Modern Theology 28:4 October 2012
"This is the Day Which the Lord has Made": Scripture, Manumission, and the Heavenly Future in Saint Gregory of Nyssa
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One of the most common objections to pre-modern exegesis is that it does not do justice to the historical, earthly character of the biblical text. In their desire to allegorize and spiritualize, pre-modern theologians are often thought to neglect earthly and bodily concerns in favour of heavenly and spiritual realities. Put sharply, many are inclined to think that theologians such as St. Gregory of Nyssa were too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. This article will reflect on this objection, and I will suggest that for Gregory, heaven and earth are not realities that we can separate as if they had little or nothing to do with each other. Instead, I will argue, it is precisely Gregory’s spiritual interpretation and his anagogical or heavenly desire that motivates his concern for historical, embodied existence—including the matter of slavery. So, I will link Gregory’s interest in spiritual exegesis to his opposition to slavery. I will argue that the consequence of his theological approach to Scripture is not disinterested otherworldliness but a genuine concern to bring heaven to earth. For Gregory, social concern makes sense precisely in the context of his thoroughly heavenly-minded or anagogical approach to theology.
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