Gregory's Writings Research Articles

Death and Afterlife in the Pages of Gregory of Tours by Allen E. Jones

Reviewed by: Death and Afterlife in the Pages of Gregory of Tours by Allen E. Jones Raymond Van Dam Death and Afterlife in the Pages of Gregory of Tours Allen E. Jones Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020. Pp. 324. ISBN: 978-9-462-98804-0 Gregory of Tours has become synonymous with sixth-century Gaul. For topics as disparate as Frankish kingship and the cult of the saints, his writings are consistently the foundational sources. Modern scholarship has fashioned early Merovingian Gaul in Gregory's image. In this book Allen E. Jones has deployed Gregory's writings a bit differently. Rather than excavate his books for information about various political, religious, and social topics, Jones has focused resolutely on a subject that can be overlooked: Gregory himself. Many studies have of course examined Gregory as a historiographer, a bishop, and a patron of saints' cults. In contrast, Jones is interested in the making of Gregory, the process of how he became a cleric, a [End Page 312] historian, a promoter of the cults of St. Martin and St. Julian, and, most of all, a theologian and a pastor. This is a book about growing up, adapting to events, developing ideas, and turning critical moments into career opportunities and longstanding perspectives. Jones suggests that ideas about death and the afterlife were a central theme in Gregory's theology, and in the first three chapters he argues that Gregory developed his beliefs from "successive encounters with influential individuals" (16). The most important influences on the young Gregory were "his saint-obsessed family members" (28). His own name recalled his great-grandfather, Bishop Gregory of Langres, who had died at about the time of his namesake's birth. Gregory subsequently considered Gregory of Langres a saint who performed miracles at his tomb. Gregory's father and an uncle introduced him to the cult of St. Julian at Brioude; his mother repeatedly demonstrated how "to ascribe positive outcomes of rather routine occurences to saintly protection" (43). After Gregory recovered from a severe illness at the shrine of St. Martin in Tours, he became a deacon. During the next decade he was able to learn how to negotiate ecclesiastical factionalism from the bishops in his family, such as Nicetius of Lyon. After Gregory emerged as bishop at Tours in 573, his mother visited and encouraged him to record the miracles of St. Martin. "Becoming Gregory" (36, 66) had required the crucible of his family. Gregory's extended family was more like an extensive network, with several bishops as nodes and many links among important cities in central Gaul. One strength of Jones' analysis is the emphasis on the progressive development of Gregory's ideas about death and the afterlife; another is embedding the process within this familial network. His account is essentially a very detailed intellectual biography of Gregory. At the same time one participant in this network is distinctively odd. In Jones' discussion not only did Gregory have to cope with the deaths of relatives and the threat of death from his own illnesses. In addition, he had to confront death as a personified agent known as "Death." In Jones's perspective Death had an active role in the making of Gregory. Jones stresses "the leading role Death played in impacting the boy's life-altering decisions" (34); "Death too had a part to play in bringing Gregory to Tours" (87). In fact, Jones credits Death with influencing Gregory to become both a historian and a hagiographer. After Death created the episcopal vacancy at Tours (100), Gregory initiated his collections of miracle stories. At the same time his see was at the center of the civil war between Merovingian kings during the mid-570s. "Death assuredly basked in the gore of 576" (98). Jones argues that "Death's rampage over the Touraine" (104) convinced Gregory to compose a historical narrative that would "convey a poignantly near-contemporary pastoral and soteriological message to his audience" (111). An "underlying moral tenor" (141) was the foundation for all of his writings. In the final two chapters Jones examines how Gregory interpreted the many deaths in his stories about kings and saints. The Afterlife has replaced...

The Body and Desire: Gregory of Nyssa's Ascetical Theology by Raphael A. Cadenhead

Reviewed by: The Body and Desire: Gregory of Nyssa's Ascetical Theology by Raphael A. Cadenhead Natalie Carnes Raphael A. Cadenhead The Body and Desire: Gregory of Nyssa's Ascetical Theology Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2018. Pp. xii + 267. $95.00. Cadenhead explains the need for his book on Gregory of Nyssa and desire by tracing a disciplinary lacuna. On one side are late ancient studies scholars. Over the years such scholars have developed sophisticated analyses of asceticism that yet remain mired in "often unchallenged Freudian and Foucauldian interpretations" of it, imposing on writers like Gregory anachronistic categories that overdetermine their accounts (1). Fixed on terms like fluidity, power, and normalcy, such scholars miss the theological convictions motivating the ascetics, Cadenhead claims. On the other side of the lacuna are patristic scholars, who are much more attentive to the theology of early Christians, but are much less interested in their asceticism. Cadenhead positions The Body and Desire as spanning this gap through a diachronic method of interpretation that takes seriously the developmental shifts in Gregory's theology. Such a hermeneutic strategy of charting thematic movement across time neatly mirrors his argument that Gregory understands asceticism itself to be structured by ascending stages. The Body and Desire is organized by an Introduction and three parts corresponding to three phases in Gregory's writing career, each of which is identified not only by a time period but also by a central theme. A helpful appendix lays out Cadenhead's dating and the chronology of Gregory's texts, so the reader can reference which texts each part encompasses. Part One, on the early phase of Gregory's writing (371–378), describes what Cadenhead calls Gregory's "integrationist ethic" over the course of three chapters. As he elaborates an account of the reciprocity of the virtues in Gregory that requires treating sexual desire as a species of desire as such, Cadenhead proposes to understand Gregory's theology of sexual desire, virginity, and marriage together with his theology of food, fasting, and gluttony. In this stage, sexual desire, like desire for food, is properly understood within Gregory's vision of moral transformation in which the appetite is oriented toward human need through the exercise of free will. The second part of the book, on the middle phase of Gregory's career (378–387), addresses gender, its overcoming, and its mixing, both ascetically and [End Page 665] eschatologically. Cadenhead focuses on two contexts for this period of Gregory's writing: the death of his siblings Basil and Macrina, and the Trinitarian and christological debates over Apollinarianism and Eunomianism. Through the three chapters of Part Two, Cadenhead tracks the development of the Part One themes of desire, celibacy, and pleasure through this middle phase of his writing; considers the conflicting lines of interpretation in Gregory's writings that lead him to an unresolved question about the permanence of sexual differentiation; and reflects on the development of his theology of desire through his engagement with the Apollinarian controversy as well as the transformation of activity and passivity, male and female through the Eunomian one. What emerges is a complex picture of sex and gender that is neither entirely assimilable to late ancient views nor wholly separable from them. Cadenhead shows, for example, that womanishness is associated with weakness and susceptibility to the passions that must (and as Macrina exemplifies, can) be overcome, but manly virility, too, poses an obstacle to moral advancement and must also be renounced. In a similarly ambivalent point, marital relations remain alloyed to sexual hierarchy for Gregory, and yet the divine life ascetics imitate and hope for is nonsubordinationist. Where many retrievals of Gregory gloss over the aspects of his thought less appealing to contemporary readers, Cadenhead shows in this part that such aspects remain important to understanding the movements and tensions of his theology. In the final, third part of the book, Cadenhead treats the late phase of Gregory's life (387–394) and the theme of spiritual maturation and erotic union with Christ. The shortest of the three parts, this two-chapter section returns to some of the themes of Part One. It traces the later iterations of Gregory's...

