EDITIONS OF GREGORY OF NYSSA'S WORKS CITED IN THIS TEXT
The Life of Moses, translated by Abraham Malherbe and Everett Ferguson (New York, 1978)
Commentary on the Song of Songs, translated by Casimir McCambley, (Brookline, 1987)
Commentary on Ecclesiastes (author's translation)
Commentary on the Inscriptions of the Psalms, translated by Casimir McCambley, (Brookline, 1993)
On Perfection, translated by Casimir McCambley, The Greek Orthodox Theological Review, vol. 29, #4 (Brookline, 1994)
Against Eunomius, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, 1972 reprint)
On the Beatitudes, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, 1972 reprint)
STUDIES
David Balas: Metousia Theou (Rome, 1966)
Hans Urs Von Balthasar: The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics. I: Seeing the Form (San Fransisco, 1982)
Hubert Benoit: The Supreme Doctrine: Psychological Studies in Zen Thought (New York, 1959)
Charles Bernard: Theologie Symbolique (Paris, 1978)
David Bohm and F. David Peat: Science, Order and Creativity (New York, 1987)
Louis Bouyer: The Spirituality of the New Testament and the Fathers (New York, 1963)
Jeremy Campbell: Grammatical Man (New York, 1982)
Mariette Canevet: La Perception de la Peresence de Dieu a propos d'une Expression de la xie Homilie sur le Cantique des Cantiques, Epektasis (Paris, 1972)
Gregory de Nyssa et L'Hermeneutique Biblique (Paris, 1983)
Henri Crouzel: Origene et la "Connaissance Mystique" (Paris, 1959)
Jean Danielou: Platonisme et Theologie Mystique (Paris, 1944)
From Glory to Glory (New York, 1961)
L'Etre et le Temps chez Gregoire de Nysse (Leiden, 1970)
Essai sur Le Mystere de L'Histoire (Paris, 1982)
Jerome Gaith: La Conception de la Liberte chez Gregoire de Nysse (Paris, 1953)
M. Gerhart and A. Russell: Metaphoric Process: The Creation of Scientific and Religious Understanding (Fort Worth, 1984)
Paulos Mar Gregorios: Cosmic Man (New York, 1988)
Jeremy W. Hayward: Shifting Worlds, Changing Minds (Boston, 1987)
Stanley Jaki: Brain, Mind and Computers (Washington DC, 1989)
Mark Johnson and George Lakoff: Metaphors We Live By (Chicago, 1980)
The Body in the Mind (Chicago, 1987)
J.N.D. Kelly: Early Christian Doctrines (New York, 1978)
Gerhard Kittel, editor: Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1965)
Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago, 1962)
G.W.H. Lampe: Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford, 1961)
Jean Leclerq: The Love of Learning and the Desire for God (New York, 1962)
Roger Leys: L'Image de Dieu chez Gregoire de Nysse (Paris, 1951)
Bernard Lonergan: Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (London, 1957)
Heinz Pagels: The Dreams of Reason (New York, 1988)
Jean Piaget: Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood (New York, 1962)
Michael Polyani: Personal Knowledge (Chicago, 1962)
G.L. Prestige: Fathers and Heretics (London, 1984)
Mary Ann Spencer Pulaski: Understanding Piaget: An Introduction to Childrens's Cognitive Development (New York, 1971)
Jeremy Rifkin: Time Wars (New York, 1987)
Rupert Sheldrake: A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation (Los Angeles, 1981)
The Presence of the Past (New York, 1989)
T. Paul Verghese: Diastema and Diastasis in Gregory of Nyssa. Introduction to a Concept and the Posing of a Problem, Gregory von Nyssa und die Philosophie (Leiden, 1976)
Claus Westermann: Genesis 1-11, A Commentary (Minneapolis, 1984)
Ken Wilbur, editor: The Holographic Paradigm and Other Paradoxes (Boulder, 1982)
Up From Eden (Boston, 1986)
Harry A. Wolfson: The Philosophy of the Fathers (Oxford, 1956)
Frances Young: From Nicaea to Chalcedon (London, 1983)
INTRODUCTION
Our position at the threshold of the twenty-first century provides a unique opportunity to reflect upon a number of important influences which have contributed to the evolution of Western culture. Consideration of these influences enables us both to take stock of our present condition and to envision, however dimly, certain future trends and developments which will impact the growth of existing societies well into the third millennium. For reasons which will become more specific as this essay unfolds, one such influence I wish to consider in detail pertains to the notion of movement which can assume two radically different representations.
On the one hand, a significant interpretation of this place-to-place movement stems from the Industrial Revolution which had witnessed the advent of mechanically powered devices two centuries ago(1). The devices, in turn, were applied to the manufacture of inexpensively produced goods which became available to all levels of society. The second interpretation of movement may be traced to the more recent development of information theory which gave birth to today's widespread use of computers. The birth of this theory is inextricably associated with the evolution of computer technology which traces its origins to military research stimulated by the pressing demands of World War Two(2). Information theory may be characterized by the manipulation of electronic data which cannot be easily grasped by the senses. Because this intangible quality escapes common modes of perception, it requires a reorientation of our perceptions of time and space. In brief, the interpretation of place-to-place movement in light of information theory presents a challenge of offering new insights because many levels of society are characterized by the all-pervasive application of personal computers. When an item like this which represents a society's technological advancement is found everywhere, it is a sure sign that the insights behind its production have taken foothold in our lives.
These two concepts of movement, the older one originating in the Industrial Revolution and the newer one which springs from information theory, impinge upon many spheres of human endeavor, including theological speculation, a subject of special interest in this text. They suggest different insights not only as to how the task of doing theology is conceived within the parameters of a basic insight as place-to-place movement, but how it has affected attempts at living out the Gospel message. Furthermore, historical perspective is helpful in order to discover a prototype which sheds light upon certain aspects belonging to these two interpretations of movement. One reference point may be found in Gregory of Nyssa who was an outstanding Christian author and saint of the fourth century. Gregory is significant because his philosophical and theological writings are concerned with two aspects of our relationship with God, the experience of change or movement and how it affects the stability of this relationship. Furthermore, Gregory of Nyssa lived toward the end of the classical period characterized by a world view which stressed the value of stability and constancy over change or alteration. Gregory of Nyssa is thus a not so distant mirror enabling us to develop a model useful to describe the phenomenon of movement with regard to theological speculation and its relationship to Christian spirituality.
The repercussions of these two concepts are communicated through the significant though often unappreciated phenomenon of metaphoric expression. This phenomenon plays a crucial role in imparting meaning upon how we experience the world and how we conduct ourselves in relationship with God and persons. Metaphors incarnate perceptions according to certain tried and true methods adopted by a particular society. Once metaphors have gained general public acceptance, they guide the development of more abstract features of human thought through philosophic systems which humankind has engendered. These systems have also affected current religious perceptions related to Christian contemplative prayer.
Reflection upon the ways by which our experiences of the world are communicated reveals that they carry just as much weight as the experiences themselves. The communication of any insight always remains secondary to initial sense impressions; however, this interval allows time for either modifying or altering these reflections before they give rise to established thought patterns. The brief lapse between immediate perceptions and reflections upon them is therefore a fertile ground for creativity with regard to those factors which form our comprehension of reality. These influences originate from culturally accepted and well-established thought patterns which direct our emotive and imaginative faculties. In the long run, they enable an individual to function as a responsible person within a given society.
Due to the recent development of information theory and its immediate consequence, computer hardware, sufficient time has not yet elapsed to integrate the enormous impact which this new science exerts upon us. Despite the rapid growth of computer technology, its evolution has already witnessed the birth of an entirely new vocabulary, the most familiar term being information(3). The advent of this vocabulary has yet to witness the mature development of a philosophy of information, although the stage has certainly been set for such an advancement(4). One reason for this state of affairs may be traced to the fact that many societies are sill too caught up in the highly accelerated pace at which the technology of computers and the software programs for running them continue to develop. This quickened tempo prevents adequate time for reflecting upon how this new science is impacting our daily lives. Furthermore, the heightened pace at which information is electronically transferred threatens to overturn more stable notions of time which have their foundation within a mechanical (and therefore an energetic) perception of reality. But before exploring how the concept of information may be integrated into ways by which we articulate our perceptions, we must investigate the influence of the older concept of applied energetic movement upon our apprehensions of the world.
Since the concept of movement based upon the mechanical application of energy resources has sunken deep into the collective unconsciousness of modern Western Civilization, it is only natural that we remain largely unaware of its influence over our thought patterns and behavior. This ignorance has the potential of discouraging the exploration for alternative views and creative insights. In their place, familiar and well-established ways of perceiving reality may be preferred. I wish to avoid one such outmoded view represented by empiricism by presenting an attractive alternative which will endow our environment, human relationships and religious beliefs with a transformed understanding. At the appropriate time some key ideas lying behind the concept of energetic movement will be examined and how they have come to affect our thought patterns and vocabulary. However, it is sufficient to present a few introductory remarks about the complexity of the problem now confronting us(5).
This essay will focus upon several important philosophical and theological reflections of Gregory of Nyssa. He is considered one of the most significant thinkers of the early Christian period who exhibited keen interest in the philosophic and scientific achievements of that time. This two-fold interest endowed Gregory with broadness of vision and a certain modernity detected in his philosophy and theological writings. At the same time, Gregory of Nyssa did not jeopardize his commitment to the Christian kerygma or the proclamation of its message. Furthermore, a metaphoric structure peculiar to Gregory can be a catalyst for introducing new insights into the awareness of place-to-place movement. It is hoped that this alliance, not merger, of more recent developments with an ancient yet striking modern doctrine will enable us to better appreciate how we structure our perceptions of reality and how this process applies both to theological reflection and contemplative prayer.
