The Body and Desire: Gregory of Nyssa’s Ascetical Theology

Raphael A. Cadenhead. The Body and Desire: Gregory of Nyssa’s Ascetical Theology. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2018

The opening chapter of Cadenhead’s monograph, The Body and Desire: Gregory of Nyssa’s Ascetical Theology, introduces readers to the familial, socio-political, and religious mores that shaped Gregory’s ascetic thought. Whereas Gregory’s grandparents and great-grandparents experienced imperial oppression and martyrdom, Gregory came of age during the transitional period of the early fourth century when the church and empire interacted in new ways. In response to the prestige, power, and accumulation of wealth flowing into the church, Gregory began to develop his own vision of asceticism. Gregory’s ascetic theology was also influenced by the burgeoning monastic movement, itself a response to the worldly excesses of imperial wealth. As the institution of the monastery grew and increasingly began to occupy urban spaces, the demographics of the monastery expanded to include members of the elite, such as Gregory and his siblings. Lastly, Gregory was personally and vocationally influenced by the ascetics within his own family, namely his brother Basil and sister Macrina, who were both active in the “domestic ascetic movement” that permeated much of the Mediterranean (26). After being fully formed in the traditions of classical paideia, Gregory sought a profession outside of the church as a rhetorician, which for a time put him at odds with his ascetic family members. According to Cadenhead and other modern scholars, Gregory expressed regret in his later writings over his choice to marry as a younger man.

Cadenhead’s thoughtful historical framing of Gregory’s familial, ecclesial, political, and monastic contexts undergirds this study and illuminates Gregory’s views on the body and desire. This approach diverges from traditional reception history and the more recent postmodern explications of gender and sexuality posited by historians and cultural critics. Cadenhead underscores the theological motivations of Gregory of Nyssa’s particular brand of asceticism and shows how his theology evolved over the course of his life. Working diachronically, he examines selected portions of Gregory’s corpus alongside significant transitional moments in his life and episcopal career. This results in the book’s tripartite structure consisting of “chronological phases”: the early phase, 371-September 378; the middle phases, September 378-387; and the late phase, 387-394. This study primarily treats texts whose dating is generally agreed upon, enabling Cadenhead to delineate “thematic trajectories” in Gregory’s thought and when necessary, adjudicate between scholarly disagreement with regard to the more contested texts. His loose chronological configuration also lends a necessary structure to the theological developments and themes that emerge in Gregory’s corpus.

In the early phase, (chapters 1-3), Cadenhead expounds upon Gregory’s earliest work, De virginitate, focusing on Gregory’s views of virginity within the contexts of marriage, celibacy and pederasty. Cadenhead interprets Gregory’s theology of marriage as sometimes compatible with the contemplative life, and virginity as a physical rather than a metaphorical state of being. For example, Cadenhead argues that Gregory saw companionship, not procreation, as the principal purpose of marriage. Therefore, a union that moderated sexual desire in conjunction with other virtuous acts could “…emulate the spiritual and moral outcomes of virginity” (44). This depiction of marriage is emblematic of Gregory’s “integrationist” view of the virtues as dependent upon each other. By thoroughly explicating the philosophical and religious zeitgeist that shaped Gregory’s understanding of sexual lust as equally pernicious as other forms of vice, Cadenhead arrives at Gregory’s emerging theory of desire. For Gregory, erotic love (eros) and its subsequent desire for material beauty—for example, the contemplation of beauty elicited by the form of the young male in the practice of pederasty—must be redirected to the prototypical form of beauty: God. Lastly, Cadenhead’s assessment of Gregory’s views on virginity and pederasty are a significant addition to the scholarly discourse, carefully composed to highlight the differences between ancient and modern conceptions of human sexuality and sexual desire.

Section two (chapter 4-6) examines the middle phase of Gregory’s literary career during which he continued to lift up the ascetic lifestyle as an alternative to the burdens of marriage. It is within this phase that Gregory loses his siblings, Basil, Macrina, and Naucratius, all of whom embraced ascetic practices. Gregory’s grief over and reflections on the lives of his siblings shaped the focus of this literary phase. In his writings, Gregory marshaled biblical sources he identified as supporting the sexual hierarchy of marriage, striking a different tone than earlier works which presented the ascetic life as spiritually flexible with regard to male and female characteristics (as exemplified by the lives of his siblings). During this time Gregory was also preoccupied with how grief can be transformed by desire for God. He joined the lively debates among his contemporaries as to whether or not genitalia are physically restored at the resurrection and argued that genitals would be restored despite the cessation of sexual activity after the eschaton. Here, Cadenhead skillfully dissects Gregory’s two rival anthropologies, based on his exegesis of Genesis 1:27a-b and Genesis 2, to conclude that Gregory’s readings of the sexual differentiation that occurred at creation and the possibility of physical restoration at the eschaton coexisted without being brought into synthesis. During this middle phase, marked by grief and loss, Gregory’s theory of desire and his own spiritual maturity develop through such writings as De anima, De hominis opificio, and De vita Gregorii Thaumaturgi. For Gregory, aging provides an opportunity to confront the futility of the passions associated with youthfulness and pursue virtue instead, ideally through the ascetic life.

In line with the spiritual maturation discussed above, Gregory’s late phase (chapter 3-8) explores the final, more hopeful and expansive form of his theological reflections on the body and desire. For example, despite Gregory’s own later musings (De vita Moysis; De perfectione) on his perceived failure to achieve the perfect life, in this phase he optimistically reframes his theory focusing on moral progress as a path to spiritual ascent and perfection. Spiritual ascent for Gregory is achieved through the soul’s erotic encounter with Christ; this intimacy is open to both the celibate and the married, so long as one exercises moderation in their sexual activity. In this section, Cadenhead succinctly presents Gregory’s complex theological framing of desire, human embodiment, and the male and female characteristics of the soul. Cadenhead, as before, carefully dissects Gregory’s views on the male and female characteristics embedded in the soul and how one overcomes these characteristics en route to spiritual ascension. Ultimately, intimacy with Christ requires both bodily growth and spiritual maturity.

Cadenhead has produced a compelling and expertly researched examination of Gregory of Nyssa’s ascetical theology as it progressed over the course of his life and career. His closing remarks acknowledge the current ecclesial controversies related to gender and sexuality and present Gregory’s ascetical theology as vitally relevant to this contemporary ethical discourse. The author argues that Gregory’s theory prioritizes the importance of individual moral formation, maturation, and ethical practice, themes that may resonate with many readers. Cadenhead’s monograph is a significant, yet accessible contribution to the field that will appeal to experts and lay-readers alike for its socio-historical contextualization and illumination of Gregory’s corpus.

Elizabeth Siegelman is a biblical scholar, adjunct professor, and restorative justice practitioner. Her areas of academic interest include: literary trauma theory, women, gender and sexuality in the Ancient Near East, and religion and incarceration. During her PhD, Elizabeth served as a program coordinator for Drew Theological School's PREP (Partnership for Religion and Education in Prisons) Program. She currently works as an adjunct instructor for Drew’s Doctor of Ministry program. She also works in the nonprofit sector as program coordinator for Community Conferencing of Centre County (PA), a program that offers reentry support, court diversion, and community dispute resolution services. Her restorative justice work is informed by her academic background and practical experience in prison education, both of which taught her the value of education as a tool for personal transformation and community building.