Gregory of Nyssa’s Christological Exegesis

Abstract

Gregory’s biblical exegesis attracts interest chiefly for the allegorical method demonstrated in his Life of Moses and Homilies on the Song of Songs. While many have noted Gregory’s indebtedness to Origen, equally telling are the connections between Gregory’s late exegesis and the dogmatic works of the middle period of his career, above all the Contra Eunomium and Antirrheticus adversus Apollinariam, as well as his early works on the Trinity. This chapter gives an account of Gregory’s overall approach to Christological predication and divine impassibility and the metaphysical and ascetical commitments involved therein. It argues that Gregory’s doctrine and exegetical method were solidly established by the time of the dogmatic controversies with the Eunomians and Apollinarians, years before he turned to the great stories of the Old Testament. It shows also that, while Gregory’s debt to Origen is considerable, his doctrine and exegesis generally follows its own rationale, which both resembles and yet differs in important ways from that of the master.