Virtually every person raised in today's modern industrialized societies has benefitted from the exploitation of nature in its diverse forms. Along with these advantages are negative ramifications (for example, environmental pollution) which is now threatening society on a global scale. The manipulation of nature as we have come to know it has its roots in the Industrial Revolution of late eighteenth century England when the concept of applied energetic movement enjoyed spectacular success. During this period the emergence of mechanically powered devices quickly transformed agrarian based societies into ones capable of producing goods on an immense scale. Not only has the Industrial Revolution furnished the means to place the natural world at the service of humanity on a scale which had hitherto remained unrealized, but it transformed the economic means of distributing the fruit of these natural resources to all levels of society. The Industrial Revolution also gave birth to a wide variety of philosophies whose basic feature is empirical and utilitarian which have both explained and justified humankind's use of natural resources for its own economic ends(6). Only with the appearance of information theory and its immediate offspring, computer technology, can we can envision another reference point as comprehensive as the one related to the harnessing of energy on a large scale.
In many respects British empiricism has come to form a philosophical infrastructure to the operation of mechanically powered devices which alleviated the labor and tedium associated with human and animal power. This is especially evident in empiricism's attempts to confine knowledge within the realm of experience. The British philosophers created a skeptical spirit of inquiry as to how knowledge is obtained. The proponents of this philosophy viewed knowledge as building blocks for establishing a structure of human intelligence(7). Even the act of perceiving data in terms of building blocks implies that knowledge is subject to a mechanical and therefore energetic form of manipulation. As suggested in the Introduction, this empirical view of human intelligence developed into a tendency to comprehend information as a collection of isolated facts. These facts, in turn, are derived from the senses alone to which we impart meaning. Since any type of information obtained by the senses is subject to error and incomplete understanding, the possibility for skepticism always remains present.
An inclusive definition of movement in terms of energetic concepts entails both the capacity for action and the accomplishment of a pre-determined task. The mechanical ways by which energy harnesses these tasks obviously involves the intelligent, practical application of natural resources. For example, elementary steam engines evolved at an ever accelerating rate of sophistication from their inception in late eighteenth century Britain. It was quite natural that energy's practical application through mechanical devices was decisive in giving birth to modern economic theories. These theories were then applied to the political order which introduced new structures for people to organize their lives, both in the private and the public spheres(8). A historian of science, Stanley L. Jaki, has criticized the mechanistic world view constructed upon the application of energy which attempted to make the relatively new science of psychology conform to the one of physics(9). This reduction of human activity to a movement more or less equivalent to billiard balls endeavored to eliminate contradictions found within human experience. In its place, the rigorous techniques and precision of mechanistic physics sought to create models of a person free from those unpredictable factors common to human experience as mirrored in the dependability of machines. Jaki's book is thus a meticulous refutation of those aberrant views of human nature which were subject to a deterministic spirit of inquiry(10).
Today there exists a growing awareness that the natural world is circumscribed by limitations which cannot be trespassed. It is a realization issuing from the negative consequences which modern technology has inflicted upon our environment yet is providing an incentive for thoughtful persons to remedy this predicament. Because of these problems, the human race as a whole is being obliged to consider those liabilities associated with the wanton use of energy, particularly ones related to unrenewable sources of power. Furthermore, conservation movements no longer remain at the fringe of society but have gained widespread respect in their efforts to challenge the indiscriminate squandering of natural resources. Many apprehensions expressed by ecological and conservation movements concerning the environment spring from the intuition that the practical uses of energy, especially with regard to fossil fuels, are not inexhaustible but are subject to restrictions. These limitations can be trespassed but only at the dire expense of those who violate them. Of course, the extraction of material to produce diverse forms of energy from nature depends upon the availability of her resources. Both those persons who extract energy sources and those wishing to husband the planet's wealth in a responsible manner reveal a tension which is fundamentally dualistic. That is, these two groups can regard each other's position as antagonistic with respect to a single common issue. Despite the conflicting interests of each viewpoint, one group can remain just as blinded by its own pressing agenda as its opponent's. Thus both parties are generally characterized by two different sides of the same problem and express a familiar urgency which is daily reported by the media.
I single out this example for revealing two sides of one coin, namely, that any issue which is confrontational by nature evokes an equally confrontational response. Although such a conflict can produce remedies, often both sides cannot see beyond the pattern of existing problems which are bound to reoccur under different guises. But once this impasse is acknowledged, a better chance arises for remaining open to various alternatives. Some of these alternatives may be garnered from developments in information theory and computer science because both are based on insights which differ considerably from those of traditional sciences. Although these alternatives may not solve today's pressing practical concerns, they at least offer a new focus and the possibility of a solution.
The most remarkable phenomenon about information is the immediate transference of vast amounts of data and knowledge with little expenditure of energy in contrast to the operation of unwieldy (mechanical) machines. The rapid exchange of data demands an equally rapid response, thereby accelerating the rate at which information is processed and exchanged. This endeavor for better and faster communication tends to break down some of the ways a society's relationship to the world, for example, through images related to place-to-place movement which imply the expenditure of energy. These perceptions lay at the core of many current dualistic predicaments and can be overturned when a reordering of established presuppositions is inevitable in the face of new, unforeseen situations. Yet conflicting opinions can suppress the intelligent resolution to such dilemmas. Faced with intense lobbying from opposing viewpoints, the search for a deeper integration of confrontational situations results in weariness with tried and true methodologies and philosophies, for example, those based upon place-to-place (energetic) movement. This weariness may give cause for alarm, yet it should not be mistaken with despair. The latter sentiment implies that disorientation has reached a critical point and signals the withdrawal of hope. However, this despair may be seen in a beneficial light, as heralding a creative way of perceiving reality.
An unduly enthusiastic endorsement of information theory should be avoided because this concept, like any other, has disadvantages. Not only does the technology associated with information theory threaten individual privacy, but it alters long established and culturally accepted rhythms of time by basing them upon a computer's instantaneous operation. Jeremy Rifkin has noted the impact of computer-based time as follows:
The clock measures time in relationship to human perceptibility. It is possible to experience an hour, a minute, a second, even a tenth of a second. The computer, however, works in a time frame in which the nanosecond is the primary temporal measurement. The nanosecond is a billionth of a second, and though it is possible to conceive theoretically of a nanosecond, and even to manipulate time at that speed of duration, it is not possible to experience it(11).
Despite the perils of this repercussion, we can still formulate valuable, innovative insights based and expanded upon the concept of information theory. At the same time it is important to know the pitfalls of constructing a paradigm founded upon computer technology alone as though it were the decisive solution to all problems afflicting society.
A danger exists of mistakenly perceiving the transmission of information as associated with an older world view which relies upon the concept of energetic movement. One example is found in the expression associated with personal computers, "word processing." In this situation the sacred concept of a word(12) which has played a central role in the development of the Western religious tradition is in danger of becoming devalued into an object for manipulation and thus subject to being "processed." The mystery of both the spoken and written word is reduced to an inanimate object which can be moved according to the laws of physics from one place to another. For instance, the phrase "word processing" presents a picture of words shuttling along pre-determined paths where emphasis lies upon their function, not their meaning and ultimate sacred character. If, with the passage of time, this concept were allowed to affect our self understanding and relationships, we run the risk of reducing our thoughts (and therefore language) to components of a vast, impersonal processing machine. Such an idea is not dissimilar to the mechanistic world view of Newtonian physics where objects are subject to impersonal manipulation.
The rapid growth of computer science and its ability to both swiftly and inexpensively transfer vast amounts of information through the medium of silicon chips stands in sharp contrast to the operation of cumbersome mechanical devices. Although energy remains the agent ultimately responsible for transferring and processing electronic data (for it must power computers), a superior understanding of information theory reveals the following observation: information represents a transmission of intelligence without reliance upon the familiar passage of place-to-place movement associated with the expenditure of energy. Here are elements suggesting a latent model of transcendence where the intangible character of information introduces a radically different perception of reality in comparison with energetic activity's grosser nature. This immateriality belonging to the world of computers appears to have neither a location nor a source; it seems to exist everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
How can this extraordinary situation exist? In order to fathom it, we should first realize that the unique character of information theory transcends our familiar world of subject-object relationships. This abstract quality can serve as a model for intimating the existence of a reality more subtle and profound than conventional tendencies to associate information with the accumulation of facts and the transmission of data. Acquaintance with this elusive quality of information compels us seek a means of both understanding and expressing it in terms other than those belonging to the familiar spacial-temporal plane. However, one aspect of our human constitution parallels the intangible structure of information, and that is intelligence. Furthermore, when human intelligence is put at the service of revealing divine reality, it attains fulfillment as the world's great religions testify. Even more important, it suggests a higher reality, pure awareness or that special type of awareness which lacks an object and is characteristic of a mystical experience of union with God in faith. Both realities, the abstract principles which compose information theory and our inherent capacity to apprehend divine awareness without-an-object, are ambiguous because they lack the familiar, concrete dimensions of everyday experience. At the same time, awareness is so intimately related to the perceptions we have of ourselves and the world that we are seldom conscious of its all-inclusive nature. The absence of familiar reference points does not mean that awareness without-an-object lacks existence; rather, overcoming this absence requires a sensitivity different from normal experience to realize its existence. The prime requisite is the quieting of imaginative cognition which is often falsely identified as our true life(13). This radical shift from a conventional subject-object regard to one of pure awareness implies more a process of unlearning and withdrawal from familiar concepts than the acquisition of new knowledge, a subject which has occupied many of the world's great religious masters.
One misunderstanding related to awareness without-an-object as analogous to the concept of information is in how a conventional computer functions. A computer is a piece of hardware in which a program or software is inserted; the program gives life to the computer and acts as its brain. However, we should avoid this dichotomy because it subscribes to one of the perennial unsolved problems of philosophy, the relationship of the soul to the body or the mind to the brain. As the biologist Rupert Sheldrake has pointed out, "Many people who regard themselves as materialists or physicalists have come to think of the mind-brain relationship in terms of the computer metaphor, with the mind like the software and the brain like the hardware"(14). Despite the relative newness of this computer based metaphor, it reflects the older mechanistic world view where laws (software) are perceived in terms of principles which guide creation (hardware). That is to say, a popular understanding of information theory can exhibit that Western proclivity to fit creation into a plan where everything conforms to a pre-determined, eternal pattern.
