It would be quite hard to claim that studies in English dedicated to St Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-394) and his teachings on the spiritual life are abundant. Nonetheless renewed scholarly interest in recent decades in this particular Cappadocian Father has not been entirely without impact on the Anglophone scholarly community. It is, however, very telling that the theme of relationship between God and the Christian believer in Gregory's thought received its last book-length treatment in English with the publication of a study by the late Hungarian-American patristics scholar David Balás O.Cist. entitled METHOUSIA THEOU: Man's Participation in God's Perfections according to Saint Gregory of Nyssa (Rome 1966).
The void which Hans Boersma's book comes to fill is therefore quite a large one. The reader – one would assume - has every good reason to raise expectations about the new contribution, hoping, quite resonably, it will reflect (at least) some of the major relevant developments in theology, philosophy, patristics and cognate disciplines. Boersma sets out to supply this lack - contrary to such expectations - by creating a distinctive authorial voice which does not lend itself to trendy labelling but rather appeals to the Catholic exegetical and hermeneuticl traditions with a clear (and solidly justified) intent to employ them as a foundation and indeed a framework for his study. Thus the attempt to offer a fresh reading in this book is hinted in its very sub-title and is already manifested (albeit in a condensed way) in the first eighteen pages which form the Introduction. Boersma turns to medieval exegesis and its four levels of meaning namely the literal, the allegorical, the moral and the anagogical. From these four, Boersma has singled out the last one as his own hermeneutical compass to point us at the core of Gregory's exploration of the Platonic ascent of the soul and the ensuing (according to the Platonist tradition) human participation in the divine. This choice, as Boersma shows, stems from a close reading not only of Gregory's exegetical works but indeed of his entire corpus. This project yielded what appears to be a comprehensive detection and decipherment of Gregory's own pointers, scattered throughout the entire range of Gregory's works. It would be fair to say that Boersma has single-handedly transformed - if not revolutionised - the common reading of Gregory drawing our attention to the very broad sense in which the term ‘anagogy’ (from the Greek anagoge - ‘elevation’, ‘lifting up’) is used, as it were, in Gregory's writings. Following the Catholic medieval tradition, Boersma identifies ‘anagogical’ as interchangeable with ‘eschatological’. The new key which Boersma has devised for decoding Gregory's teachings on man's participation in God's life and indeed his overall theology, is encapsulated in Boersma's own comment: ‘We are meant to go ‘‘upward’’ and ‘‘forward’’ both in the same time so as to participate ever more thoroughly in the life of God’ (p. 3).
It is the simplicity of this statement which can appear so deceptive. Yet, by ‘we are meant’ Boersma boldly claims that ’anagogy’ is, according to Gregory, a definitive characterisation of the Christian life and indeed its purpose – the latter being rendered by the ‘eschatological’ ingredient. Gregory, according to Boersma, seeks to surmount the great obstacles of the earthly life namely materiality and embodiment- by branching out from the Origenist tradition with which Gregory has often been associated (famously by de Lubac). This tradition divides ‘meaning’ - fairly coarsely - into two levels: ‘historical’ and ‘spiritual’. Thus Boersma attributes to Gregory a radical review of the Christian attitude towards materiality's traditional exponents: time and space. Moreover and most importantly, Boersma emphasises their simultaneous function in the anagogical process. As we move on earth (or ‘the horizontal’ - in Boersma's terms) we are drawn ‘upwards’ (and this of course is in Boersma's terminology - ‘the vertical’). The embodiment is no longer rejected a priori as an impedimentum salutis but – through the deeper meaning which Gregory finds in it according to Boersma - the term ‘anagogy’ becomes an invitation to participate in God's life and thus is open to any orthodox Christian. This more profound sense of the anagogical is in Boersma's words ’… not just an exegetical practice or hermeneutical approach for Gregory. Rather, anagogy is our own increasing participation in divine virtue and thus our own ascent into the life of God’ (ibid.).
