The Concept of Passion and Desire, Epithumia and Pathos

(as found in select writings of Gregory of Nyssa)

While compiling the list of references concerning the concept of beauty (kalos) posted earlier on this Home Page, I could not help but note the significant number of allusions to passion as found in the commentaries on the Song of Songs by Origen, Gregory of Nyssa and Bernard of Clairvaux. That is to say, beauty seems to have an association with passion, an insight which led to the creation of this document. The most common word in Greek for passion is pathos which covers a wide gamut of emotions, feelings and thoughts. If acted upon, passion-and by this I mean both its positive and negative features-consumes the whole person and has ramifications far beyond that which had enkindled our intense response in the first place. Experience also shows that passion can erupt suddenly, without warning, and assumes a life all its own. When confronted by a person who does not share our passion, we remain virtually impervious to any questioning with regard to our motivation. On the other hand, passion seen in the light of transcendent beauty and as delineated by Origen, Gregory of Nyssa and Bernard of Clairvaux, achieves its noblest end, that is, this emotion serves to direct our minds and hearts towards the person of Jesus Christ who is both beautiful and deserving of our passion.

Closely identified with passion's all embracing emotional intensity is attachment, an inordinate cleaving to the object of our desire which can be oblivious to the sensitivities of other persons. In its coarsest sense, attachment means that our yearning to acquire a person or object is so intense that it dominates virtually every waking moment; this fact becomes painfully manifest when our desire, and hence our passion, is frustrated. The Greek word for the opposite state of attachment is apatheia; note the alpha privative signifying "no passion" or no pathos; i.e., apatheia signifies its absence or suspension, not its abolition. This term represents an important concept among those Church Fathers who wrote in Greek, especially Gregory of Nyssa,⁽¹⁾ who developed it to a high degree of sophistication. But before examining apatheia, it is helpful to examine the emotions, the pathoi, which this special grace-filled state of "no passion" seeks to remedy.

It is just as crucial to understand how Gregory of Nyssa treats desire or epithumia, a term which occurs with great frequency in his Commentary on the Song of Songs. Because of this, I have listed many references to this term below because it deals directly with the expression of pathos and all its ramifications. Furthermore, I cite numerous references to pathos which occur in the Song Commentary. But before going into some detail concerning Gregory of Nyssa's insight regarding pathos, it may be helpful to examine this word more closely. One approach is by basing in part the following reflections taken from noted scholars of Gregory' theology and philosophy.

One of the authoritative works on Gregory of Nyssa is Jean Danielou's Platonisme et Theologie Mystique. Although outdated by more recent scholarship, its 1944 publication nevertheless remains a essential secondary source and is frequently quoted by other authors and commentators on Gregory's thought. Danielou rightly associates apatheia with arete and katharotes, virtue and purity, as discussed at some length by Plotinus. Furthermore, the Stoics wished to suppress all passions, a theme inherited by Philo and one which had come down to us today, at least a popular, not fully inaccurate understanding of it.

Apatheia appears to be a curtailment not of pathe kata kakian ("passion towards evil") but of thumos⁽²⁾ and epithumia⁽³⁾. "Pleasure (hedune) has two aspects: one is effected in the soul by freedom from passion (apatheia), and another by passion (pathos) in the body." Song Commentary, J.313. Plotinus confirms Gregory's statement: "One would not be wrong in calling this state of the soul [justice which is free from bodily constraints] likeness to God (homoiosin pros theon⁽⁴⁾) in which its activity is intellectual and it is free in this way from bodily affections (apathes)" Enneads I, 2, 3.⁽⁵⁾ Also, from Enneads (I, 2, 5): "We might say that the soul collects itself in a sort of place of its own (tois hoion topois) away from the body, and is wholly unaffected by it (apathos)." For Gregory, ataraxia (calm, detachment) is cessation of inner turmoil: "Human nature...displays the character of each of these virtues in the soul's constitution and becomes calm and free from passion." Song Commentary, J.103.

Gregory's approach is different from Clement of Alexandria and Evagrius who profess that we attain such calm from an extirpation of passion. In comparison, refer to Gregory's remarks The Great Catechism, PN504a (#35):⁽⁶⁾

There is a wide interval between those who have been purified, and those who still need purification. For those in whose life time here the purification by the laver has preceded, there is a restoration to a kindred state (pros to suggenes anachoresis). Now, to the pure, freedom from passion (apathes) is that kindred state, and that in this freedom from passion (apatheia) blessedness consists, admits of no dispute.

Apatheia has a special association with incorruptibility and hence the spiritual life as opposed to its elimination:

If we must describe the masonry, then let incorruptibility and impassibility mold the house which justice and freedom will adorn. Let humility and patience shine in another part of the house along with piety befitting God. Let love (agape), the noble craftsman, fashion all these virtues in a marvelous way." Commentary on Ecclesiastes, J.325.

In the following sentence note the use of aporroia, "outflow," in conjunction with apatheia: "For the rays of that true, divine virtue shine forth in a pure life by the outflow of detachment and make the invisible visible to us and the inaccessible comprehensible by depicting the sun in the mirror of our souls." Song Commentary, J.90.

Gregory always likes to associate apatheia with angelic life as these three excerpts from the Song Commentary reveal:

we are no longer to be men with a nature of flesh and blood; rather, it points to the life we hope for at the resurrection of the saints, an angelic life (isaggelos, literally, "on the same plane as the angels") free from all passion. J.30⁽⁷⁾.

God's good will is done "on earth as it is in heaven" [Mt 6.10] when the detachment of the angels is effected in us. J.135.

For a state free from passion illumines the bride as well as the angels; it gives her kinship and sisterhood with the spiritual powers. J.254. (Note use of "kinship," suggeneia, with the angels).