The latter stages of Western culture's development have assigned a somewhat insignificant role to our recollective faculty. From such an impoverished view, this faculty discovers a pre-existing plan and proceeds to actualize it. The activity of our memory suggests that any new pattern of organization had already been present as a latent possibility; since these patterns already exist, they await our discovery. Little room is left for creativity, and its absence can lead a person to acquiesce to a destiny beyond his or her personal control. But if memory were seen as inherent in the nature of things, phenomena would not be conforming to some pre-determined eternal laws. Instead of being governed by immutable principles, phenomena can assume different expressions. This does not suggest conformity but habituation, an insight proposed by Rupert Sheldrake with regard to the concept of morphic resonance(15). Such a concept runs counter to the generally accepted notion of scientific repeatability; it, in turn, is based upon the theory of transcendent laws to which human experience is referred. Habituation implies that the repetition of a stimulus remains essentially unchanged. As a result of repetition, we become acclimatized to our surroundings and are sensitive to the emergence of stimuli which are unique and not repeated. In this instance more scope is allowed for the spontaneous development of our inherent creativity which can better adapt to new input.
The freedom associated with habituation reflects a higher type, namely, one which flows from pure awareness or awareness without-an-object. It is here that Christian tradition has located a person made in God's image and likeness. Since this form of comprehension transcends conventional modes of perception, people have no other recourse than to delineate it according to pre-determined laws built up metaphors pertaining to energetic, place-to-place movement. Awareness without-an-object bears certain similarities with the concept of information; both lack familiar reference points belonging to the temporal-spacial dimensions and the inexorable force of entropy or the inevitable breakdown of order. Because the concept of information intimates immunity from entropy and freedom from unavoidable disintegration, it may contribute to the formation of a paradigm helpful to describe Christian contemplative prayer. This new insight must not only be differentiated from its predecessors (such as energetic movement), but must as a potential contribution for a transformed understanding of reality. For example, pure awareness can bestow a form in accord with its nature which transcends normal experience(16). Perception of this form requires watchfulness on our part as observers which not only embraces all our faculties but shifts them onto a new plane.
Pure awareness surpasses conventional perception and by reason of its all-encompassing nature, better attunes us to everyone and everything about us. Any clear-cut distinction or dualism between "inner" and "outer" worlds breaks down and can no longer be delineated by traditional modes of description. A sympathy arises here, a genuine feeling-with (sun-pathe) the two realities of "inner" and "outer" experience which bestows a new sense of balance and order. This order enables us to intuit at once and in a discreet manner the inner state of other persons and their condition. A subtle shift of attention occurs from a subject-object regard ("inner" versus "outer") to one which is sym-pathetic in the literal sense of this word. This new way of being attentive to both the physical and spiritual worlds prescribes an equally new form of metaphoric expression with insights based upon the concept of information to represent pure awareness as a form of sensitive watchfulness.
The essence of energetic movement, regardless of its awesome power (for example, a star's thermonuclear reaction) has three principles: source, expansion and expenditure. Such boundedness has a clearly delineated pattern in contrast to the more ambiguous and less easily defined notion of awareness. Pure awareness, which I suggest is the fundamental attribute of a person being made in God's image and likeness, differs from consciousness by reason of its more inclusive nature. We should not disparage this universality because pure awareness surpasses the subtle though essentially dualistic nature of consciousness, that is, of having knowledge (of something) in common which David Bohm and F. David Peat have described(17). Awareness implies a reference point or a freedom from both determinative factors as witnessed by genuine religious experience. This freedom is not marked by superiority or aloofness but detachment from slavish identification with a particular object. In this way pure awareness is free to both associate with the object of its regard while remaining present to other relationships. It is not my intent to debate the question of whether or not awareness is individual or communal; instead, I wish to focus upon the all-inclusive nature of awareness which remains attentive to all facets of reality.
An example when our general awareness becomes intensified is a situation of extreme danger. Little or no temporal gap exists between the intensification of our senses and their subsequent unification because we have not yet reflected upon our imperiled condition. By reason of its immediateness, a situation of extreme peril makes that general, undifferentiated consciousness spontaneously unfold into an attentive regard. This mechanism lies dormant within us, waiting to spring into action when the occasion arises. Confrontation with a dangerous situation is not a question of being conscious of something; rather, the danger is so immanent that our entire organism becomes immediately attentive to the threat at hand. Such an intensification of our faculties is similar to a kairos event. Kairos heralds a divine intervention into human affairs which is characterized by unity between two or more persons and a total unification of our faculties attuned to God's presence.
David Bohm and F. David Peat have briefly outlined the subtle distinction between consciousness and awareness(18), two states which are not contradictory; awareness is a more general, state of mental attention compared with the dialogical nature of consciousness. This latter implies a latent subject-object regard which finds expression within the realm of human relationships, whereas awareness in-forms or gives shape to consciousness. It also can be at the service of making divine transcendence present in our lives and for articulating insights concerning a Christian's response to this presence. The ambiguity signified by awareness imparts a knowledge which surpasses normal experience by situating us in a realm different from our familiar dualistic milieu. More specifically, pure awareness exists before a split arises between oneself as observing subject and that which is observed. Only when our general state of awareness executes a given action (for example, a confrontation with danger) do we make an immediate shift to attentiveness. This shift does not introduce a sharp distinction between ourselves and an imminent threat; instead, the non-referential nature of awareness exists prior to any subject-object regard.
Perhaps the point where awareness differs from consciousness is with regard to apprehending a profound sense of gratitude(19). Appeal to personal experience shows that this sentiment is always directed towards another person, object or event. Accompanying gratitude is little regard for one's own self. A person's whole attention is directed in an outward fashion in distinction to oneself as an ultimate reference point. This lack of self-awareness is akin to religious ecstasy where a person becomes unconscious of his or her own self when caught up in a reality transcending familiar experience. Even the person or object towards which gratitude is directed undergoes a transformation of identity. In its place is an all-inclusive awareness marked by unbounded joy which cuts across any conventional subject-object regard.
To appreciate the transcendent nature of gratitude, consider those occasions when this unique sentiment had exerted its influence over one's life. This appeal is direct, not academic, and lies within the grasp of personal experience. A spirit of thankfulness constitutes one of the most essential dimensions of our humanity. It allows for spontaneous, uncontrived communion between two or more individuals, thereby bestowing a remarkable unity among all those fortunate enough to be its participants. One discerning mark of thankfulness is the lack of concern over how many individuals are participants.
I have detailed the general nature of awareness in order to shed more light upon the role of gratitude which goes by the New Testament word of grace, charis. An attitude of thankfulness arises spontaneously and is the tip of an iceberg, as it were, which remains latent until we have an encounter with God who elicits a full expression of this sentiment. The transition from an all-inclusive feeling of gratitude to its particular expression is analogous to the transition from pure awareness to attentiveness (Refer to the example above of a menacing situation which concentrates our faculties). A particular expression of gratitude sets the stage for more constant patterns of this sentiment in our lives at the serve of manifesting God's transcendent freedom. On the other hand, gratitude's occasional absence should not be mistaken for indifference; it remains part and parcel to further revelations of God's all-inclusive presence. The potential for expressing gratitude is just as real as its manifestation. This becomes apparent when we have experienced occasions of thankfulness which initiate us into more universal feelings of this sentiment whose roots are transcendent. Awareness of time (and by consequence, space) plays little or no role here. Again I appeal to personal experience because the all-inclusive domain of thankfulness is free of the tension between its universal nature and specific expression.
The tendency to make clear-cut distinctions between spirit and matter has come to dominate Western philosophy and by extension, Western religious expression. On the other hand, insight into the nature of consciousness or more specifically, pure awareness without a subject-object regard, has played a more dominant role within Eastern religious traditions. In its early development, Western Christianity does not seem to have developed an accurate word to express pure awareness, that is, attention minus a subject-object regard. In recent times and often in conjunction with popular interest in the science of physics, persons are challenged to articulate their religious experience in terms of pure awareness because this interest frequently coincides with interest in Eastern methods of contemplation. Nevertheless, Christianity has a venerable heritage of mysticism with special focus upon a spirit of gratitude. Right from the beginning, the doctrines of Christianity were enunciated through the allegorical method, a technique more descriptive than rational. Allegory expresses divine reality with its emphasis upon symbolic figures and actions. Although the allegorical method has played a key role within the early Church, it later fell out of favor with the advent of a more rational and scholastic approach to theology marked by clear distinctions between spirit and matter. To compensate for this eclipse, Christianity both in its Roman Catholic and Protestant manifestations has witnessed the rise of numerous devotional practices. Nevertheless, the history of Christianity offers numerous examples where the sentiment of gratitude is not just an emotion but is essential for a proper understanding of divine revelation.
One of the most significant aids at our disposal for organizing knowledge, including that about God and the spiritual life, is the metaphoric process which gives structure to the concepts directing our thoughts and actions. As Lakoff and Johnson have demonstrated, a metaphor has more extensive ramifications than we may realize(20). Quite often the domain of metaphoric expression is understood in terms of flowery language or as the exclusive property of poets and romantics. However, many scholars have discovered that our conceptual process itself rests upon the formation of metaphors, and we largely remain unaware of their significance. Part of this ignorance is the neglect assigned to the role of imaginative cognition in our lives; in its place the more abstract functioning of intellect and will has prevailed(21).
To break away from commonly accepted modes of thought (for example, those based upon metaphoric structures related to place-to-place, energetic movement) requires sensitivity to newer patterns of perceiving reality available today(22). One alternative model is based upon insights related to information theory which allows for greater flexibility of expression due to a computer's ability to transmit data (and therefore intelligence) almost instantaneously. Some of these insights may serve as a conceptual basis for a more thorough reflection upon the Christian sentiment of gratitude, an essential ingredient in our relationship with God.
Before delineating any metaphoric structure related to the concept of information, I introduce one significant metaphoric pattern detected within the philosophy and spiritual reflections of St. Gregory, bishop of Nyssa. Gregory's originality earned him a prominent place in Christian theology, and he is now regarded as one of the greatest Fathers of the Church(23) whose writings consist of commentaries upon Scripture as well as tracts against heresies of the fourth century. Gregory's chief contribution was to demonstrate that spiritual movement does not produce satiety because it is a continual discovery of what is new(24). Gregory's expression of this movement is based upon 2 Cor 3.18, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding (katoptrizomenoi: to look at one's self in a mirror. The present participle shows that the beholding is continuous and free from interruption) the glory (doxa) of the Lord, are being changed (metamorphoumetha: to transform ourselves to a greater participation in God) into the same image (eikon) from glory to glory (apo doxes eis doxan, literally, 'from glory into glory'); for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."
