The Body and Desire by Raphael A. Cadenhead

Author:Raphael A. Cadenhead
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780520297968
Publisher: University of California Press

There are two things that bring humanity into close affinity with God. One of these is the truthfulness of one’s idea of what authentically is, so that one is not carried off by erroneous notions into heretical and Gentile opinions about the Divine; and this is in truth the yes. The other is pure thinking that banishes every chronic disorder of the soul; and this is consistent with the yes.

Gregory argues that this is the yes that the Bride gives to the virgins. These virgins are the young maidens (neanides, GNO VI 373:4, 14; 375:11),54 who, as I mentioned earlier, are spiritually immature and are the intended recipients of the injunction to reject idolatrous conceptions of God. It is only after possessing a true knowledge of God and cultivating virtuous dispositions within the soul that a person is able to see the pure Bridegroom with mature eyes (like the Bride) and to speak to him using the words of Song of Songs 5:8, “I am wounded with love” (GNO VI 376:17–20).55

It is also interesting that in this passage the two injunctions are not as evidently sequential or aetiological as in the De vita Moysis. The fact that they are explicitly enumerated may imply a certain order of priority; so too may the identification of the first injunction with dynamis. This could be the dynamis that gives potency to the practice of virtue, although Gregory never spells out its significance explicitly. At any rate, what is clear from the De vita Moysis, if not here specifically, is that the renunciation of erroneous ideas about God is the basis for the practice of virtue. To the extent that Gregory is addressing immature Christians, therefore, I agree with Meredith that proper knowledge of God is prior to the practice of virtue. But Gregory, I argue, does not leave it there.

We have already highlighted the importance of asceticism as a preparative undertaking for the practice of contemplation; there is no need to offer further elucidation of this point. So we move now to discuss the third stage (enumerated above): the synergy between the life of virtue and the contemplative life at the heights of spiritual ascent.

In his discussion of the significance of saffron in Song of Songs 4:14, Gregory writes (GNO VI 285:14–17):56

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