Gregory is fond of associating apatheia with purity, katharotes. Equally important, he posits it with our being made in God's likeness, homoiosis: "Immortality is the vineyard, a state free from passion, likeness to God and estrangement from evil. The fruit of this vineyard is purity." Song Commentary, J.60. The bishop of Nyssa draws on Plotinus for inspiration with regard to purity, katharotes: "So the soul when it is purified (kathartheisa) becomes form and formative power, altogether bodiless and intellectual and entirely belonging to the divine, whence beauty springs and all that is akin to it." Enneads, I, 6, 6.⁽⁸⁾ Note the following two passages with refer to purity and detachment:

But a state free from every passion looks to the author of detachment, Christ. He who draws to himself thoughts as from a pure, incorruptible fountain will resemble the prototype as water drawn into a jar resembles water gushing from a fountain. Christ possesses one pure nature which is the same for anyone who participates in it. However, one springs up while the other, while a part of it, is drawn from the fountain and adorns his life in thoughts. As a result, the hidden man conforms with the manifest when life concurs and is conformed to thoughts activated according to Christ." On Perfection, J.212.

Because Christ received the first fruits of our common nature through his soul and body, he made it holy and kept it in himself as unmixed and uncontaminated with any evil; by offering [the first fruits of our common nature] through incorruptibility to the Father of incorruptibility, he might draw all those of the same kin and race (Eph 1.5) and adopt the disinherited and God's enemies to share his divinity. Just as purity and detachment united the dough's first fruit with the true Father and God, we, the mass of dough, should cling to the Father of incorruptibility by imitating the mediator's detachment and immutability as far as possible. On Perfection, J.206

In addition to Jean Danielou's work on Gregory of Nyssa, that of Jerome Gaith is lesser know but in many ways is more penetrating in that he focuses upon a central feature of Gregory's teaching, namely, liberty⁽⁹⁾. Yet like Danielou, Gaith outlines the bishop of Nyssa's insights into epithumia and pathos which he then relates to freedom, eleutheria. In its proper sense, Gregory's understanding of pathos is synonymous with vice and sin, and apatheia signifies separation from evil. Thus the latter is an effort to return to one's spiritual nature by ascesis and purity. Gaith's approach differs from Danielou's in that he more squarely situates apatheia within the context of a person as God's image or eikon. Such dignity similarly belongs to the angels who can work either in an ascending or descending fashion and which reflects a principle at work in creation, that of change. But before examining this in greater detail, here are a few references to this notion:⁽¹⁰⁾

On Virginity

And the consequence of being crucified with Christ is that we shall live with Him, and be glorified with Him, and reign with Him; and the consequence of presenting ourselves to God is that we shall be changed from the rank of human nature and human dignity to that of Angels. PN371a

On the Making of Man

Now the resurrection promises us nothing else than the restoration of the fallen to their ancient state; for the grace we look for is a certain return to the first life, bringing back again to Paradise him who was cast out from it. If then the life of those restored is closely related to that of the angels, it is clear that the life before the transgression was a kind of angelic life, and hence also our return to the ancient condition of our life is compared to the angels. PN407a

Now that we have thus cleared up these matters, let us return to our former point, how it was that after the making of His image God contrived for His work the distinction of male and female. I say that the preliminary speculation we have completed is of service for determining this question; for He Who brought all things into being and fashioned Man as a whole by His own will to the Divine image, did not wait to see the number of souls made up to its proper fulness by the gradual additions of those coming after; but while looking upon the nature of man in its entirety and fulness by the exercise of His foreknowledge, and bestowing upon it a lot exalted and equal to the angels, since He saw beforehand by His all-seeing power the failure of their will to keep a direct course to what is good, and its consequent declension from the angelic life, in order that the multitude of human souls might not be cut short by its fall from that mode by which the angels were increased and multiplied. PN407b

On the Song of Songs

The Song's text readily employs words whose obvious meaning indicates the enjoyment of carnal passion, yet it does not fall into any improper meaning; instead, the Song leads us to the philosophy of divine things by means of chaste concepts. It shows that we are no longer to be men with a nature of flesh and blood; rather, it points to the life we hope for at the resurrection of the saints, an angelic life free from all passion. J.30

As noted above, eikon is marked by an equilibrium or stability between the up-down motion in creation (i.e., the ascending and descending of the angels⁽¹¹⁾). Because the created realm is marked by change, trope-and this implies an en-trop-ic tendency towards dissolution-one way we as human beings reflect this trope is through desire and passion which is frequently identified with entropy. Thus for a spiritual teacher as Gregory of Nyssa the issue is first escape from trope and then its transformation into atreptos, a state of changelessness which resembles the equilibrium of angelic life. From this point of view it is not difficult to see how Gregory rightly identifies our human a-troptos with a-patheia.

If a person is composed of soul and body (again, keeping in mind the up-down motion of creation), he or she enjoys both realms equally. Gregory speaks of this two-fold nature in his On the Making of Man: "He gives him as foundations the instincts (aphormas) of a two-fold organization (diplas kataskeues), blending (egkatamixas) the Divine with the earthy, that by means of both he may be naturally and properly disposed to each enjoyment, enjoying God by means of his more divine nature, and the good things of earth by the sense that is akin to them." PN390a-b, #2.

Gregory stresses the importance of enjoyment, apolausis, a fact which demonstrates his positive accent towards both realms as opposed to that tendency spiritual persons sometimes have of favoring the divine over the earthly. The blending or egkatamixis of such attributes may conjure up an indiscriminate fusing of distinct attributes where one takes the place of another, but the bishop of Nyssa does not mean this at all. The blending of which he speaks implies that our way of viewing the "up" nature of soul and "down" nature of our earthly existence no longer applies. His meaning may be distilled by the following phrases taken from four passages above related to angels: "presenting ourselves to God," "man as a whole," "restoration of the fallen" and "resurrection of the saints."