Although Gregory of Nyssa is squarely situated within the Platonic tradition, he employed this heritage to express his interpretation of the Christian message. Gregory did this in a fashion which did not jeopardize the Christian view of God, Christ and the redemption of humankind. He achieved his goal by developing an original metaphoric structure based upon the concept of movement and stability, a structure which he applied within his theological and scriptural writings. In contrast to the Platonic tradition which considered change as a defect, Gregory viewed alteration in a positive light. Plato and those who followed in his steps considered the intelligible realm superior to the world of the senses due to its immutability(25). Change is therefore generally conceived as a degeneration from perfection. The Christian interpretation of this aspect of Plato's doctrine often regarded the transformation of human nature effected by Christ as a liberation from change and the restoration of immutability. Human mutability was cast in a negative light, as the distinguishing mark between a person and God, and it is this notion of change which Gregory of Nyssa addressed. The task confronting him was to demonstrate a type of alteration which would not simply be a return to immobility or the negation of change; rather, it is movement towards the good or God whose result is stability in the same spiritual good:
For man has a change not only for evil; if he had a natural inclination only to evil, it would be impossible for him to turn to the good. Now the most beautiful effect of change is growth in the good since a change to things more divine is always remaking the man being changed for the better. Therefore, what seems fearful (I mean our mutable nature) can serve as a wing for flight to better things, since it is to our disgrace if we cannot change for the better. Thus let not a person be grieved by the fact that his nature is mutable; rather, by always being changed to what is better and by being transformed from glory to glory (2Cor 3.18), let him so be changed: by daily growth he always becomes better and is always being perfected yet never attains perfection's goal. For perfection truly consists in never stopping our increase towards the better nor to limit perfection with any boundary. On Perfection, pp. 213-14.
This remarkable excerpt shows how mistaken it is to imagine perfection as a state of immobility; rather, perfection is an advancement without limitations(26). Gregory's description thus requires a re-evaluation of conventional ideas about movement which may in part be traced to interpretations of physics before the advent of modern science. Gregory of Nyssa's insight into spiritual advancement (prokope) entails the paradox of stability and motion. Here the good or God is not "obtained" as though we could lay hold of a possession, however honorable this may be. But in Gregory's view, once the good has been achieved through God's grace, there is no need of protecting it against a potential loss (with the exception of sin). Instead, the newly acquired spiritual good is the commencement of a wholly new appropriation of the same good. Additional merit is not added to the good which already exists; each time we become aware of a particular stage of the good, we participate in the form (morphe) of a future spiritual good.
This intimate connection between a spiritual good already attained and one about to be realized may be understood in terms of a resonance. A resonance implies that one stage of goodness does not acquire additional goodness through our personal endeavors but through the presence of the form (morphe) of goodness, God. When we become aware of this divine form, it reverberates...resounds...within us. The term "resonance" is attractive because it suggests an all-encompassing embrace. As the example of the bride in Gregory's Song Commentary reveals, the good which resonates enhances her desirability in the eyes of her divine Spouse:
She struggles to learn and to think how her loveliness can remain forever. But she is still not yet deemed worthy of the Bridegroom's voice because God foresees something even better in store for her, namely, that the prelude of her enjoyment might flare up her desire into something stronger. Thus her desire may intensify her gladness. (p.63)
Here the bride has already contacted her Bridegroom and seeks to make this experience permanent by recalling those intimate communications she had enjoyed. She recreates those earlier encounters which, in her ardent longing, are attempts at making him present again. Note that the divine Spouse appears to ignore her efforts; these rebuffs intensify the initial taste of his presence. They also set the stage to remove limits to further longings and for perseverence in her search. The Bridegroom's love may be described as a divine form transcending the bride's recollections of him and imparting the beauty of this same form to her desire. Gregory's emphasis upon advancement (prokope) demonstrates that change can be positive, not the more pessimistic view typical of certain interpretations of the Platonic tradition where change threatens to abrogate human achievement.
Closely related to change as a principle of participation and transcendence is Gregory's notion of perpetual ascent, an eternal movement or expansion towards the good, God himself. To describe it Gregory employs the Greek word epektasis which literally means "extension," "stretching forth" or "advancement"(27). For Gregory, epektasis demonstrates the soul's continual advancement out (ek) of itself or exit from the stage of blessedness just obtained. We should be on guard not to think that a person advances towards God by the exertion of his or her own will. (Recall the passage above where the bride attempts to acquire her Beloved by her own means: "She struggles to learn and to think how her loveliness can remain forever."). The soul's form (morphe) is the point where God reveals himself and can neither be specified in spacial or temporal terms due to its all-inclusive charakter(28). The bishop of Nyssa therefore emphasizes that the loss of self-awareness is proportionate to any degree of advancement. For this reason, Gregory's Song Commentary presents an invitation for spiritual advancement which automatically transcends any form of self-consciousness and by implication, the tendency to be restricted by the memory of past events.
Using a term borrowed from St. Paul, Gregory of Nyssa comprehends each stage of spiritual advancement as a form of "glory" (doxa). Here remembrance of past events do not form the basis for self-consciousness; rather, emphasis is upon its opposite, self-forgetfulness. This forgetfulness allows past advancements in the good or God to resonate within further stages of the same good, thereby becoming an extension (epektasis) of deeper levels in the love and awareness of God's presence. One way to describe this forgetfulness is by cultivating unmindfulness of the past. Emphasis is upon our free gesture away from unnecessary constraint, not disregard for the benefits we have acquired through God's intervention. The past no longer maintains its grip upon the present, thereby liberating us from inordinate reliance upon our recollective faculty. Each step of glory is not temporary or provisional; all stages unfold to form a complete, cohesive unity. And so, Gregory of Nyssa offers an invitation to abandon those familiar notions of spiritual advancement we tend to associate with place-to-place (energetic) movement.
The notion of spiritual wholeness which contains a particular expression of the good with reference to Gregory of Nyssa's teaching bears a certain parallel with a recent advancement in modern science, holography(29). In this technique, even if one part of a photographic plate is illumined by a laser beam, each portion of the plate contains information (that is, the entire form) about the object in its entirety. Any hard and fast distinctions between a whole and its parts is replaced for a more comprehensive picture of reality. The reason for this unique storage capacity and transmission of information lies in the fact that the light emanating from every part of the illuminated object is contained or enfolded within every other region of the plate. The whole, along with its individual parts, share one total form. Each section of the photographic plate contains a certain knowledge of the entire picture almost as though this whole had become conscious of itself. Instead of one particular bit of information being localized, it is spread uniformly throughout the entire plate.
Two key insights developed by the eminent physicist David Bohm, enfoldment and unfoldment, enhance this holographic storage of information which imply awareness minus a subject-object relationship(30). The former term entails an implicate order hidden from our normal perception. Enfoldment may be visualized through the confused swirl observed on a photographic plate before the coherent light beam of a laser is directed upon it. Any information contained within the photographic plate is latent and has the potential for full revelation. The agent necessary for manifestation is the operation of a laser beam to bring that which is unrevealed from the implicate order to the revealed, explicate order of unfoldment.
The alternate manner of knowledge so graphically demonstrated by the example of holography and David Bohm's two orders of enfoldment and unfoldment may serve to illumine certain aspects of Gregory's teachings. To paraphrase him, each stage of God's glory (doxa) composes the explicate order. It, in turn, unfolds from the implicate or unrevealed order which similarly constitutes divine glory after the hologram model(31). For example, refer to the following excerpt from Gregory's Song Commentary:
He [King David] always proceeded from strength to strength and exclaimed to God, "You are the Most High forever, Lord." To me this signifies that in all the endless ages of eternity the person running to you becomes greater and more highly exalted, always growing in proportion to his ascent through the good. "You are the most High forever, never appearing smaller to those who approach you; you are always higher and loftier than the capacity of those who are rising." (p.246)
This illustrates epektasis where the Christian "always grows in proportion to his ascent through the good." Growth does not come to a rest with a specific stage of glory; rather, as Gregory says shortly afterwards, "The limit of his achievement becomes a beginning for the discovery of higher blessings" (p.247). Each unfolding of divine glory contains within itself information imparted to the bride from the unrevealed or implicate order. But instead of viewing the content of glory as information in the conventional computer-oriented sense (that is, of data able to be manipulated), Gregory draws attention to the total form (morphe) of divine glory as implicate within one particular manifestation of divine glory. The alteration between the implicate and explicate orders differs from perceiving them in terms of movement proper to the spacial-temporal realm. With this in mind, God's glory can extend (epektasis) itself across any limits. Gregory's reflection upon perpetual advancement thereby shifts attention from place-to-place movement to an in-formational one where each stage of divine glory imparts to a person the form or morphe of glory as a whole.
I supplement the example taken from holography by a more homely analogy. The movement or explication of God's glory, doxa, may be compared to a tour through a huge mansion which represents the implicate order. In our passage we marvel at the splendor of a particular room; we then progress into another room and continue our advancement or process of unfoldment indefinitely. With the passage of time we get an emerging picture of the whole building. Our tour through this series of rooms neither wearies nor bores us, for all parts participate in the entire mansion.
The seminal concept of change and stability as developed by Gregory of Nyssa illustrates a metaphoric structure founded upon the concept of information, that is, transmission of God's divine form. A temptation exits to perceive Gregory's dynamic notion of advancement, epektasis, as energetic, place-to-place movement. Yet epektasis entails the global form of glory (doxa) while including the content of each individual stage. Although this divine form (morphe) includes its total content much like the example of a hologram, it converts our regard from one focused upon particulars to the more comprehensive nature of the pattern of God's revelation. Gregory of Nyssa understands the pattern of epektasis as an advancement "from glory into glory"(32) which highlights the transcendent character of pure awareness. This attribute presents a vision of God's divine form which diverts attention away from rational analysis to an intuitive grasp of the pattern (epektasis) as a whole, "glory." For this reason the concept of information as the impartation of God's form allows us to grasp the relationship of the whole to its parts (that is, each stage of our spiritual advancement) and to see harmony in this relationship.
