Dear theophan:
Yes - it has been years since I read Gregory of Nyssa - I read him over and over for several years when I first found him. I would take him to the woods and read undisturbed. So I have forgotten some of him - consciously - but he remains a sturdy stone in my own spiritual foundation.
If I can sing his praises for a moment�
He was one of the Alexandrian fathers - an off shoot of Clement and Origen and Evagirus (the father of all Christian monastic spirituality). He was one of the early fathers who, still was so close to biblical antiquities (through the catechetical school that Mark founded in Alexandria) who really knew the proper understanding of scriptural allegory and spiritual interpretation. Gregory�s description of the burning bush - remains burned (if you will) into my mind - even today and forever.
While some of the more zealous early fathers dismissed all classical learning and knowledge as pagan and the work of the devil - he believed that classical works and education contained some forms of truth - and were legitimate and worthy.
Zealous Christians were burning classical manuscripts - raiding libraries and making book bonfires of Homer, and Greek mathematicians, and Aristotle, and Jewish works of biblical commentary. Pagan gathers and rituals were being banned under penalty of death. These fundamentalist Christians became a prime reason why so much of biblical antiquities has been lost to us. If one was not Christian one was a �pagan�. The Christian persecution of pagans and all non-Christian literature reached it peak about 4th century (Gregory lived to about 394AD). Most modern scholars agreeing that it was the Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria who was responsible for the last and final burning of the great libraries of Alexandria (complying with an order from Caesar Theodosius who brought about the most ruthless purge of �pagans� across the Roman Empire).
Of course the more �level heads� finally prevailed in the Church and later came to make education in the classics and philosophy (what remained anyway) a required and fundamental part of the seminary formation for the priesthood.
As things would have it - over the last 75 years some of these lost manuscripts have been coming to light - in that paper was a rare thing - and so monks would �wash� the �pagan� manuscripts and re-use them in monastery libraries for Christian works. Such was the case of just recently the discovery of a manuscript of a Greek mathematician found under - the writing of an early monastic manuscript. Through special lighting and computer enhancements - the washed out Greek text was deciphered - and there - among the letters - was a theorem for correctly calculating the absolute volume of a triangle - something modern mathematicians with computers had struggled long on - and could not solved! (thank you Nova TV show).
While perhaps others may not recognize this �pivotal point� in Christianity which Gregory represents to me� I can say that it was Gregory who prevented me from even accidentally stumbling into the path of being a fundamentalist Christian. Like many Saints - when they were alive they were at odd with other �church fathers� - and stood against the tide - and then much later - were recognized for their courage under persecution (that persecution often coming from the powerful Hellenism �block� of church fathers within authorities of the Church itself).
I �second� your recommendation to WG to browse St. Gregory of Nyssa.
http://www.bhsu.edu/artssciences/asfaculty/dsalomon/nyssa/ref.html But there is nothing quite like a book in the hand J
-ray