Gregory treats the angelic life, isaggelos, as representative of creation's up-down movement, a movement which requires an analogy on the human level, that is, an energy source on which "it runs." Such an echo may be found in the two words epithumia and pathos, for they connote the most powerful human resource available. Their dynamism allows Gregory to better reconcile the two opposing movements of up and down concerning our relationship with God through being made in his homoiosis and eikon, likeness and image.⁽¹²⁾ According to Gaith, the image's apatheia is a sublimation of the sensible pathos; the former accomplishes this by integrating latter's dynamism or eros instead of by sacrifice. The result is liberty when a person realizes that he or she is made in God's eikon as the two passage from Gregory's Song Commentary reveal. This distinction is helpful in that it presents an attractive image of the spiritual life not as something "difficult" (we have to "sacrifice" ourselves) but as springing from our innate pathos:

By clinging to the Lord he might become one spirit [cf. 1Cor 6.17] through a union with what is pure and free from passion and have a pure mind instead of burdened with the flesh's weight. Since it is Wisdom speaking, love as much as you can with your whole heart and strength [cf. Dt 6.5]; desire as much as you can. I boldly add to these words, 'Be passionate about it.' This affection for incorporeal things is beyond reproach and free from lust as wisdom states in Proverbs when she prescribes passionate love (eros) for the divine beauty." J.23

Pleasure has two aspects: one is effected in the soul by freedom from passion and another by passion in the body. Of these two, the one which free will chooses has power over the other. J.313

Thus Gregory considers apatheia as the highest expression of liberty's structure as it pertains to all three realms: God, angels and persons. Nevertheless, a gap separates these groups with regard to apatheia: God's ousia or being is completely transcendent, that of the angels is midway between him and the human sphere. The reason for this lies in the fact the angelic ousia is not fully identified with creation; mutability and human apatheia is not proper to our ousia nor is it the natural consequence of being created. In short, our human ousia is a tension between what is menacing ("down") and what is always subject to recreation ("up"). Apatheia thus operates midway between these two uncertainties and is the best ideal of liberty and beatitude, the reason why Gregory identifies it with arete, virtue.⁽¹³⁾

Gregory of Nyssa follows Aristotle's definition or virtue, arete, as found in On Virginity (PN352b, chap 8): "They therefore do not understand that all virtue is found in moderation (in mesoteti)." This brings to mind the up-down tension proper to the angelic nature already mentioned. Note that virtue is in mesoteti, literally, "in the middle," just like the angels whose nature shares equally in the uncreated and created realms. "Moderation" also connotes beauty whose mark is arete (in the sense of excellence as noted in the last footnote) which is thus an interiorized aspect of divine beauty as belonging to our divine eikon. In union with apatheia or detachment, arete has a three-fold application: ontological, cosmic and spiritual. It signifies union of sensible and intelligible worlds in the human person who is an intermediary (again, the notion of "angelic"...isaggelos...equilibrium). In the human, arete is synonymous with that effort (Gaith's force militante, p.62) to realize this equilibrium. Hence Gregory does not hesitate to identify apatheia with eleutheria or liberty. Refer to a passage from Concerning Infants Who Have Died Prematurely, J.78-9:

Therefore the two-fold nature of every creature (I mean the sensible and rational) including the angelic, incorporeal nature which is invisible, belongs to the transcendent, celestial realm where it dwells in harmony (Since our intellectual nature is subtle, pure, light, easily moved, the heavenly body is subtle, weightless and always in motion). On the other hand, what belongs to the earth lies is completely opposite, the senses, and does not conform to what the mind comprehends (For how can what which lacks mass and is light have compatibility with what is heavy and dense?). Certainly the earth has nothing in common with what is intellectual and incorporeal. Thus [divine] foresight has in mind something better for human existence by reason of the soul's intellectual and divine union with earthly life, and the soul has a connaturality with fleshly existence due to its affinity with what is heavy and corporeal. The goal of these created qualities is to glorify [God's] transcendent power through our intellectual nature as well as our heavenly and earthy qualities (By this I mean the person who turns his regard to God), and to achieve unity with a single purpose in mind. The person who turns to God possesses nothing else than that life which is associated with the intellectual nature.

Rightly do we consider the nature of an eikon as revealing a reality previously unknown to us,⁽¹⁴⁾ even if it refers to our being made in God's eikon after which we are fashioned, that is to say, after the Image, his Son, Jesus Christ according to the well known verse of Col 1.15: "He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation." The Gospels proclaim that this Eikon became incarnate, a fact developed in St. Paul's writings and handed down to later Christian centuries. Yet when we look at the Gospels, let alone Paul's epistles, the hiddenness of Jesus Christ is suggested just as much that tendency to overlook it which occurs through our misunderstanding but even more mysteriously and significantly, through his own volition. In other words, the New Testament conceals more than it reveals about Christ. Eikon occurs only once in the Synoptics⁽¹⁵⁾, although it is an important term with Paul despite his infrequent use of the word, five references which are as follows:

-For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God. 1Cor 11.7

-we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 1Cor 15.49

-are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another. 2Cor 3.18⁽¹⁶⁾

-to keep [unbelievers] from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. 2Cor 4.4

-and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Col 3.10

Clearly what we glean from these verses is a type of seeing, of beholding, which is reflected from the invisible God as one-who-sees⁽¹⁷⁾. How, then, can the paradox of seeing and divine invisibility be reconciled? Vision is not the primary figure the Hebrew language uses when speaking about God; rather, emphasis is upon hearing. This is very evident among the prophets where we often read the phrase, "Thus says the Lord." With the revelation of Jesus Christ, the New Testament developed the Hebrew sense of hearing into the Word or Logos and which played an integral role in the development of Christianity. Later centuries saw an artful blending of both hearing and of seeing to express different features concerning the Logos-Eikon nature of Jesus Christ.

The act of seeing⁽¹⁸⁾ requires a mode of perception different from hearing; while both have immediate impact upon our senses, the former calls for a more limited focus. It is subject to a not-seeing due to preoccupation with thoughts, for example, how the object should appear to our preconceived ideas about it. On the other hand, hearing demands a broader focus, that is, upon something more imperceptible. Similarly, hearing is subject to not-hearing in that once again, mental preoccupations can interfere with reception of what is heard even though we physically hear words. Everyone is familiar with such experiences as recounted in the Old and New Testaments when people do not accept God's revelation. They can miss his revelation either through the sense of hearing or of seeing (Isaiah's "They have eyes but they do not see, ears but they do not hear").