A superficial impression of spiritual advancement or epektasis, "from (apo) glory into (eis) glory," intimates an emanation of glory from God to creation. Instead, epektasis involves growth--an organic form of maturation-- resting upon the activity of the living God. This organic development does not suggest that one stage of glory situated in the indefinite past embraces an equally indefinite number of identical stages lying in the future. Transmission of the past and its content is fully assured, regardless of how extended the span of time and space happens to be. The bride's progression which intimates a point of origin, direction and purposeful activity does not therefore refer to a generative order. In contrast, a correct interpretation of enfoldment implies a non-temporal, non-spacial transmission of God's glory. Each stage of glory is connected with the previous one but only in the spiritual sense where a person beholds him or herself advancing on the path of Christian perfection.
Although the limitations of language require that these stages of glory be described in a temporal manner, they do not admit degrees of emanation in the neo-Plotinian sense where the transcendent One radiates to lower levels of creation. Gregory of Nyssa depends upon Plotinus for some of his philosophical insights; however, his Song Commentary, to cite just one of his works, is replete with New Testament based descriptions of Christ the divine Bridegroom who manifests himself to his human bride at each stage of her epektasis. The concept of sequence in this Christian view of God's revelation suggests different steps where the bride realizes her divine origin. No clear-cut distinctions exist between his various manifestations because each stage of glory represents differing degrees of awareness. Like the example borrowed from holography, a particular stage of glory...awareness...contains the whole, and this whole partakes of each stage. Gregory of Nyssa's use of the phrase taken from Second Corinthians 3.18 is an ideal image for revealing the bride's advancement (epektasis) of glory as an organic succession because it displays the revelation or unfoldment of glory from the previous stage where God had manifested himself. Both prepositions function in the manner of a systole and diastole: the former (apo) designates a starting point where divine glory becomes manifest which, in turn, leads to yet another stage of glory. The latter preposition (eis) reveals that glory continues to unfold into a further manifestation of God's presence which continues throughout eternity.
Now that the Pauline phrase "from glory into glory" is seen as lying at the heart of Gregory of Nyssa's theology, there arises a subtle temptation for Christians to bask in the glow of those pleasant memories when God's presence had been tangible. Although they have the advantage of keeping us oriented towards God, the passage of time and undue attachment to such memories may obstruct further manifestations of divine glory. For example, we may be tempted to mollify the occasional dryness in contemplative prayer by either unduly focusing upon these pleasant recollections or by trying to anticipate how God will reveal himself in the future. However, our efforts cannot produce a transcendent form (morphe); they are only a distraction from the reality of the present moment, the true "place" where God makes himself known. In a sense, God's communication is unpredictable because he may manifest himself in a manner totally different from past encounters. Usually the temptation to substitute past remembrances of God's revelation impels us to make an image from this past and project it into the future. Thus preoccupation with earlier revelations of God's glory shuts us off from the transcendent present. Here images (or idols, if we become unduly attached to them) which are based upon past experiences can eventually lead us astray. In essence they are an expression of ego consciousness which attempts to recapture an experience of God's transcendence(33).
In contrast to this attempt at capturing past experiences, successive unfoldments of glory are clearly directed to the bride's spiritual fulfillment. The divine Bridegroom is not a goal to be grasped which exists in the temporal future. On the other hand, Gregory of Nyssa speaks of the divine Spouse's ointments after whose odor the bride runs. This is a suitable image for God's unknowability because a scent is diffuse and cannot easily be grasped:
As in the case of jars from which perfume has been poured out, the perfume's own nature is not known. But from the slight traces left from the vapors in the jar we get some idea about the perfume that has been emptied out. Hence we learn that the perfume of divinity, whatever it is in its essence, transcends every name and thought. Song Commentary, p.37
Although these vapors are present everywhere, they are not fully perceived because they span the infinite stages of divine glory through which the bride is advancing. Note how Gregory employs an image based upon sense perception and shifts it onto the spiritual plane, a process of allegorical representation which posits a correspondence between two different domains. The bride's passage from (apo) glory into (eis) another stage of glory implies neither a regard backward nor a look forward. If divine glory were to expand in this common evolutive sense, we would have a duplication of glory; it would give rise to a quantitative increase subject to monotonous repetition. It is this quality of stability and change described by Gregory of Nyssa that bestows a refreshing outlook to spiritual advancement or growth in the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
The inability to delineate the progressive revelation of God's glory in a quantitative manner is founded upon the bride's advancement (epektasis) in ever greater awareness of her Beloved, not in greater self-extension in terms of place-to-place movement. The alternative view consists of pure awareness which is inherent within a given stage of divine glory, doxa. For an example, refer to the all-pervasive nature of the divine Bridegroom's ointments (manifestations of himself) in contrast to seeing it move from one position to another. This order suggests that a person embraces every aspect of God's revelation as manifest within his or her growth from one stage of glory to another. One's position cannot be objectively fixed and then mapped with reference to other similar positions. Instead, a person's very stability gives rise to growth in pure awareness which transcends all bounds, physical or otherwise. Pure awareness, like the Bridegroom's perfumes, possesses a fluidity unfettered by limitations imposed by the spacial-temporal realm. This transcendent freedom can be a source of distress for persons who have been conditioned to recognize God's activity in the universe as a well-ordered mechanism.
Divine intervention means that a person becomes initiated into a new sphere of reality marked by two important characteristics. First one becomes aware of his or her limited world-view and secondly, realizes that an alternative way of viewing reality exists different from pre-conceived ideas and fantasies. In conformity with this new world view, I prefer the word "initiation," not "education," since the latter term suggests gradual passage from ignorance of facts to a knowledge of them. However, the transformation imparted through the initiation process occurs at once and is devoid of any past-to-future movement. One either gets the point of the initiative process or fails totally. The immediacy of initiation is therefore more suited to the non-referential nature of pure awareness due to its all-inclusive nature.
For Gregory of Nyssa the initiation experience develops within the context of St. Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians, "We are changed into his (Christ's) likeness (eikon) from glory to glory." The Greek term St. Paul employs for change is metamorphoo. Action occurs in the present and involves an ongoing process of transformation. Note that this verb consists of two parts: meta ("after" or "according to") and morphoo, the verbal form of morphe, form. The literal sense of the word suggests an action which occurs "according to the form." When joined to the phrase, "from glory into glory," metamorphoo signifies progressive growth in pure awareness, the Christian birthright as being made in God's image and likeness. Now one particular state of spiritual progression is placed at the service of further revelations of God and for our initiation into his divine life. When the verb metamorphoo is united to the continuous transition "from glory into glory," it intimates a becoming aware of the dynamic unfoldment involved within Christian spiritual transformation, not a static form (morphe) of glory. Here perfect unity exists between the awareness of this dynamic process (metamorphoo) and those states of glory whose origins lie in a kairos event.
The important passage of Second Corinthians (verse eighteen) begins with "We all, with unveiled face [anakekalummeno prosopo], are reflecting the glory of the Lord." The verbal form of anakekalummeno is a perfect passive participle indicating that God is continuously present to us once we have become freed from the restrictions of ego consciousness. In the larger context of Gregory of Nyssa's thought, this participial form denotes liberty from pre-determined activity. The "unveiled face" also suggests an awakening...a becoming aware...not only of God but of our personal limitations. This awakening may be viewed in terms of awareness devoid of subject-object regard which is not restricted to self-imposed constraints. The symbol of a veil in Second Corinthians therefore suggests an artificial construct which our minds have woven by thoughts and imagination without the mediating benefit of divine intervention. Both mental and imaginative activity make this cover so dense that it thwarts an undistorted perception of God. The task set before us, then, is not to do violence to ourselves nor to the reality represented by the veil concealing God's face. All that is required is acknowledging the veil which stands between us and God, a gesture, because of its simplicity, can easily be overlooked.
When St. Paul elaborates upon the newly discovered unveiled nature of our divine constitution, careful reflection upon his words reveals that we do not behold something alien to ourselves but our innate, undeveloped capacity for non-referential (pure) awareness. In the context of Second Corinthians 3.18, the removed veil enables a person to see the "glory (doxa) of the Lord." This beholding is not a static or passive contemplation. Instead, it is God's presence which allows a Christian to set out on the spiritual path and to pass from one degree of glory into another. Ignorance of this divine unfolding was largely the result of an artificially perceived separation between our human condition and God. With the passage of time, this isolation gives rise to feelings of alienation from God as he revealed himself in those special occasions or kairoi where our predominant attitude had been one of gratitude. The faculty of memory plays a key role in effecting this disjointed perception of kairos from thankfulness. However, a heart-felt sentiment of gratitude allows a spontaneous acknowledgement of God when he reveals himself. Our recollective faculty can mimic this transcendent activity which seeks to effect God's presence. This occurs when our self-conscious egos employ knowledge obtained about God or those past experiences when he revealed himself and projects this knowledge into the present to alleviate the distress of not perceiving his presence.
The veil of Second Corinthians 3.18 is also symbolic of imposing a description or a metaphor founded upon incomplete knowledge of God directly to a transcendent kairos event, usually without the mediating principle of gratitude. The self-centered ego, whose primary focus is centered upon the manipulation of persons and objects, is opposed to the simple act of beholding mentioned in Second Corinthians 3.18. Here the present participial form (katoptrizomenoi) shows that beholding (God) is continuous and free from interruption. Its relationship to our transformation "from glory into glory" contains no static or passive regard. The immediate fruit of this beholding is gratitude which creates its own metaphoric structure, information, to describe the Christian's assumption of God's form (morphe). On the other hand, the ego's attempt to impose its own form upon this transformational process ruptures our contact with God and the sentiment of thankfulness, our immediate response to him. Images then arise which compel us to act in accord with their dictates.
To demonstrate the transformation of a person into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ, Gregory of Nyssa uses the illustration of a soul as mirror which receives the form of God. For example, the act of beholding (katoptrizomenoi) God in Second Corinthians 3.18 is a present participle which connotes reflection of his presence in our souls. At this point of contact between the human and divine, the "glory of the Lord" is offered for our contemplation. Although this reflection of Christ transcends any notion we may have of him, he graciously invites us to participate in his divine glory which is unfettered by any limitations. For example, refer to the present participle of katoptrizomenoi which is joined with the present tense of the verb, metamorphoumetha: "We are changed (from glory into glory)." The act of reflecting is therefore related to spiritual advancement (prokope) which is occurring within the present moment. This reflection is founded upon Christ's glory (doxa) which he eternally receives from his Father, the Source of all successive unfoldings of divine glory.
