Union Theological Seminary Presentation

Union Theological Seminary Presentation December 8, 2017 The Theology Of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus & Ancient Greek Poetry This will form the basis of a paper (with footnotes and references) to be included in a book on Eastern Christianity and related issues. Why Now? There are at least three reasons why now is the time--(​ὁ καιρός)--to focus on how the theology of Gregory relates to his interest in ancient Greek poetry: First​​, There is now far more known about ancient Greek poetry than at any time since Gregory lived. Of special importance with respect to Gregory are discoveries of previously unknown fragments of poetry by Sappho and Empedocles, published in just the past two decades. What makes this especially relevant to us now is that while these poets lived just as oral culture was being displaced by writing, we are now experiencing the opposite: the displacement of writing by technologically empowered oral transmission. Second​​, It is now apparent that the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, far from naturally or even logically evolving from earlier Greek culture, constituted an inexplicable departure from it. Furthermore, the consequences of the influence of their philosophy that constitutes the “Tyranny of Truth” (Hannah Arendt’s phrase) have been and continue to be as horrific as anything in human history. Third​​, It is now apparent that women deserve to be recognized as epistemologically privileged relative to men. While this conclusion is based on modern neuroscientific research, it was common knowledge in early Greek culture. For example, the fact that Greek women before Plato had exclusive authority over all aspects of family medicine, was predicated on the recognition that women are uniquely qualified relative to men to be family physicians since only women give birth. ************* This, it would seem, Gregory well knew, yet its relevance to his life and theology has not been adequately appreciated and I therefore want to elaborate upon it before going on: Gregory’s three year convalescence at or near a convent suggests he believed in the value of women as physicians. It may also suggest, however, something about Gregory’s psychology: one of his echoes of Sappho is evidence that as a celibate ascetic he identified himself not simply as being a woman, but a​ s the virgin goddess Artemis​. Regardless of what is to be made of those suggestions, it is apparent that Gregory was, relative to many if not most other men then and now, unusually sensitive to the unique challenges women face. Evidence of that is a poem he apparently wrote for the nuns of the convent he was at in the form of a debate of the advantages and disadvantages for women of married life relative to celibacy. In antiquity and today few would debate that celibacy for a man is a substantial sacrifice. Yet, as Gregory manifestly felt, married life for women then was if anything as great or greater a sacrifice than celibacy. Particularly startling is a passage in the poem where he refers with almost clinical specificity, and yet considerable sympathy, to miscarriages, stillborns and birth defects. Precedent for such an attitude is to be found in earlier Greek medical literature and it would therefore not be fair to characterize it as Christian. Nevertheless, Gregory understood its theological implications; for example, in the poem for the nuns he characterizes the trinity as the “first virgin” (Πρώτη παρθένος). In this regard Gregory was not simply different than but the polar opposite of Augustine. Not only was Augustine rightly ridiculed by one of his Christian contemporaries as being embarrassingly naive about the basic facts of life, but his ​damnatio memoriae​ of the mother of his only child--a woman he lived with for roughly two decades--manifests a level of misogyny that rivals even that of Plato and Aristotle. ************************* What Took So Long? The answer to “Why now?” leads to the question “What took so long?” The answer to that question relates to the fact that to reverse the effects of the influence of the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle requires nothing short of a radical revolution--in the original sense of the word ‘revolution,’ a turning back (​re​-​volvere​)--to the direction Greek culture had been going before Plato and Aristotle. That it has taken so long to recognize the need for such a revolution is consistent with how Gregory, in Oration ​31.26​, envisions revelation as evolutionary: unfolding only in stages because humans would not be capable of absorbing a complete revelation all at once. ​ ​Under Roman Imperialism, especially as it existed when Gregory was alive, such a revolution would have been impossible. Even today, to the extent that modern Globalism is nothing but rebranded Roman Imperialism, such a revolution, which plainly has uniquely Christian roots, is being and will continue to be fiercely resisted. To get a sense of how radical would be the revolution I am talking about, consider what Gregory had to say about the family law of his day: because such law was drafted