While the notion of eikon implies the correct interpretation of seeing rather than of hearing, it nevertheless includes the latter in a subordinate fashion. That is to say, a person made as an eikon...as a seeing...seems to rely upon correct hearing, of becoming a logos, to activate this eikon. Perhaps this is why the first recorded instance of hearing's improper use was when the first man and woman hid when they "heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day" (Gen 3.8): the eikon of God (the seeing of God) hid from the logos of God (the hearing of God). Ever since that mythical time the human race was faced with the challenge to unify the two realities of hearing and of seeing. Since seeing came first (cf. Gen 1.26, "Let us make man in our eikon"), the challenge consisted in uniting hearing with this ontological reality; despite hearing's importance, it is not ontological as in the case of our being created as eikons of God.

Since our being made in God's eikon, that is, first as seeing and then as hearing, these two faculties which have their counterpart in the physical senses are accustomed to perceive invisible reality in a not dissimilar fashion. Hearing and seeing do not always impart a full perception of reality but a limited one due to these senses' inherent constraints, therefore their revelation is partial; similarly, the concealment of what they perceive is partial.⁽¹⁹⁾ Gregory's Commentary on the Song of Songs speaks about this dialectic between revelation and concealment in terms of the human bride's veil. I list most of the references as follows which are interesting to read in light of how much the veil conceals as well as how much it reveals:

-Yet Paul somewhere calls the shift from the corporeal to the spiritual "a turning to the Lord and the removal of a veil" [2 Cor 3.16]. J.7

-Christ trained his disciples' minds through sayings veiled and hidden in parables, images, obscure words and terse sayings in riddles. J.8

-The Song of Songs is the true tent of witness whose veils, skins, and coverings of the outer court are terms and expressions of love. J.44

-For unless you "shaded yourself over" with the form of a servant [cf. Phil 2.7] while unveiling the pure rays of your divinity, who could bear your manifestation. "For no one can see God's face and live" [Ex 33.20]. You have now come as one who is lovely but as one we are capable of receiving. You came with the covering of your body which shadowed [i.e., veiled] over the rays of your divinity. J.108

-Go beyond the veil of human nature and see this marvelous sight. As daughters of Sion, see the crown on the king's head which his own mother placed on him according to the prophet, "He has placed on his head a crown of precious stone" [Ps 20.4]. J.212

-Because the Song's divine words contain some difficult, veiled ideas concealed in obscurity, we need to apply greater attention to the text; rather, we need greater help through prayer and guidance from the Holy Spirit that we might not suffer the same fate as the sublime marvels we are accustomed to seeing among the stars. J.294-95

-Therefore the bride opened a way into her soul for her spouse by removing the veil from her heart, that is, her flesh. By flesh I mean the old man. J.328

-By stripping off the old man and by removing the veil from her heart, the bride opened a way for the Word. J.328

-The bride opens the door after removing the veil from her heart; she opens the door, the veil of flesh; once the door has been flung wide open, the king of glory may enter. J.333

-How, then, does the bride, stripped of every garment, have a veil which the guards now remove from her? Is it not clear from these words that the bride has advanced to a higher state? Having removed her old tunic and every covering, she became even purer. In view of her current purity the bride does not seem to have removed her covering. Even after that stripping of herself she still finds something further to be removed. J.360

-Those whose task it is to guard the city walls remove the bride's veil by striking and wounding her. A certain benefit lies in this removal of her veil: her eye is free and unhindered to contemplate her beloved. J.360

-He showed weakness in every kind of evil by which the power of Christ is perfected in virtue [cf, 2Cor 12.9]. These words show us the beautiful wound which removed the bride's veil. In this way the soul's beauty is revealed, no longer overshadowed by a covering. J.366

-As the prophet was not harmed by a burning coal but glorified for being illumined, the bride for her part does not question the pain received from the guard's blow, but boasts in her freedom at the removal of her veil. The Song calls this veil a light garment. J.369

-But the veil of despair is removed when the bride learns that the true satisfaction of her desire consists in always progressing in her search and ascent: when her desire is fulfilled, it gives birth to a further desire for the transcendent. Thus the veil of her despair is removed, and the bride will always see more of her beloved's incomprehensible beauty throughout all eternity. J.370

-Let us attentively listen with our veils removed and gaze upon the truth with our soul's eye. J.380

-With her veil now removed, the bride sees with pure eyes the ineffable beauty of her spouse and is wounded by a spiritual, fiery shaft of desire (eros). For love (agape) which is aroused is called desire. J.383

If we consider these verses as a whole, a veil as pertaining to the human bride has the ability to either conceal or reveal (by its removal). It can also pertain to the bride's beauty which is more enticing to the divine bridegroom. Despite Gregory's various interpretations of veil in his Commentary, they allude to a dynamic, not static, reality latent with mystery. We could apply the same to our being God's eikon: even to our own self-knowledge, this divine nature of ours in which we participate on one hand is known yet on the other, completely mysterious. The various persons with whom the bride deals in the biblical Song of Songs act something like this veil in that they point the way to her beloved while not fully revealing where he is. Each time she encounters them they intensify her longing:

-The watchmen found me as they went about in the city. "Have you seen him whom my soul loves?" Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves." 3.3

-I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the hinds of the field, that you stir not up nor awaken love until it please. 3.5

-The watchmen found me as they went about in the city; they beat me, they wounded me, they took away my mantle. 5.7

-I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, tell him that I am sick with love. 5.8

-Where has you beloved gone, O fairest among women? Whither has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you? (daughters of Jerusalem speaking) 6.1

I have noted above five verses from Paul's epistles referring to eikon, the central one in conjunction with 2Cor 3.18 upon which Gregory of Nyssa constructs his doctrine of epektasis. In addition, mention was made concerning our "angelic" nature as isaggelos, "on the same plane as the angels," a plane consisting of equilibrium between God's "downward" act of creation and our "upward" ascent towards him (through epektasis). We may insert another favorite image of Gregory which expresses this equilibrium but one stressing more the soul's upward flight, namely, dove or peristera. Most references are found in his Song Commentary, and I list some of the more important ones:

Persons skilled in studying natural phenomena say that the eye sees by receiving the impression of images emanating from visible objects. For this reason the beauty of the bride's eyes is praised since the image of a dove appears in her pupils. J.105

For this reason the soul freed of bodily attractions is said to have the image of a dove in its eyes, meaning that the stamp of the spiritual life shines from within. When the purified eye of the soul has received the impression of a dove, it becomes capable of contemplating the bridegroom's loveliness. J.106

And so she becomes still more sublime and gazes at the mystery through dove's eyes. J.116

The bride hears the command, is strengthened by the Word, arises, comes forward, approaches, becomes beautiful and is called a dove. How can one behold a beautiful sight in a mirror unless the mirror has reflected the image of a beautiful form? J.150

Therefore, by drawing near to the light, human nature becomes light. In this light it takes on the beautiful form of a dove, I mean the dove which indicates the presence of the Holy Spirit. J.151

He exhorts her to draw near to the light and to become beautiful by being transformed into a dove's image in the light. J.159

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" [2Cor 3.18]. 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. Though 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. J.160

she becomes the bridegroom's companion, and the beauty of her eyes is compared to a dove's. The bride goes even further; her vision is clearer, and she carefully consider's the Word's beauty. She marvels how he descended in a shadowy form upon the bed of this life here below. J.176

If we can somehow ascend with the perfect dove flying to the heights we can hear the voice of the bridegroom's friends marveling at his ascent from the desert. J.185

He names them [eyes] "doves," for purity is proper to doves while the Song praises their eyes. J.218

The best praise is attributed to the eyes when they conform their way of life to the Holy Spirit's grace, for the Holy Spirit is the dove. J.219

Next the bride is compared to a horse because of the swiftness of her progress and to a dove because of her nimble mind. J.324

The spiritual, pure life is expressed by a dove, the form which John saw the Holy Spirit flying upon the waters (cf. Jn 1.32). J.395

Thus the eye is to become beautiful and fitting for the bridegroom's golden head, that is, pure as a dove, true and undeceptive as milk, and never deluded by insubstantial fantasies. J.397

The eye situated by the fulness of spiritual waters must be washed by unmixed, pure milk like an innocent dove in order that the bridegroom may share his own goodness with all the members of the Church. J.400

Therefore, I am winged once more by your eyes, and I take up the wings of a dove through the virtues which give me the power of flight. J.449

If love perfectly casts out fear, and if fear changes into love, then unity follows, the result of salvation, for all have been united in the sole good through that perfection symbolized by a dove. J.466

We know the mother of the dove, for the tree is known by its fruit. J.468

Since what is born of the Spirit is spirit, the offspring is a dove. In deed, the mother is the Dove which descended from heaven at the Jordan River. J.468

Note the many associations of dove with the bride's eye together with other images of light, for Gregory seems to identify it with the divine eikon which is in a constant state of epektasis. Similarly, the dove is clearly representative of the Holy Spirit or Pneuma, who is the image of that love between Father and Son. While our divine eikon rightly participates in the up-down motion proper to angelic existence, it would be more accurate to say that it favors upward motion. As Paul says, "But our citizenship is in heaven" (Phil 3.20). This "natural" place of residence, politeuma, is the same word Gregory of Nyssa uses for "the heavenly way of life" (Song Commentary, J.126.10). Furthermore, of all the "dove" references, the passage of J.150 is distinctive in that we have a combination of "hearing" with the "seeing" of the dove: "The bride hears the command, is strengthened by the Word, arises, comes forward, approaches, because beautiful and is called a dove." Note the italicized words, "hears" and "Word" (Logos). Because Logos is obviously an important term referring to Christ's divinity, I include it in the list below.

Pathos in Gregory of Nyssa's Song Commentary

for I am persuaded that your soul's eye is pure from every passionate, unclean thought. 4.4

Let no one...drag the pure words of the bridegroom and the bride down into earthly, irrational passions. 15.8

having changed our material inclinations (prospatheias) to an immaterial state. 19.12

This affection for incorporeal things is beyond reproach and free from lust. 23.10

Let no one who is passionate...drag down the significance of the divine thoughts and words to beastly, irrational thoughts. 25.3

The most acute physical pleasure (I mean erotic passion) is used as a symbol in the exposition of this doctrine on love. 27.7

The soul must transform passion into passionlessness so that...our mind may seethe (with passion) for the spirit alone. 27.12

What could be more paradoxical than to make nature purify itself of its own passions and teach detachment in words normally suggesting passion? 29.5

The Song's text readily employs words whose obvious meaning indicates the enjoyment of carnal passion. 30.2

The passions now disturbing us because of the flesh will not be restored with those bodies. 30.11

No longer will there be civil war with the passions. 30.14

Passion does not touch those who are still infants. 38.10

Even to the present day there are many guardians or persons who zealously watch over their own passions. 58.19

In order that you do not suffer misfortune, watch over yourselves. 67.17

so that she might no longer suffer anything unwillingly through ignorance. 72.7

Here [harbor] they forget the sea's evils (kakopatheian) while they recuperate and find relief from their long labors. 80.20

the divine cluster of grapes...which flourished before the Lord's passion, while during his passion it poured out its wine. 95.17

For if free will is seized by anger, it becomes irascible. 102.7

For this reason the soul freed of bodily attractions is said to have the image of a dove in its eyes. 106.2

Never should we allow ourselves to become soft under the storms of the passions. 110.19

Holy Scripture usually names "wood" the material side of human life over gown with a multitude of passions. 116.7

If we are more prone to passion, we ought to love our wives as our own body. 122.8

Now it seems to me that the effects of winter and everything like them have a figurative meaning. 152.8