As soon as divine grace enables us to contemplate God's doxa, we undergo a change of form, a metamorphosis, where Christ's morphe is assumed. By its very nature, the act of beholding God is a passive regard and effects this form of divine doxa. The contemplation of God's form implies a re-orientation of our awareness, an example of which can be found on the physical plane, The concept of morphic fields proposed by the English biologist Rupert Sheldrake mentioned in the last chapter(34) consists of fields composed of information which exert influence upon both living beings and inorganic matter. Sheldrake intimates that there belongs to matter something akin to a "field of memory" which guides the formation of structures and their respective processes. For example, within a given molecular structure the operation of nature is smooth and reproduces itself with ease. It seems that under the influence of a morphic field the molecular structure is changed with regard to its environment. Hence, organic and inorganic matter evolve according to their proper forms without which nature would have too many choices. Sheldrake continues to say that each time a molecule is created, it generates a morphic field which contains a memory of the processes involved. When a replication occurs, the memory expands and becomes more sophisticated by the increase of information. This ability to replicate is repeated often enough so that it eventually assumes the structure of a paradigm; once established, it provides a path on which forms develop into greater and greater complexity.
This hypothesis of formative causation(35) offers an example taken from the physical plane corresponding to those instances when God extends his transcendent presence across the boarders of space and time. Formative causation also suggests an important role for the all-encompassing nature of pure awareness, the focal point of our being made in God's image and likeness. Since this form of awareness is inherently free, it can expand into greater degrees of participation in God without the constraints imposed by thoughts, emotions and mental representations. For instance, the bride's movement "from glory into glory" participates in a gesture of unfoldment which reflects the primal glory of Christ. These unfoldings indicate that the bride's comprehension of her divine Spouse, even though she retains memories of him, maintains an unmediated contact with God surpassing our limitations. Gregory of Nyssa describes this dialectic of presence-absence as follows:
By participation in the transcendent, it [the bride's spiritual nature] continually remains stable in the good; in a certain sense, it is always being created while ever changing for the better in its growth in perfection. Neither is it limited, nor can it be circumscribed in its growth towards the good; however, its present stage of goodness, even if especially great and perfect, is only the beginning of a more transcendent, better stage. The Apostle's words are thus verified: the stretching out to what is superior to the one already attained holds the attention of those participating in it while not allowing them to look at the past; by enjoying what is more worthy, their memory of inferior things is blotted out. Song Commentary, p.174.
Gregory posits no boundary of spacial distance across which the bride is summoned to advance before attaining her divine Spouse. An understanding of advancement in terms of energetic movement and temporal interval breaks down when applied to the transcendent, immediate reflection of the divine Bridegroom. Furthermore, the "unveiled face" mentioned by St. Paul represents a veritable apokalupsis, the uncovering of a already existing reality. The bride's capacity for perpetual growth effects the removal of this veil, a barrier consisting of subject-object relationships alone. As the passage from Gregory's Song Commentary suggests, the bride always maintains contact with Christ's presence through her advancement or epektasis.
I have introduced two principal ways which of depicting the movement of divine glory and our transformation as developed by St. Paul and later expanded upon by Gregory of Nyssa. The first model is represented through metaphors based upon energetic movement. This pattern favors a linear path of expansion; it uses a prescribed amount of resources to be expended in accord with a pre-determined plan for future realization. Energetic movement remains subject to the menacing possibility of entropy because the resources required for purposeful direction will sooner or later suffer depletion. Using the energy model entails that a series of successive, interdependent manifestations remains vulnerable to a final, definitive collapse no matter how prolonged this span happens to be. The manifestation of one particular stage of energetic movement is crucial for the propagation of the next stage, yet external influences can interrupt this sequence of temporal intervals, let alone the inevitable force of entropy. But for any paradigm of spiritual advancement founded upon the concept of energetic movement, remembrance of the previous step of growth in God implies that the next step can signal a gradual weakening of the entire process. In the context of this text, these stages would represent God's transcendent glory as depicted by Gregory of Nyssa. Without the remembrance of the past, any step lying in the future would simply not exist; remove one of these intervals and the paradigm founded upon energetic movement disintegrates.
Keeping in mind a similarity between the concept of energetic place-to-place movement and memory's operation, this faculty establishes a pattern of behavior from past impressions which are then used for future replication. An interpretation of the infinite stages of divine glory (doxa) in terms of energetic movement would therefore suggest a prominent role for our recollective faculty in order to recall past stages of this same glory for projection into the future. Regulation of past recollections is the essence of memory which assumes an order similar to energetic movement by which we bestow an ordered progression to our thoughts and enhance our self-identity. Under the influence of our recollective faculty, these earlier phases develop along a pre-determined path into an indefinite future usually with minimum regard for the present. In this instance the present can easily be overlooked. Memory would cease to have existence if it rested within the present moment, for the present lies outside any perception of both the past and the future.
Energetic movement implies an innate sense of self-preservation resting upon the accumulation of past events which form an identifiable structure having minimal regard for the present. Instead, attention is directed toward the future. Gregory of Nyssa describes the tendency for self-preservation in terms of those attributes which are foreign to our true nature of being made in God's image and likeness:
Each person must know himself as he is and distinguish himself from all not belonging to him so that he may not be unconsciously protecting something foreign to himself. This happens to persons heedless of watching over themselves. They see strength, beauty, glory, power, elegance of form, or anything that may pertain to themselves. Such persons are careless guards because they do not protect what belongs to themselves. Song Commentary, p.63.
Failure to "watch over ourselves" is the negative consequence of ego consciousness which regards "strength, beauty, glory, power, elegance of form" as desirable ends in and by themselves without ascribing their true source to God. This gives rise to the genesis of self-identity and the illusion of security or stable existence minus reference to a divine source.
The alternate model available for depicting our transformation "from glory into glory" which takes into account the needy "to watch over ourselves" is related to the concept of information. It represents a process of spiritual unfolding derived from the human bride's contemplation of her Spouse, his divine form, and cannot be depicted in terms of linear movement. Here each stage of glory naturally in-forms...gives form to...the next stage of glory where the bride does not experience dissipation in her eternal advancement (epektasis). This process of unfolding does not suggest duplication of her previous advancements; instead, her spiritual progress continuously discloses more attractive features of her divine Spouse. As the Song Commentary makes clear, these forms (morphe) are already present to the bride and transcend the past and future dimensions of time as well as any attempt on her part to grasp the Bridegroom. Here God extends an invitation to pass beyond each revelation as soon as she realizes it. Each individual stage of glory assumes new significance if it gives birth to the paradox of the bride's progression towards her Spouse and stability in her eternal quest. In a word, as soon as the bride becomes in-formed, she is simultaneously "un-informed" or encouraged to forget her present advancement that she may receive a further revelation of the divine Bridegroom. However, the bride's epektasis not only incorporates those attributes of "strength, beauty, glory, power and elegance of form," but enhances them even further.
The pattern of unfoldment and enfoldment which exemplifies this process of being divinely informed is an opportunity for introducing a new metaphoric expression based upon the concept of information. This expression rests upon a correspondence between the physical and spiritual realms which sees no conflict between the two spheres. Physical reality is characterized by a state of flux and change, whereas that which is spiritual cannot be subject to physical alternation. An identity between these two spheres is impossible, yet Gregory of Nyssa presents a picture of spiritual advancement where metaphors taken from the material realm represent the spiritual domain:
All these and similar examples [taken from the Gospel] should serve to remind us of the necessity of searching the divine words, of reading them, and of tracing in every way possible how something more sublime might be found which leads us to that which is divine and incorporeal instead of the literal sense. Song Commentary, pp.9-10.
Earlier within this same context Gregory speaks of Scripture's veiled nature which points to divine reality. Instead of denigrating physical reality, he says that we must shift our attention to what it signifies:
Yet Paul somewhere calls the shift (metastasis) from the spiritual "a turning to the Lord and the removal of a veil" (2Cor 3.16). In all these different expressions and names of contemplation Paul is teaching us an important lesson: we must pass to a spiritual and intelligent investigation of Scripture so that considerations of the merely human element might be changed (metabaino) into something perceived by the mind once the more fleshly sense of the words has been shaken off like dust. Song Commentary, p.6.
"Considerations of the merely human element" or our uninformed perceptions must be transformed that we may see how a metaphor founded upon material creation can point to a "spiritual and intelligent investigation of Scripture." Instead of seeing an opposition between these two realms, Gregory's informational process "from glory into glory" confers them with an undivided unity. It employs metaphors taken from material creation to represent continuous growth in our awareness of the divine Bridegroom. A sharp distinction cannot be imposed upon any part of divine glory with respect to other stages. But instead of this being a problem, the apparent blurring of distinctions should be correctly envisioned as the manifestation of a non-dual, spiritual relationship between the bride and her divine Spouse. I prefer to say "non-dual" because the metaphoric structure "from glory into glory" which describes it transcends our normal subject-object regard while employing analogies taken from creation.
We have seen that Gregory of Nyssa uses a phrase borrowed from Second Corinthians 3.18, "from glory into glory," as a reference point to his concept of epektasis in the love and knowledge of God. Within his collected writings exists a total of fifteen references to Second Corinthians 3.18, twelve of which are from the Commentary on the Song of Songs. Of these twelve, only three passages explicitly contain the phrase "from glory into glory." This amounts to a surprisingly small number for such an important scriptural basis to Gregory's thought. The sixteen references containing either the phrase from Second Corinthians 3.18 or an allusion to it are listed according to Werner Jaeger's critical edition:
Contra Eunomium (vol. 2)
P.162.19: the Lord who is the Spirit.
P.164.6-7: the Lord who is the Spirit.
In Canticum
P.47.7: I was changed by righteousness.
P.68.8: you will become what he is by looking at him.
P.90.11: rather he sees it [the Word] within himself as in a mirror.
P.98.6: how happy is that orchard whose fruit resembles the form of the bridegroom's beauty!
P.98.11-12: and mirrors the light of truth by his own pure life.
