Episode 33: Conclusions to Augustine, Pt 2: Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses

Series: Mystical Theology
Episode 33: Conclusions to Augustine, Part 2: Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses, Part 6 of The Cappadocian Fathers, Dr. C. Veniamin
In Episode 33, we have the second part of our Conclusions to the Unit on the Cappadocian Fathers and Augustine of Hippo. This consists of Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses (paragraphs 152-169), in which St. Gregory presents the God-seer Moses in his ascent towards God and deification (theosis). One of the key themes in Nyssa’s account is that of “divine darkness”. Other themes touched upon in this episode are included in the Timestamps.
Q&As available in The Professor’s Blog: mountthabor.co...
Recommended background reading: Christopher Veniamin, ed., Saint Gregory Palamas: The Homilies (Dalton PA: 2022): mountthabor.co... ; The Orthodox Understanding of Salvation: "Theosis" in Scripture and Tradition (2016): mountthabor.co... ; The Transfiguration of Christ in Greek Patristic Literature: mountthabor.co... (2022) ; and Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Empirical Dogmatics of the Orthodox Catholic Church: According to the Spoken Teaching of Father John Romanides, Vol. 1 (2012), Vol. 2 (repr. ed. 2020).
Further bibliography may be found in our "Scholar's Corner" webpage: mountthabor.co....
- LINKS -
Join The Mount Thabor Academy!
UA-cam FRIENDS AND READERS
/ @themtpacademy
Patreon MEMBERSHIP TIERS
/ membership
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Reading Gregory of Nyssa: Life of Moses, par. 152-169
01:27 Mountain of Knowledge of God and the divine darkness
02:07 Distinction between the two tablets of the Law
02:31 Moses and the cloud
02:46 Cleansing of the mind (nous), the water of Marah (Ex 15.22-25), and the “wood”
03:26 Living water - the Rock - heavenly bread - stretching out of Moses’ hands - mystery of the Cross
03:47 Vision of transcendent nature
04:20 Purification of soul and body required
04:43 Washing of clothes: “a respectable habit of life”
05:21 No animal on the mountain
06:40 One must purify one’s conduct to attain to the vision of God
08:01 The Law and the Prophets - trumpets - the Gospel
09:21 The ordering of the Church - Who should be a bishop? (1 Cor. 12.29)
10:54 The divine darkness vs God seen as light
13:24 Knowledge of divine nature inaccessible to every created intelligence
13:35 “Moses entered the darkness where God was” (Ex. 20.21)
15:13 Two halves of religion: that which pertains to God, and good conduct
15:54 The tent “not made with hands”
17:50 Natural contemplation (cf. Maximus the Confessor)
18:35 Commentary
19:12 Gregory of Nyssa: presuppositions Biblical not philosophical
19:27 Burning Bush (Ex. 3.2), Cloud & Pillar of Fire (Ex. 13.21), Dark Cloud (Ex. 20.21)
20:37 “Back parts of God” (Ex. 33.23)
20:48 Progress from light to darkness, into “unknowing”
21:08 Spiritual life: dynamic and unending
22:20 “Darkness” is luminous - Knowing is unknowing
23:07 Song of Songs (PG 44.1001B)
23:49 Spiritual progress “from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3.18)
23:58 Smashing of idols: reality of God transcends our thoughts of God
24:28 Ecstasy: we transcend even ourselves
25:24 “Reaching forth” (Phil. 3.13)
25:41 Though we can never grasp the essence of God, to seek God is to find Him
26:19 Growth as basic feature of humanity - perfection means growing
26:46 The notion of tension (tonos)
27:02 Continual creation - every end is a new beginning (Comm. Song of Songs)
27:23 Vision of the back parts of God (Exod. 33)
28:10 The smashing of idols - symbolic interpretation to Second Commandment (Ex. 20:4)
28:51 Self-transcendence (ecstasy), vertigo, sober drunkenness, passionate love (eros)
29:46 Asceticism born out of love for God
30:43 Union with God in love - knowledge becomes love (PG 46.96C)
0:00 Appeal
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I wish to express my indebtedness to the spoken and written traditions of Sts Silouan and Sophrony the Athonites, Fr. Zacharias Zacharou, Fr. Kyrill Akon, Fr. Raphael Noica, Fr. Symeon Brüschweiler; Fr. Pavlos Englezakis, Fr. Georges Florovsky, Prof. Constantine Scouteris, Prof. George Mantzarides, Prof. John Fountoulis, and particularly to Mtp Kallistos Ware, Prof. Panayiotes Chrestou, Fr. John Romanides, and Mtp Hierotheos Vlachos: certain sentences and phrases utilized in these presentations are taken directly from my notes of some of their lectures. My presentations have been enriched by all of the above sources, owing to the adoption of certain structures, lists, schemata, and the paraphrasing of themes taken from them. Responsibility for the content of my presentations is of course mine alone. ©Christopher Veniamin 2024

[@TheMTPAcademy]

Support the channel and get exclusive access to videos. Join now: ua-cam.com/channels/zLT_Coqv0urvnTnMijmjWQ.htmljoin

[@domromano4117]

Thank you so much for your precious help and support. God bless you always

[@TheMTPAcademy]

You are most welcome, Dom Romano @domromano4117. Thank you for your support and appreciation.

[@paisios2541]

We see sometimes in the Fathers use of terms like guilt. St Gregory Palamas in his homily for yesterdays feast says we have a "guilty nature". There are some Latin influenced Orthodox who try to use quotes like this to say that we believe in Penal Substitutionary Atonement. How should we understand the use of such language in an Orthodox way?

[@TheMTPAcademy]

Thank you for your question, @paisios2541. Even when such phrases as "guilty nature" are employed, they should be placed in their proper theological context. Trying to apply "penal substitutionary atonement" to the Bible and the Fathers is futile, and betrays a twisted and confused approach to everything.