Hence the various passions were raised to a crest by adverse winds. 153.7

Since our desire for carnal things in the body's members is subject to passion and defilement. 191.13

revealing the soul's beauty as pure and no longer sullied by a desire for carnal pleasure. 192.6

When a person has his sword girded upon his thigh by devoting his life to virtue, he has rejected passion. 198.12

He who partakes of myrrh with Christ will indeed partake of frankincense, for he who suffers with (sumpathon) him will be glorified with him. 243.19

For the person dead to both passion and desire transfers the outward meaning of the Song's words to that which is pure and undefiled. 262.14

he sets his mind on things above where Christ, in whom there is no passion, is seated at the Father's right hand in glory. 262.17

purity of soul and freedom from the disturbance of passion is exercised by attention to the virtues. 271.13

When a person teems with desire or burns with rage, he uses reason to quench the passions. 287.12

we need to apply greater attention to the text. 294.19

The bride makes the north wind, whose strength comes from passions flee by her own authority. 300.6

Pleasure has two aspects: one is effected in the soul by freedom from passion, and another by passion in the body. 313.18

sufferings of lepers was assuaged. 339.2

a voluntary mortification of her bodily passions. 344.3

As for those who practice virtue, you can see some dead to one passion but alive to others. 344.17

One must have a pure mind which banishes every passion from the soul. 376.12

merging their streams into a single one by which the eyes may be purified from any discharge of the passions. 396.3

They became the Church's common mouth and filled their listeners with myrrh which mortified their passions and bore fruit with the lilies of the Word. 405.18

By carving away any material attractions, our hands might become pure. 411.11

Paul imitated Christ by cutting off his life that he might give Israel salvation in exchange for his suffering. 443.17

Human nature...progresses towards the good by an order which gradually gets rid of our inclination (prospatheian) towards evil. 458.17

Epithumia in Gregory of Nyssa's Song Commentary

Those of you who...have stripped off the old man with his deeds and desires. 14.15

The description of beauty somehow attracts the desire of the young to what is shown, fanning their desire for a participation in beauty. 19.9

With these and other such exhortations Solomon has inflamed the desire of the one still young according to the inner man. 21.16

for the hope of being loved in return disposes the lover to a more intense desire. 22.2

Solomon elevates above everything grasped by sense the loving movement of our soul towards invisible beauty. 22.14

desire as much as you can. 23.8

The image is one of marriage where the desire for beauty acts as intermediary. 23.17

The bridegroom does not initiate the desire according to normal human custom. 23.18

The virgin's attendants and associates hear her and spur her on to an even greater desire. 24.15

For God alone is truly sweet, desirable and worthy of love. 31.5

The present enjoyment of God is the starting point for a greater share of his goodness, and it increases our desire for him. 31.7

and he [Moses] thereby acquired a still greater desire for these kisses after the theophanies. 31.12

they never cease to desire, but every enjoyment of God they turn into the kindling of a still more intense desire. 32.3

[Simon, cf. Lk 7.54] remained unmoved in desire for God by reason of his disease. 33.9

The bridegroom states here [1.3] the cause of their noble yearning and loving disposition. 38.4

and the aged person approaching death is incapable of desire. 38.15

that the prelude of her enjoyment might flare up her desire into something stronger. 63.6

For if free will is seized by anger, it becomes irascible; seized by lust, it dissolves into pleasure. 102.7

The soul cannot be refreshed under the shadow of the tree of life unless she has an eager desire for it. 119.4

It is not impossible to accomplish this in the realm of desire for spiritual goods. 125.8

The bride desires the roof of her own house to be adorned with the beauty of such apples. 125.12

When the soul delights in divine things, desires to see apples on the roof. 126.5

The Song of Songs now leads us to desire a contemplation of the transcendent good. 137.5

She desired her bridegroom's shadow. 137.15

they [prophetic writings & Law] create in us a desire to see the sun in the open air. 145.11

Thus as she progresses, her desire grows with each step. 159.8

We must take as our guide our own longing for what is better. 160.14

confirming your desire for the good by your own reason and not led by necessity. 160.16

Now you too must show a perfect disposition for desiring to rise to what is better. 161.7

What could be closer to "Do not commit adultery" than "Do not lust?" 162.7

Now she desires his appearance in the flesh. 164.5

The bride is perplexed and distressed because she does not have the object of her desire. 179.17

all perfection is only the beginning of a desire for more lofty things. 180.7

being transformed from glory to glory, they desire not to remain in the same character. 186.8

they want to excite in her a desire for the divine, immaculate marriage. 190.2

What attracts our desire is pleasant to the sight. 191.9

Since our desire for carnal things in the body's members is subject to passion and defilement. 191.13

It follows that the love of God arises from what is opposed to carnal desire. 192.1

thus revealing the soul's beauty as pure and no longer sullied by a desire for carnal pleasure. 192.7

If anyone desires the text's hidden marrow. 193.12

He never allowed the good already attained to limit his desire. 245.22

The desire of a soul thus rising never remains in its knowledge, but by an ever greater desire, it moves onwards. 247.15

The Word uses such exhortations and attractive words to excite the soul to desire higher things. 249.4

the bridegroom again exhorts her to stir up her desire for the transcendent. 249.9

For the person dead to both passion and desire transfers the outward meaning of the Song's words to that which is pure and undefiled. 262.15

Right at the Song's beginning the bride expressed her desire that the Word proceeding from the divine mouth might come to her mouth. 264.11

When a person teems with desire or burns with rage, he uses reason to quench the passions. 287.10

Oh blessed gardens, whose plants swell with such fruit and are transformed into every kind of nourishment according to the desire of those who enjoy them! 306.11

For those who desire God, a good not shadowed over by anything awaits them. 313.24

Our Lord has given us precepts to make the disciples desire the transcendent. 315.18

he never exhausts his desire to see more because what he awaits is always more magnificent and more divine than anything he has seen. 321.21

she flies like a dove and rests with desire under the apple tree's shadow. 324.6

His hand reaches inside and rouses the bride's desire for seeing him. 333.9

for a sin cannot be found without being yoked to pleasure, for instance, a sin connected with anger and lust. 350.12