P.104.2: just like a mirror you have taken on my appearance.
P.104.12-13: so too the soul, when cleansed by the Word from vice, it receives within itself the sun's orb and shines with this reflected light.
P.150.11-13: human nature is also a mirror, and it was not beautiful until it drew near to Beauty and was transformed by the image of the divine loveliness.
P.160.2-3: the words of the Apostle who bids the same image to be transformed "from glory to glory."
P.186.8-9: being transformed from glory to glory, they do not always remain in the same character.
P.253.126-17: and from the glory which the soul had, it is transformed into a loftier glory by a wonderful alteration.
P.440.1: this resembles a mirror expertly fashioned by hand which accurately reflects the image of a face.
De Mortuis
P.63.10: one form impressed upon all.
The paucity of references to Second Corinthians 3.18 does not intimate that Gregory fails to develop his notion of advancement. Instead, this concept of "from glory into glory" is thoroughly amplified within the corpus of his writings. For example, Second Corinthians 3.18 is related to Gregory's insight of epektasis introduced earlier. His interpretation of divine glory which undergoes epektasis can be understood in terms of pure awareness which is free from subject-object regard. For Gregory, extension is occasionally expressed in terms of a mirror or the human soul which reflects God's splendor. This image implies immediacy of contact between two persons where the divine life resonates within the person who receives it(36).
Because of their importance to Gregory's theology, it will be helpful to cite the three references from the Song Commentary with explicit mention of the phrase "from glory into glory." In this way we will see the broader context in which they are situated:
Pp.159-60: Therefore the Word says once again to the bride whom he has awakened, "Arise." And when she has come to him, he says, "Come." For one who has been called to rise in this way can always rise further, and one who runs to the Lord on the divine course will always have wide open spaces before him. And so we must constantly rise and ever cease drawing closer. As often as the bridegroom says, "Arise" and "Come," he gives the power to ascend to what is better. Thus you must understand what follows in the text. When the bridegroom exhorts the bride who is already beautiful to become beautiful, he clearly recalls the words of the Apostle 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. Although she is a dove by what she had achieved, nevertheless, the bride is bidden to become a dove once again by being transformed into something better. If this happens, the text will show us something better by this name [dove].
Pp.185-86: The Song now reads, "Who is this who comes up from the wilderness as pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the powders of the perfumer" (3.6)? If anyone should carefully pay attention to these words, he will find the truth of what we have already set forth. In theatrical displays those acting the designated plot are reckoned as other persons because they change their appearances by a variety of masks. The actor appearing now as a slave or a private citizen is seen a little later as a prince and a soldier; taking off the role of a commoner, he becomes a commander or is clothed with the garb of a king. 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.
Pp.253-54: The Word's voice is always one of power. As light shone at the creation by his command, and as the firmament was constituted at his bidding (Gen 1.2-24), the rest of creation appeared by his creative Word. In the same way, when the Word bids the soul that has advanced to approach him, it is immediately strengthened at his command and becomes what he wishes, that is, changed into something divine; and from the glory which the soul had, it is transformed into a loftier glory by a wonderful alteration. Thus the angelic choir around the bridegroom marvels at the bride and exclaims with admiration, "You have given us heart, our sister, our spouse" (4.9). For a state free from passion illumines the bride as well as the angels; it gives her kinship and sisterhood with the spiritual powers. Therefore, they say to her, "You have given us heart, our sister, our spouse."
In the following passages I repeat parts of these selections, only to specify in greater detail those words which pertain to the general concept of ascent and growth. Also parts of the Greek text are inserted to obtain a fuller appreciation of their dynamic character and to highlight the subtle nature of Gregory's thought. While reading them, keep in mind the metaphoric structure of information as an impartation of God's divine form to the human soul:
Pp.159-60: The bride whom he [bridegroom, Christ] has awakened (pros ten eyegermenen); arise (anastethi); come (elthe); rise (anistameno); always rise further (pote to aei anistasthi); runs to the Lord (trechonti pros ton kurion); on the divine course (pros ton dromon); wide open spaces (eurochoria); constantly rise (aei te gar egeiresthei chre); never cease drawing closer (medepote dia tou dromou proseggizontas pauesthai); arise (anastethi); come (elthe); power to ascend to what is better (pros to kreitton anabaseos ten dunamin); to be transformed from glory to glory (apo doxes eis doxas metamorphoseos); we still hope (tou elpizomenou misteuesthai); to become a dove once again (peristeran palin); to be transformed into something better (dia tes pros to kreitton metamorphoseos genesthai).
Pp.185-86: Who comes up (tis authe he anabainousa); they change their appearances by a variety of masks (hoi te diaphora ton prosopeion to eidos emameobontes); is seen a little later (phainomenos met'oligon); advancing in virtue (en tais kata ten areten prokopais); being transformed from glory to glory (apo doxes eis doxan metamorphoumenoi); a different character will shine (to bio charakter epilampei allos); a different one succeeds the other (ex allou ginomenos te kai phainomenos); because of their increase in the good (dia tes ton agathon epauxeseos).
Pp.253-54: The soul that has advanced to approach him (ten psuchen genomenen pros heauton elthein); it is immediately strengthened (adiastatos dunamotheisa); changed into something divine (metapoietheisa pros to theioteron); it is transformed into a loftier glory (pros ten anoteran doxan metamorphotheisa); by a wonderful alteration (dia tes agathes alloioseos). Gregory's emphasis upon the progressive growth in the love and knowledge of God enables epektasis to be understood as the activity of our innate pure awareness, the locus of a Christian being made in God's image and likeness. The intangible nature of pure awareness cannot be easily pinpointed, but its effects can be described in a person who has been absorbed in a deep state of tranquility characteristic of contemplative prayer. In such a kairos event neither thought nor any image arising from imaginative representation occupies one's attention. An even closer approximation to the truth is to say that one's memory has been temporarily suspended, not abolished. This recollective faculty is thwarted from expression through the familiar medium of thoughts and imaginative representations.
I adopt the Greek word kairos to describe this memory-less experience because it indicates a reality different from the other Greek concept of time, chronos, commonly understood as the passage of time. "Occasion" is an appropriate description for the momentary suspension of memory because an encounter with transcendent reality suggests the advent of something out of the ordinary. Personal reflection demonstrates that when we encounter an extraordinary situation, our attention is wholly absorbed in what is transpiring at that particular moment. Our normal subject-object regard is temporarily suspended--we have no memory or interior dialogue--yet retain the ability to relate to any situation which demands our immediate response. Experience further reveals that although all our sensory faculties are suspended, that of hearing remains active. This faculty is usually the last one to diminish at the point of death. On the physical plane, the sense of hearing therefore has a direct correspondence to attentiveness or awareness without a subject-object regard.
Gregory of Nyssa suggests the importance of spiritual hearing in two of the above mentioned three passages from his Song Commentary (pp.159-60 & pp.253-54). In these instances hearing or attentiveness on the spiritual level is related to Gregory's definition of divine glory (doxa):
By glory he means what we have grasped [to lambanomenon] and have always found [to aei heuriskomenon]...Although she is a dove by what she had achieved, nevertheless, the bride is bidden to become a dove once again. (pp.159-60)
Note the similarity between to lambanomenon ("what we have grasped") and to aei heuriskomenon ("what we have always found"). Both verbs are passive participles signifying awareness of a past action. The revelation of divine glory is related to that which had been heard (in the past) from the divine Bridegroom and is not awareness of him in the present moment(37). Only God's persistent summons and the soul's continual receptivity (presented in terms of hearing) to this bidding offers an epektasis not simply from one given stage of divine glory but into further stages of glory. What makes this situation paradoxical is the juxtaposition between stability and motion, an insight original to Gregory of Nyssa. We must, of course, choose which analogy or metaphoric structure is suitable for expressing this paradoxical contact with God in a kairos event. If we attempted to reconcile the opposite qualities of stability and motion within the context of a metaphoric expression based upon energetic movement, we would fail because the two are mutually exclusive.
The experience of memory's suspension within a kairos event has a certain parallel to pretending as with children in a game(38). Children can concentrate upon a myriad of details necessary for maintenance of their game while retaining their personal identity. At the same time they employ the faculty of memory in a manner which remains subordinate to the support of their game. In this circumstance, memory undergoes a suspension and transformation. Children develop elaborate rules, rituals and hierarchies for maintenance of their play, yet they do not confuse this situation with their real identity. In fact, as Piaget has remarked, play is the child's way of assimilating the reality of the world(39). This process becomes evident when children are summoned by their parents to discontinue their game; they immediately cease their activity with its attendant structures and automatically adjust to circumstances within the adult world. Thus a game foreshadows genuine characteristics of an occasion or kairos event which is unconditioned by the ordinary flow of events. Like a circle, a game is enclosed by the larger domain of the adult world while not remaining independent from this more comprehensive sphere.
I have spoke of that temporary suspension of the real, adult world within the context of a child's game because it parallels a kairos event as found in the New Testament. It consists in the fact that both represent a detachment from normal, everyday experience; a child's play foreshadows that mature transcendent detachment from worldly concerns when the living God intervenes in our lives. In itself, a kairos event is not the same as the spatial dimension of reality, although in other contexts the temporal use is widespread(40). The New Testament presents a gracious picture of God combined with the decision we must make to either accept or reject the message of salvation offered by Jesus Christ. A reading of key New Testament texts implies that the clearer Christ's message becomes to a listener, the more pressing is the demand of this summons to his or her personal response.
A kairos event is usually expressed within the context of a dream, revelation, ecstasy or some other phenomenon which surpasses ordinary experience. A person is radically transformed after such an encounter and is certainly not the same as before it. However, this person retains his or her personal identity and does not exchange it for some kind of nebulous unity consciousness. Here kairos in its religious sense differs from a child's pretending. In the latter case, a child maintains his or her previous identity after emerging from a game or act of pretending. Nothing from this magical realm is carried over into everyday, mundane experience; pretending is suspended until the child decides to return to it. But once a person has encountered God within a kairos event, he or she makes use of memory in a manner different from its customary application. Instead of employing this faculty to structure future possibilities in terms of the past, one can now freely recall that divine kairos or event in which God had intervened. Here is a true occasion when memory recalls those times when its normal activity had been suspended. Once our recollective faculty has experienced temporary abeyance, its tendency to comprehend the past in terms of the present is transformed, even redeemed, to assume its true nature. Now memory is paradoxically used to recall those former transformational events...occasions...when its normal regard for the past had been momentarily interrupted. In this instance, a new dialectic comes to birth. The inherently bounded nature of memory is transformed to beget recollections of a kairos event even though this faculty had undergone temporary suspension. Such a novel form of remembrance, in turn, lays the foundation for further divine kairoi where memory is suspended once again. Although Gregory of Nyssa does not explicitly speak of this suspension of our recollective faculty, he certainly implies it in his Song Commentary by stressing the bride's need to forget herself.