exclusively by men, and for that reason discriminated against women, Gregory said: “I do ​not​​ accept this law . . . this is n ​ ot​​ God’s way!” (Oration ​37.6​: ​Οὐ δέχομαι ταύτην τὴν νομοθεσίαν, οὐ ὐκ ἐπαινῶ τὴν συνήθειαν . . . . Θεὸς δὲ οὐ ὐχ οὕτως (Nota bene​: the repetition ​Οὐ . . ​οὐκ . . ​οὐχ is quite emphatic and Gregory surely raised his voice as he said those words)). Using what can be characterized as an expansive, charitable interpretive approach such as Gregory endorses later in the same Oration, the principle underlying Gregory’s critique of family law can today justifiably be applied to all laws. The laws that today underlie each and every corporation, city, state and country have been drafted almost exclusively by men. Such laws are thus vulnerable to attack based on the principle Gregory so eloquently articulated over 1600 years ago. ***************** Why Sappho? Though Gregory read widely, there are five ways in which he would have been drawn to Sappho in particular: 1. Sappho appears to have been a descendant of Hittites (or a related culture of ancient Central Turkey--​i.e.​, the region where Gregory was born and lived most of his life). 2. Sappho’s name appears to be etymologically related to a word for ‘holy’ in one or more ancient languages of Central Turkey. 3. Sappho was a metrical virtuoso--a genius in applied mathematics. She used a range of meters without precedent or parallel in any poet of her time--or any time since. That Gregory knew. There is something now known, however, that Gregory did not know but that is nonetheless worth pointing out: one aspect of Sappho’s meters attests to an affiliation with the poetry of the Vedic Rsis. This affiliation (with few, insignificant exceptions, not attested in other ancient Greek poets), confirms that Sappho’s intellectual ancestry (regardless of what her bloodline may have been) goes back east but perhaps not so much to what is now Central Turkey, as north, into the region around the Sea of Azov. 4. Sappho was ​best known​ in antiquity for her wedding songs (​epithalamia​). It is thus not surprising that the first attested usage of the abstract noun ‘virginity’ in ancient Greek (παρθενεία) is in fragments of Sappho’s epithalamia. This means that in characterizing Song of Songs​ (“Songs”) as an epithalamium, Origen effectively imbued Sappho with a mystical authority for Christians comparable to no other Greek author. Modern scholarship supports Origen’s characterization of ​Songs​ as an epitalamium and the best estimates of its date of compilation and/or composition place it well after Sappho (ca 300 BCE) at a time when her poetry was widely available and her influence on literature alredy significant (including Plato’s ​Phaedrus​). 5. Sappho was a refugee from her native Lesbos, fleeing to Sicily for an unknown period of time. Because a statue of her was known to have been commissioned by the citizens of Syracuse about two centuries later, there is good reason to conclude Sappho’s influence in Sicily was strong. Evidence of that influence is a philosophy of poetry by Gorgias discernible in an oration he composed in defense of Helen of Troy, based in part, it would seem, on a poem by Sappho. Notwithstanding that Plato belittled it, this philosophy strongly influenced Classical oratory. Gregory drew upon the Helen of Sappho and Gorgias in his eulogy of his sister, Gorgonia, who he quite provocatively suggests had not died, but rather changed houses, and hence husbands, much like Helen. ******************* Empedocles & Gregory I want to now explain the connection of Gregory with Empedocles--a Sicilian contemporary of Gorgias-- and I will quote one line of Gregory’s poetry to illustrate that influence: The line begins with Gregory addressing the “Breath of God,” ​Πνεῦ ῦμα Θεοῦ ῦ. I translate Πνεῦ ῦμα as ‘Breath’ because the Latin derived ‘spirit’ and especially the archaic English ‘holy ghost,’ unjustly divorce English speakers from its meaning. ​Πνεῦ ῦμα is onomatopoeic: as such it need not​ and perhaps ​should not​ be translated. Furthermore, because it was of paramount importance to Greek medicine--and of course oral transmission (hence my reference to that earlier)--clarity on the meaning of ​Πνεῦ ῦμα is c​ rucial​ to understanding Gregory’s theology. The line continues: “may you awaken my heart and tongue” “​σὺ δ’ ἔμοιγε νοὸὸν καὶὶ γλῶ ῶσσαν ἐγείροις.” Much in the manner that the sound of ​Πνεῦ ῦμα relates to its meaning, the entire line is iconic of a breath cycle: line initial ​Πνεῦ ῦμα is iconic of inhaling; the juxtaposition immediately thereafter of the pronouns ​σὺ δ’ ἔμοιγε is iconic of intimacy (​such as when a flower’s essence is inhaled​); the inhaled breath is understood as being concentrated in the heart--​the source​ of thought and emotion in the Greek poetic tradition (the phrase ​ἔμοιγε νοὸὸν--my heart--is iconic of that: it is metrically line center). There the breath, (1) triggers a thought, (2) then elicits the desire to speak, with the breath travelling back up to the tongue, and (3) the eyes open ἐ​ γείροις, looking forward to the action(s) that will result from what is said: Πνεῦμα Θεοῦ σὺ δ’ ἔμοιγε νοὸὸν καὶ γλῶσσαν ἐγείροις Key here is that ‘awaken’ (​ἐγείροις) is a cognate of Gregory’s own name. Its ​line final​ position echoes the ​line initial​ position of ​Πνεῦ ῦμα: Gregory is the Breath of God. Both the poetic technique and the ​theosis​ it manifests are perfectly Empedoclean. Far from being just theological (words ​about​​ God), such poetry ​is ​theology (words ​of​​ God). What is going on here relates to a point Gregory briefly makes in O ​ ration 28.4-5​, where after arguing that it is impossible to know ​what​ God is, he insists it is possible to be persuaded ​that God is (he circles back (ring composition) to this “persuasion” point in the conclusion of Oration 31.33). This point relates to the theory of Gorgias that poetry acts as a vehicle for getting around the ​triadic​ roadblock put up by the radical skeptic who would argue: (1) that nothing exists, (2) if it did you could not know it, and (3) if you knew it you could not communicate it. Poetry functions precisely by communicating that something exists because you experience it as present in the poem. ***************** The Importance Of The Methodology Underlying Poetry Poetry gets around the triadic roadblock of skepticism by being produced from a triadic discipline--attested as far back in time as the Vedic Rsis. This discipline is known in the Greek Christian tradition by the terms ​ka​th​arsis​, ​th​eoria​ and ​th​eosis​, which I am going to refer to collectively as σωφροσύνη (based in part on the association of that term with Sappho and Gregory’s use of it in one of his poems). Some familiarity with ​Sophrosune​ is essential to understanding Gregory’s interest in poetry, but unlike his poetry--requiring years of study of ancient Greek to appreciate--​Sophrosune​ is readily appreciated and generally applicable both to individual study and practice as well as social action. Although well known to Christian ascetics, especially in the Eastern tradition, it is surprising how few Christians are aware of it or its relevance to Christianity. For example, it would seem to underlie Christ’s saying that he is the “way, the truth and the life” (​John 14:6​: ​ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή). The presence of ​theta​ in each of ka​th​​arsis, ​th​​eoria and ​th​​eosis can be understood to symbolize the extent to which each is not so much practiced as received from ​th​​eos, God. Furthermore, though there is an implied chronological progression in the three aspects of Sophrosune, they often are ​interdependent and experienced simultaneously​, which the presence of ​theta​ in each can ​also​ be understood to symbolize. Nevertheless, katharsis is arguably of the greatest importance because it must be undertaken (or experienced--received by grace) as a threshold matter before the other two can be activated. The line of Gregory’s poem quoted earlier illustrates how breathing, as ​katharsis​, leads to thinking as ​theoria​ resulting in awakening as ​theosis​. That is not all: eating properly is also important: not just ​what​ but ​how​ you eat. Gregory criticized the eating habits of some of his contemporaries as ​θηρ​​ίωσις (becoming beasts (Oration 14.23)), thus calling attention to the relevance of eating to katharsis: ​Theriosis​ is the very antithesis of ​theosis​. It is not clear exactly what diet would constitute ​theriosis​ for Gregory but the details do not matter in translating the principle into modern practice.1 Gregory was a wealthy, slave owning, celibate. No one here would want to be all three or even two out of the three. ************* Conclusion: Gregory’s Methodology I want to conclude by calling attention to the degree to which Gregory’s theology is grounded--literally--in what can rightly be called an empirical methodology, which has two dimensions. Its subjective/internal dimension can be considered a psychology of theosis; its objective/external dimension can be considered a theology of evolution. This is or should be surprising, given not only the reputation of Gregory as a ‘negative’ theologian but that of Christian theology and particularly its trinitarian doctrine as being hopelessly abstract, with no obvious relevance either to the Bible or modern science. It can and should be the basis for those who identify with Christianity as well as those who do not (for whatever reason) to rethink many assumptions about the relevance of Christianity--as Gregory sought to define it--for the future. ​It is clear from ​Romans​ 14:1ff that some version of what is commonly (but misleadingly) referred to as a ‘vegetarian’ diet today was an integral part of Christian beliefs and practices at a very early stage (because such evidence attests to its practice ​prior ​to practically all textual evidence it arguably should be deemed the ‘Gospel before the Gospels’)(for more granularity see my post, ​Early Christian Vegetarians: Weak In Faith?​). Much later Christians endorse such a diet as vital to ascetic practices in particular, including Saint Basil, whose relationship with Gregory was close but also troubled by disagreements, as well as Jerome, who studied under Gregory for a time in Constantinople. 1