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 21st
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