I love Moses but I am allergic to virtue ethics

I enjoyed parts of this book. Most profound is his belief that we will never attain perfect or at least be fully like G-d. How could the created ever fully attained the status of the Uncreated.

The classic narrative and interpretation of Moses’ life, taught by the Nyssan for the development of virtue. Gregory relates Moses’ history in the first part, and in the second devotes his considerable learning and intuition to explaining, through analogy, how the events of Moses’ life speak to us today. In particular he describes how the various symbols and actions are forms that point to Christ, and to the way we are to walk with Christ.

'To be known by God and to become his friend. This is true perfection.'

A very accessible translation of a spiritual classic. The excellent footnotes and introduction put everything in context. I love Gregory's combination of inventiveness, humility and seriousness. A good example of the value of allegorical readings of scripture.

Really loved this one. Would highly recommend.

Even though The Life of Moses is one of Gregory’s more mature writings, near the end of his life, and that he was the more philosophical of the Cappadocian trio, he doesn’t seem completely careful here. However where he shines he shines, and his points of departure from Origen are interesting. Maybe it would have looked presumptuous, but I would have liked to read Gregory reflect on his own life against the backdrop of his thought here. I can’t help but think that connections are there.

Perfection is never complete (it is limitless) nor is it a linear progression upward. It is a yes and no because there is always something ‘beyond’ in the fullness of the divine encounter. God dwells in light. He is approached in darkness. He is both seen and unseen. Heard and not heard. Such is the life and experience of Moses. He is both alienated and united in his movement toward God and among the congregation. He is every person who God calls and presses into the divine mystery.

Contra Origen, Gregory doesn’t posit creaturely return to an eschatological stasis or rest in the beatific vision. There is eternal movement or progression toward God. Contra Maximus, creaturely duality and self-determination are safeguarded. Gregory is somewhere in between the thought of both on eschatological movement and rest, which makes sense given his historical situatedness between them. It’s fascinating to see where each picks up and comments in the ‘conversation.’

Favorite selections:

“The history all but cries out to you not to be presumptuous in giving advice to your hearers in your teaching unless the ability for this has been perfected in you by a long and exacting training such as Moses had.”

* The church would be supremely benefited if learned Christians practiced this piece of advice today.

“This truly is the vision of God: never to be satisfied in the desire to see him. But one must always, by looking at what he can see, rekindle his desire to see more. Thus, no limit would interrupt growth in the ascent to God, since no limit to the Good can be found nor is the increasing of desire for the Good brought to an end because it is satisfied.”

* Amen.

Gregory of Nyssa was one of the Cappadocian Fathers, three Christian thinkers whose work was tremendous in the solidification of orthodoxy int he late 300s. But they did not just write heady theological tomes, they also wrote profound works on spiritual life. One of the best is the Life of Moses by Gregory.

If you want a great example of allegorical interpretation then you have to read this book. Nearly every event in Moses’ life is shown to point to something deeper and more profound. For early Christians like Gregory there was a literal sense of scripture, what it said. But this was just the beginning, the real meat of scripture came in the spiritual sense through allegorical interpretation. When we learned about this in seminary many seemed to scoff, as if allegorical interpretation meant anything goes. The fear, or stereotype, was that the only limit here was the author’s imagination.

Truly, some interpretations can be a bit wacky. But what holds this together is the focus on Jesus Christ. Down to this day many Christians speak of Jesus on every page of scripture. Writers like Gregory take the step to show how Jesus is on every page of scripture. So if you want a glimpse of how this interpretation works, check out Gregory.

The other value of this book is Gregory’s idea of eternal progress. For Gregory, only God is perfect and infinite What this means, for us, is that our growth towards perfection – towards being like God, the process of sanctification – lasts forever. We never arrive. We are constantly growing for all eternity, As Gregory puts it:

“The Divine One is himself the Good…whose very nature is goodness….Since, then, it has not been demonstrated that there is any limit to virtue except evil, and since the Divine does not admit of an opposite, we hold the divine nature to be unlimited and infinite. Certainly whoever pursues true virtue participates in nothing other than God, because he is himself absolute virtue. Since, then, those who know what is good by nature desire participation in it, and since this good has no limit, the participant’s desire itself necessarily has no stopping place but stretches out with the limitless. It is therefore undoubtedly impossible to attain perfection, since as I have said, perfection is not marked off by limits: The one limit of virtue is the absence of a limit”

One of my students stumbled on to this idea years ago, comparing our growth in Christ as to as asymptote in mathematics. This idea is strongly put forth in one of my all-time favorite books, David Bentley Hart’s The Beauty of the Infinite. It is moving and challenging. I find it to be a true account of things, and incredibly encouraging. It is encouraging because every little baby step we take today puts us further along the path towards God, a path, an adventure, we will be on forever.

This book just didn't click with me at all. It's not terrible. There were parts that I liked. The bulk of it, though, just felt. . . kinda pointless. It's essentially all a spiritualized reading of Moses' life, very little of which has any actual warrant in the biblical text. I expect that, to an extent, in reading patristics, but Greg took it to a level I just wasn't feeling. Maybe I'll think differently if I revisit this book later, I dunno.