So the following question begs to be asked: how would the terrestrial corporeal reality be transferred into a portal leading towards participation in the celestial in Gregory's thought? Boersma's personal answer introduces another key concept (stated already in the book's very title) which has not been touched upon thus far namely ’virtue’.
Virtue (arete in Greek) is of course a key concept in pagan philosophy. Boersma shows us how Gregory baptises it by claiming that ‘virtue’ is synonymous with ‘Christ’. The Christian, in sharp contrast to the pagan philosophical legacy, does not accept that true virtue can be acquired by humans. True and perfect virtue can only be attributed to God as Christ teaches us in Luke 18:19: ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone’ (cf Mark 10:18). However, the Christian, having received Christ, not only participates in God's life. By the sacramental reconfiguration of the earthly life in anagogical accordance with the heavenly, the Christian becomes (obliquely though) a participant in no less than God's genuinely virtuous perfection.
Hans Boersma's achievement does not end with the exceptionally lucid and coherent re-interpretation of anagogy and its pivotal hermeneutical role in Gregory of Nyssa's writing about heavenly participation and its relation to embodied existence on the one hand and virtue on the other. Boersma has produced a conceptualised road map to help us travel within the spiritual orbit of Gregory's writings. The titles of the chapters in the book under present review, appear obscure at first, but when read against the backdrop of what has been sketched hitherto may be seen in a different light. Boersma, with special awareness of whatever may appear as obfuscation, concludes his introduction with a Chapter Outline section. There is much more here than the name suggests. In fact it offers a useful preparation of the reader to what is to follow. The first chapter Measured Body focuses on embodiment in its mere materiality and thus highlights the notion of diastema (Greek for ‘extension’ or ‘interval’) i.e. the space in which the material exists and is perceived by measurability. The essential importance of this notion was already highlighted by Hans Urs von Balthasar in his Presence and Thought. Boersma boldly challenges the present scholarly communis opinio whereby the diastemic existence of the material i.e. the created - is an endemic and eternal characteristic. In other words mankind has been destined by the Creator to live in a gap which will keep him in eternal distance from God also in the world to come. Boersma gives us a riveting analytical discussion which demonstrates an opposing view. He argues that although Gregory always retains deep awareness of divine transcendence, this Cappadocian Father ‘regards materiality – including the human body – as fluid in character, since the convergence of properties is subject to a variety of configurations’ (p. 50).
Boersma's fundamental interpretation of materiality and embodiment in Gregory's speculative ontology becomes in the ensuing chapters the framework of a thorough investigation of major themes in Gregory's thought, each of which identified as a different category of embodiment. Scripture and exegesis are ‘Textual Body’. Gender and sexuality are examined under the title ‘Gendered Body’. Asceticism, self-mortification and bereavement are addressed together in the chapter ‘Dead Body’. Gregory's concern with social justice which – as Boersma reminds us – ‘pervades his entire corpus’ (p. 175) – is dealt with under the conceptual umbrella of the chapter title ‘Oppressed Body’. Gregory's anagogical reflections on the Christian Church embodies, along the same lines, the chapter ‘Ecclesial Body’ and Hans Boersma brings his study to a close by a chapter, plainly entitled ‘Virtuous Body’, which is a demonstration of Gregory's insistence on the fundamental dependence of any virtue in human life solely on Christ. It follows, according to Gregory, that any manifestation of human virtue is primarily the result of God's assistance. Boersma's conclusion, a compelling reading of Gregory's De Vita Moysis, ends with the assertion that Gregory's reaffirmation of the virtuous character, embedded by God in human embodied existence, ought to be understood as a right reminder ‘that we are led upward in continuous participation in the eternal life of God’ (p. 250).
This study offers not only a new ground-breaking reading of St Gregory of Nyssa. Imbued with the spirit of its theme, Hans Boersma's latest book offers us an uplifting experience of a rare scholarly achievement.