But as great and exalted as he was with such experiences, Moses still had an insatiable desire for more. 356.1

I believe we are taught that the person desiring to see God can behold the desire One by always following him. 356.13

Because the desire for her beloved is frustrated, her yearning 369.21

the true satisfaction of her desire consists in always progressing in her search and ascent. 370.2

when her desire is fulfilled, it gives birth to a further desire for the transcendent. 370.3

by banishing desire, he removed the guilt of adultery. 371.15

"His throat is most sweet and altogether desirable" [Sg 5.16]. 384.12

Another [fountain] is humility, truth, righteousness, fortitude, desire for the good. 395.19

Out of desire for the transcendent good, the cares of this life are nullified and put to death. 404.24

She [Thekla] put the outer man to death and quenched every carnal thought and desire. 405.6

counseling us to remove everything external out of desire to see the invisible. 411.8

Its [honey] enjoyment does not slacken desire by satiety; rather, by intense desires it heightens our longing. 425.15

The bride calls her spouse "altogether desirable," a definition of him whom she seeks. 426.1

Perfect in every good, the bridegroom's limbs form a desirable beauty composed from all his members. 426.6

By rejecting impiety and worldly desires, we might again grow wings through holiness and righteousness. 448.15

Everyone is drawn to desire what they bless and praise, so the daughters praise the Dove and desire by all means to become doves. 468.19

And the fact that they praise the Dove shows their zeal to attain what they praise until all become one. 469.5

References to Logos in Gregory of Nyssa's Song Commentary

We know that even the Word himself, who is adored by all creation, passed on the divine mysteries when he had assumed the likeness of a man. J.8

The Word testified to his disciples that they were more than men. He differentiated them from other men when he said to them: "Who do men say that I am" [Mk 8.27]? J.29

As the Word says in Proverbs, "You will find perception of God" [Pr 2.5]. J.34

On the other hand, there is a certain sense of touch in the soul which takes hold of the Word and works in an incorporeal, spiritual way. J.34

The discourse now reveals an ecclesiastical concern, for those who were first instructed by grace and who became eye witnesses of the Word did not keep the good just for themselves. They passed on the same grace to those who came after them. J.40

Because you love the Word's breasts more than wine, we shall imitate you and love your breasts more than human wine, for through them you feed those who are infants in Christ. J.41

The present text of the Song, however, is a participation in the divinity itself since God's own Word and great power enables a reader to share this Word he was filled by an ineffable transmission of the mysteries hidden in the heart of the Lord. John offers us the teat filled by the Word. J.71

God the Word will appear to the purified (soul) today, the third day, which follows the first and second day. J.71

Once the governing part of the soul has been cleansed, the Word rises like the sun for her who desires him and exhorts her to greater perfection by receiving what is already present. J.72

Since, as the divine apostle says [1Cor 10.11], everything was written for our instruction, the Word gives us counsel through his words addressed to the bride, namely, that we must also receive the Word mounted upon us as upon a horse to conquer the Egyptian cavalry. J.76

We think that the Word teaches us here about his essence underlying the order and structure of creation: it is inaccessible, intangible and incomprehensible. Instead of the Word we have in us this compounded fragrance from the perfection of the virtues. J.89

If a person should gather the aroma of every sweet flower from the various meadows of virtue and make his life fragrant through the good odor of his conduct and thus become perfect in every way, such a person would not have it in his nature to look steadily upon the Word of God as upon the sun. J.90

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. J.104

After the voice the Word came leaping over the mountains that stood in his way, and by bounding over the hills, he made every rebellious power subject to himself. J.142

Thus mankind, which had been turned into stone by the cold, might be warmed by the Spirit and by the rays of the Word and so became once again like "water leaping up into eternal life" [Jn 4.14]. J.148

The Word cries out to his Church through the windows, exhorting it to raise up what has been thrown down. J.149

Simultaneously she receives the Word's power, stands, approaches him and draws near to the Light, as the Word testifies when he summons her and says, "Arise, come, my companion, my fair one, my dove" [2.10]. J.150

The Word has spoken to the bride and called her "beautiful" due to her proximity to him and "dove" because of her beauty. J.151

We now see the bride being led by the Word up a rising staircase by the steps of virtue to the heights of perfection. J.159

Now she desires his appearance in the flesh that the Word may become flesh and God may be seen in the flesh and speak about the divine promises of eternal happiness for those who are worthy. J.164

This is what the soul says whom the Word nourishes not on thorns or grass but on the good fragrance of the lilies of a pure life. J.171

The person familiar with scriptural concepts and mysteries understands this from the term "thigh" and knows that the sword signifies the Word. J.193

The Word receives his bride's love because in imitation of the Lord, she wishes all men to be saved and come to the recognition of truth [1Tim 2.4]. J.215

The Word who fashions the Church into an image of a bride and who appropriately distributes virtues to each member by a description of her face's loveliness now praises temperance by the flushed ruddiness of the bride's cheeks. J.230

A breast does not shut grace up in itself but gives the teat of the Word to those in need. J.242

The ear as well does not completely hear the Word but according to its manifestation even though the ear always listens to it. Also, the Word does not enter the heart of man even if the pure in heart always see it. J.247

The Word uses such exhortations and attractive words to excite the soul for higher things. J.249

The Word desires us who are changeable by nature not to fall into evil but by constant progress in perfection, we are to use our mutability as an ally in our ascent towards higher things. J.252

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. J.253

The bride is rightly honored by the other term "sister." She is our sister because she lacks passion and a bride because she is united with the Word. J.254

On the other hand, the person looking towards the Word has one soul because of its uniformity in a virtuous life. J.259

Right at the Song's beginning the bride expressed her desire that the Word proceeding from the divine mouth might come to her mouth as indicated by the symbol of a kiss. J.264

They are honeyed drops that the Word may be blended with milk and honey. J.270

These are not simply words but power, for the bride is guided by the Word to reach higher states. J.280

When the Word raises his bride to such a point through her ascents, he leads her even further. J.280

