minor. His Moses is primarily the contempative monk who "exiles himself from the society of men for forty years, and, living alone with himself alone , fixes his regard, untroubled and in tranquility ("by *hesychia*") on the contemplation of things invisible" (*Commentary on the Psalms*, PG 44, 456 C).>> (John Meyendorff, _St.Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality_, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1974, p.46.)

October, 1995

mmm

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