When pausing to examine a particular kairos event in detail, we quickly realize that a rupture exists between God's intervention and our habitual lack of mindfulness which is not sufficiently trained to maintain an uninterrupted contact with our transcendent Source. A gap between those blissful recollections confronts us when memory had been suspended and our customary habituations to past remembrances. At this juncture there normally arises a painful awareness that we are in a state of exile from our true homeland. Gregory of Nyssa employs the word diastema to signify awareness of this separation from God. Diastema, a terms difficult to translate, connotes an interval of time. As T. Paul Verghese points out, diastema has two aspects: "One that it is always extended in space and time, from somewhere to somewhere and from a point in time to another point in time, but also secondly that such created existence is never self-contained or self-generated, but totally dependent on a reality which transcends space and time"(41). Verghese refers to a passage from Gregory's Commentary on Ecclesiastes which points to the "one-way" gap between Creator and Creation:
Thus all creation cannot transgress its natural limitations by a comprehensive insight; rather, it always remains within its own bounds and whatever it may view, it sees itself. And should creation think it beholds anything beyond itself, this cannot be, for it lacks the capacity to look beyond its own nature. All our notions are bound by time; they attempt to transcend their proper limits but cannot. Intervals of time constitute all our thoughts as well as the substance of a person who gives rise to such thoughts.
Our mind functions by using intervals within time, so how can it grasp [God's] nature which is not subject to temporal extension? Through the medium of time, the inquisitive mind always leaves behind any thought older than what it just discovered. The mind also busily searches through all kinds of knowledge yet never discovers the means to grasp eternity in order to transcend both itself and what we earlier considered, namely, the eternal existence of beings. This effort resembles a person standing on a precipice (A smooth, precipitous rock which abruptly falls down into a boundless distance suggests this transcendence. Its prominence reaches on high while also falling to the gaping deep below). A person's foot can therefore touch that ridge falling off to the depths below and find neither step nor support for his hand. This example may pertain 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. (pp.412-14)
"The soul's passage through intervals of time in its search for [God's] nature" invites greater sensitivity to the communication of his presence. However, the gap between creation and Creator is primarily ontological since we cannot objectify God. Awareness of this interval is difficult to conceive(42). One way of articulating it is through allegory, dear not only to Gregory of Nyssa but to many Fathers of the Church who were fond of taking concrete images from the Bible to describe spiritual reality. More will be said on this matter later but for the moment I wish to speak about that paradoxical nature of a time when memory has been suspended within a divine intervention or a kairos event. The reason for this paradox lies in the fact that we are using a faculty especially suited for recalling certain experiences from the past with an eye on extending them into the future to describe an incident (kairos) free from temporal limitations. Traditional Western theology has spoken of God's revelation through apophatic or so-called negative terminology. This stress upon negation seeks to express the limitations of thoughts and concepts; it also impart a certain uneasiness because of our diastema from God. At the same time, apophatic theology safeguards any claim to knowledge (and therefore manipulation) of the divinity.
Another illustration of the relationship between a kairos event and our recollective faculty is that of sin, a transgression committed either against God or another person. Sin exerts a negative influence upon our present and future behavior through its effects upon our memory. When a person is confronted by the remembrance of his or her personal offenses, it is this faculty which recalls past instances of sin, thereby contributing to a sense of guilt. Time is intimately connected with guilt because often time's passage strengthens the grasp guilt already has upon our memory. Once sin has been forgiven by God (who stands apart from space and time), the memory has no need to concentrate upon the content of these sins; a divine intervention which suspends memory enables it to function in a unique fashion. The specific use of memory (recollection of past offenses) creates an atmosphere which allows God's grace to obliterate sin. In contrast to its usual function of recalling past events, memory is now wonderfully transformed and allows the recollection of a kairos event to exert itself.
The suspension of our recollective faculty represents the consequence belonging to a particular type of intuition which Bernard Lonergan calls an inverse insight(43). While "direct" insight imparts general information derived from everyday experience, the rarer form of inverse insight is manifest in the absence of a conclusion which our concepts expect to achieve. In the case at hand, a divine kairos imparts its transcendent form. It enters into a union with its exact opposite, our recollective faculty, which is subject to the vicissitudes of space and time. This apparently incompatible relationship affirms, as Lonergan says, the empirical or observable elements which the contradictory principles of memory and its suspension embody respectively. At the same time, an inverse insight denies the expected intelligibility of a situation. In the context of this essay, we would expect either an obliteration of memory or an evaporation of that experience of union with God when memory has been suspended. However, a new texture is woven and yields something unexpected: the relationship existing between memory and the memory of its suspension by a divine intervention.
The passage of time performs a major role in re-enforcing the illusion of an independent ego by drawing upon images and impressions which have established a pattern through the operation of our recollective faculty. Unfortunately, this pattern can become crystallized and therefore relatively impervious to external influences(44). This newly acquired independence bestows a false sense of an individual self which assumes special significance within an environment constantly subject to the vicissitudes of change. The notion of sin which is often associated with the ego threatens its stability by suggesting distressing memories of the past which, as we have seen, give rise to pangs of guilt. However, recollections of sins which have been forgiven orient a person within a kairos event when the suspension of our memory is experienced. This is one of the rarer occasions when memory creates an effect opposite to its usual regard for the past. The effects of such a paradoxical influence--an occasion when the suspension of one's memory affects our recollective faculty--generates a more lasting influence than commonly remembered events and circumstances.
The limited nature of our recollective faculty may be visualized as a circle embraced by another circle, memory's suspension. This latter circle does not touch the inner one which it embraces. Instead, a morphic resonance (to borrow Rupert Sheldrake's phrase) exists between the two circles, that is to say, the form of memory's suspension is imparted to our recollective faculty. The experience of memory's abeyance therefore has the capacity to make present in our recollective faculty a transcendent event which had transpired in the past. At the same time it surpasses this past in a manner utterly different from the usual recollection of past events. This unique form of recollection points to a reality lying outside the space-time continuum. It allows a kairos event (characterized by memory's suspension) to in-form...impart its divine morphe...within the present. This operation is grasped not by making use of a paradigm based upon energetic movement--for this implies activity over space and time, regardless of how subtle it may be--but through the paradigm of information. The transcendent nature described by this latter paradigm seems to emerge out of nowhere; it lack a sources, that is, God's in-formational gesture does not emanate from a specific locality but manifests itself as an omnipresent reality.
In light of these observations, it would be more appropriate to say that the omnipresent character of being divinely informed favors a perception of reality which is non-referential. Here our faculties are seen in a common transcendental light, not in terms of their physical or intellectual existence. To appreciate this, recall that appeal to the personal experience of a kairos event. Encounter with the living God in these situations overshadows the individuality of our personal selves in favor of a more comprehensive presence which unexpectedly manifests itself. Our experience as distinct individuals gradually expands through familiarity with images spawn from the memory until they impart a definite shape to the ego's form. It is only natural that once a given amount of time has elapsed, our memory discerns a pattern among past relationships and projects this pattern into the indefinite future, thereby securing a personal though illusory identity. But the sudden explication of a kairos event conceived in terms of a metaphoric expression of information frees us from reliance upon the operation of our recollective faculty to capture, as it were, past transcendent encounters. In its place we realize that our innate longing or desire assumes an important role as the following excerpt from Gregory of Nyssa's Song Commentary reveals:
Then, as if the bride has already attained perfection, she tells the other companions of her ardent desire and excites their love by an oath. Who would not say that the soul exalted to such a height has reached the limit of perfection? But the end of the bride's advancements becomes a beginning for further advancements. All these examples are like voices summoning the soul to contemplate the [heavenly] mysteries. The bride begins to see her desired bridegroom, but he appears to her eyes in another form, a roe and a young hart. Neither is the bridegroom within our vision, nor does he appear in the same place, but he leaps upon the mountains, bounding from the high summits to little hills. (pp.177-8)
In another passage Gregory speaks of desire as follows: "For love (agape) which
is aroused is called desire" (eros), p.383(45). In the longer excerpt quoted earlier, note the
connection between desire (prothumia also means "readiness," "willingness to act"), the
bride's advancements and the divine Bridegroom's change of form. Instead of employing
her faculty of memory for recalling her Beloved, the bride's desire becomes a vehicle for
continuous growth in love when confronted with God's transcendence. She is now
entranced by his divine form (morphe) which literally in-forms her. Instead of being
subject to limitations, she allows her eros free expression. No analogy based upon
physical movement is adequate to describe the soul's epektasis because the Bridegroom is
simultaneously present and absent to it. For this reason a description of the bride's desire
bears a certain parallel with the concept of morphic resonance, not the transference of
energy, where past recollections of her divine Spouse reverberate from the past into the
future(46)
. The images projected either by the metaphoric structures of energetic movement or
information exert a profound influence upon our lives even though we may remain
unconscious of them. They exist upstream, as it were, to any thought, image, or
emotion(47). Despite their invisibility, they condition thought patterns, our imaginative
faculty and ultimately behavior. An individual can receive instructions for a lifetime
from the dominance of a particular metaphoric structure. For example, those based upon
the concept of energetic movement have a well established public quality since they have
gained acceptability over a period of trial and error. These metaphoric structures can
supplant others which have exercised influence for extended periods of time as observed
with regard to the Industrial Revolution. Such tried and true structures have assumed an
all-inclusive way of perceiving the world. Where the metaphoric structure of energetic
movement has exercised influence, this dynamic principle became normative as well as
authoritative for subsequent behavior and organization of society. Any alternatives are
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