In order that we may know the plants which the Word cultivates in believers, the Song calls the trees he planted "pomegranates." J.282

God's Word is living, and the soul who has received it is living. J.293

Rightly does he call those worthy of this food "brothers," for the person who does his will is named a brother, sister and mother by the Word himself [Mk 3.35]. J.311

The marriage ceremonies are complete, and the Word is espoused to the Church. J.318

She is now disposed to receive God's appearance, but she does not yet receive the Word standing at her door; rather, she admires the sound of his voice. J.320

Now the bride perceives the Word knocking and she rises at the sound saying, "The voice of my beloved is knocking at my door" [5.2]. J.322

What is the mystic initiation which the soul experiences during this night? It is the Word touching the door. J.324

By flesh I mean the old man. Those who are about to wash the filth from their soul's feet in the bath of the Word are exhorted by the Apostle to remove it and to cast it off. J.328

"Open," says the Word to his bride, that he might give her the capacity to open the content of the divine names. The bride obeys the Word (She has become what she has heard: a sister, companion, dove and perfect one). J.328

The living Word cannot be present in us (I mean the pure, invisible bridegroom who unites the soul to himself by incorruptibility and holiness), unless we remove the veil of flesh by the mortification of our bodies on earth. J.342

Thus the bride's hands are correctly shown to be full of myrrh; by her death to all sin she rises to make an entrance for the Word. The Word whom she admits is Life. J.352

Thus the bride opens the kingdom's door: by her hands which manifest her good deeds and by the key of faith; through both deeds and faith the Word prepares the key of the kingdom in us. J.353

In a similar way the Lord's face passed Moses by, and thus the lawgiver's soul kept going out of that state which it had attained, ever following the Word who went before him. J.354

The contemplation of God's face is a never ending journey toward him accomplished by following right behind the Word. J.356

Then the bridegroom passes by and the bride exits; she no longer remains in the place where she had been but touches the Word who leads her onward. J.357

The Word passed by his bride who could not grasp her desired lover. J.363

The bride thus received a blow like the flint Moses struck so that she might stream forth for those thirsting after the Word [Ex 17.6]. J.368

He was the first fruit of the common mass of dough by which the Word assumed our nature. J.91

Now many persons let their spiritual eyes neglect these waters and pay scant attention to the Word of God. J.398

They became the Church's common mouth and filled their listeners with myrrh which mortified their passions and bore fruit with the lilies of the Word. J.405

Since the bridegroom's words are lovely with honey from the comb, his voice is the organ of the Word. J.425

With the care of his Word, he irrigated these plants by the pure, divine fountain of his teaching. J.437

The Word teaches us by these examples because we see that the nature and power encompassing all things arranges a place for those who receive him in purity. J.438

They believe that the Word of mystery is salvific, yet it does not establish truth in them by knowledge and certainty. J.460

1. Unless specified, references to Gregory's works follow the usual pattern on this Home Page, that is, according to the critical texts begun under the direction of Werner Jaeger and published by E.J. Brill, Leiden. Most other references are taken from The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers as well as my own translations.

2. Thumos: a word with various meanings such as soul, breath, spirit, heart, anger, wrath.

3. Note the suffix epi, a preposition meaning "upon." Thus this word is an intensification of thumos, a "thumos- upon."

4. Note use of the preposition pros, "towards," indicating a dynamic direction towards-which.

5. Translation by H. Armstrong in the Loeb Classical Library edition.

6. Also refer to Ignatius of Antioch (Ephesians VII, 2), Justin (Dialogues XLV, 4) as in On the Profession of a Christian, PG46.241d, On the Lord's Prayer, PG44.1128d.

7. Note the references to isaggelos below.

8. Also, cf. On the Beatitudes, PG44.708a and 1112d.

9. La Conception de la Liberte chez Gregoire de Nysse (Paris, 1953). This more intense focus is expected in that Gaith is dealing with a specific aspect of Gregory's teaching. Also refers to some remarks in the French translation of On the Creation of Man found in Sources Cretiennes, p.57, pp.96-7 and 137(b).

10. A word Gregory uses for our participation in the angelic life is isaggelos, literally, "on the same plane (isos) as the angels."

11. Cf. Gen 28.12: "And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it (the ladder of Jacob's dream)."

12. Cf. L'Image de Dieu chez Saint Gregoire de Nysse by Roger Leys (Paris, 1951), pp.116-19 where the author discusses the distinction between the two.

13. Arete is usually translated as the Latin virtus. This latter term means "strength" which certainly applies to the Greek, but arete connotes excellency among a given thing in its class. It thus has a broader, more attractive connotation that "strength" in the face of difficult circumstances which can color our perception of virtue.

14. Consider the word apokalupsis, "revelation," as in the title to John's Book of Revelation. We may thus call awareness of our divine eikon as an apokalupsis.

15. The reference is with regard to the eikon of Caesar on a coin: Mt 22.20, Mk 12.16, Lk 20.24.

16. This verse is central to an understanding of Gregory's development of epektasis, the continuous stretching forth into deeper levels of knowledge and love of God. Refer to a document on this Home Page regarding epektasis. Also, in this and the next verse the RSV translation uses "likeness" which in reality is homoiosis; eikon is actually used.

17. I include the same footnote as found in another document on this Home Page (Taxis and Akolouthia): For Gregory's interpretation of the etymological relationship between theoria and theos (God) within the context of "seeing," refer to Against Eunomius: "Even the word God (theos) we understand to have come into usage from the activity of His seeing; for our faith tells us that the Deity is everywhere, and sees (theathai) all things, and penetrates all things, and then we stamp this thought with this name (theos) guided to it by the Holy Voice." J.397 i; PN.309

18. Perhaps a better word is beholding, but I use "seeing" in this sense. Beholding implies total focus of our faculties, not just sight, upon the object of our regard.

19. We have this experience of revelation and concealment when gazing upon an icon. Its sense of mystery reveals just as much as it conceals with regard to the person or scene depicted.