Review of Hans Boersma's 'Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa' - by Ron Dart

Hans Boersma, Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa: An Anagogical Approach (Oxford University Press, 2013).

There is definite tug and pull, jostling and clashing in theology, the church and world in the early years of the 21^st century. The postmodern-emergent church, for the most part, has lost faith in the traditional reformed-evangelical articulation of Christianity and is fragmenting in a variety of directions. The reformed and evangelical tribe, seeing so clearly, the breakdown of a 500-year tradition, are reasserting their position and drawing deeper lines in the sand. Gregory Boyd, Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle, Richard Rohr and tribe tend to flatter themselves on being part of a new reformation and great emergence--they are certainly moving in different directions than Jim Packer (the elder), Mark Driscoll, John Piper and Tim Keller. There are those, though, who see this in house conservative protestant beating of the bushes as reactionary, short lived and doomed as merely the product of a protestant cul-de-sac. There is, so the argument goes, no real historic depth, grounding and rootedness in this dialogue that generates more heat than light. There has been, therefore, in its most recent form, a turn to the 2000 year old “Great Tradition” as embodied in the Fathers of the Church (West and East) as a way responding to the weaknesses, short sightedness and limitations of the reformed-evangelical and postmodern-emergent  church versions of Christianity. There has been a decided interest in the Patristic Era (see both the “Renovare” and “Ressourcement” movements) and a growing interest in the mother church (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican) vision of theology, liturgy, ecclesiology and public life in the last few decades. There can be little doubt that Hans Boersma is on the cutting edge of the turn to the Great Tradition and the theologians who incarnate (in thought, word and deed) such a time tried way.

The substantive research and writing by Hans on Gregory of Nyssa and publication of, Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa: An Anagogical Approach, is a creative reread of Gregory and walks the truly curious into the mother lode of the one of the finest of the Orthodox theologians. I remember, when doing an MA on the Fathers from 1981-1983, taking a course in which we had to translate Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses from Greek to English, then reflect on his Biblical exegesis and mystical theology--it was quite demanding task. But, there is much more to Gregory than his classic, Life of Moses. The appeal and lure of Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa is the way Boersma has revealed to the reader the fullness of Gregory’s thought and a wiser, more comprehensive and embodied way of interpreting Gregory--this has been much needed. There has been a tendency to reduce Gregory to a Platonist Christian theologian (which he was in some ways), then, worse yet, distort the more nuanced and complex thinking of Plato. This misreading of both Gregory and Plato has led to a silly dismissal of Gregory of Nyssa by many western thinkers. The sheer strength and value of Embodiment and Virtue is the way Hans has restored Gregory of Nyssa to his mature and wisdom oriented way of knowing and being. Gregory is no simple reactionary---there are subtle layers upon layers of how he does theology, exegesis, ecclesial life and public engagement.

Embodiment and Virtue is divided into 9 chapters: 1) Introduction, 2) Measured Body, 3) Textual Body, 4) Gendered Body, 5) Dead Body, 6) Oppressed Body, 7) Ecclesial Body, 8) Various Body and 9) Epilogue.

Each of the chapters, in a meticulous and careful manner, leads the reader into the transformative mystical vision of Gregory but, equally important, ground Gregory’s thinking in the life of the virtues, the church and the world. Gregory was, in short, not merely articulating an ascent to truth---he, like Moses and Plato before him, was also committed to embodying the eternal and ultimate truth in a penultimate and historic context—the ascent to the mountain defines and gives shape and form, guidance and insight, for the descent to the valley (or, return to the cave in Plato’s case).   Hans has certainly offered us a more mature interpretation of Gregory that draws from most of Gregory’s writings—such an approach makes it abundantly clear, for the thoughtful, why the truly committed find the Fathers of the church such a source of nourishment and insight—this is certainly not pop theology that panders to the uninformed, lazy of mind or immersed in cultural amnesia.

There are many in the postmodern-emergent church that claim to have an interest in the Fathers, but their cherry picking approach tends to be more theological voyeurism and dilettantism---Boersma is neither so shallow nor so thin—the goods about Gregory are delivered well and his radiance is revealed.

Those who have grown weary and tired of defending a narrower western protestant approach to Christianity and are seeking an older and more centred and stable way will find a solid and sane pathway before them as embodied in the virtuous life of Gregory of Nyssa. If the “Renovare” and “Ressourcement” movements are, in principle and fact, about returning to the life of the Fathers/Mothers of the Church as a means of renewing the church, then Hans Boersma’s Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa: An Anagogical Approach is a must read--Gregory of Nyssa is fortunate to have such a thoughtful interpreter.

Ron Dart