‘Through you, men live endowed with reason’: Gregory Nazianzen's trinitarian thinking as a window to his personal character

AbstractIt has been recently argued that the doctrine of the Trinity in Gregory Nazianzen's thinking is the driving force of his personal and ecclesiastical life. However, no serious study has so far been done on the relation between Gregory Nazianzen's personal character as reflective of his theological mind and personal rationale. This article suggests that the proper road for reaching an accurate and perceptive understanding of Gregory Nazianzen's character starts from reading the literature of this father in a serious attempt at discovering the man behind the ideas of the texts and to perceive the core of his personality and character as theologian and servant of the church. Gregory's character and Gregory's theology, especially his trinitarian thinking, are windows which open towards each other. They reciprocally depict for us a sincere and puzzling servant of God as well as a unique and challenging theologian. The article starts by shedding analytical light on Gregory Nazianzen's core trinitarian logic, which lies in his understanding of the idea of ‘reciprocity’ and his envisioning of triadic perichoretic trinitarian monarchy, instead of a hierarchical one, in the Godhead. It then explores the presence of this rationale in Gregory's own understanding of his personal and ministerial character as the ‘dwelling place’ of God's triune image. The article concludes with the suggestion that Gregory's writings clearly state his belief that theology is the theologian, and the theologian is someone whose life and personhood mirror her theological mind. For this church father, there is no claimed neutral separation between the theologian and his or her theology.

Gregorii Nysseni in Hexaemeron. Edited by HUBERTUS R. DROBNER.

This excellent edition of Gregory's addendum to his brother Basil's great work is an important further step in the modern reinterpretation of Gregory and indeed of the collective achievement of the Cappadocian Fathers. Drobner dedicates it to the memory of the much missed Andreas Spira, to whom, as to Drobner of course also, and to all his modern editors, you might say that the sainted doctor himself owes a debt of gratitude. The edited series of Gregory's writings in which this book belongs was begun by Werner Jaeger in 1920 on a proposal from Wilamowitz eleven years earlier. A hundred and more years do not suffice in modern times for a task completed (unsatisfactorily it must be admitted but much more speedily) in the seventeenth century. In more recent times Forbes produced an improved edition of the In Hexaemeron in 1855 and latterly in 1999 F. X. Risch published a German translation which I have not seen; it has apparently been drawn on, to some extent, by Drobner, who also, of course, takes note of Forbes's edition, standard until the present and inconvenient of access.

The Venerable Bede and Gregory the Great: exegetical connections, spiritual departures

This article revisits the familiar comparison between the thought and writings of Bede and Gregory the Great. Bede was keen to foreground his debt to Gregory and past assessments have illuminated aspects of it, but this investigation offers a more searching analysis of the interface between biblical exegesis and spiritual teaching, a subject that highlights Bede's frequent reliance on Gregory as well as his calculated departures from him. Accordingly, the article first examines the different ways Bede in his commentaries could deploy Gregory's writings as a source, then discusses the more pragmatic, less mystical thrust of Bede's thought that sets him apart from Gregory.

Grzegorz Wielki w anglosaskiej Brytanii i celtyckiej Irlandii

The article is the short compendium of the information about Gregory the Great's connections in the 7th-12th century period. Connections with Britain: Augustine's Mission, Gregory's model of the evangelization, the conception of religious function of the art (visual recollection, icons), the earliest "Life of Gregory" ( by anonymous monk from Whitby, Bede Venerabilis). Connections with Irltand: Laidcen's "Egloga de Morabilibus Job", Columban's letters to Gregory, "Regiula pastoralis", paschal controversy, irish manuscripts (9th-12th century) with allusions to Gregory's writings.

Laurence B McCullough, John Gregory and the invention of professional medical ethics and the profession of medicine, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998, pp. xv, 347, £86.00, $140.00 (0-7923-4917-2). - Laurence B McCullough, John Gregory's writings on medical ethics and the philosophy of medicine, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998, pp. xi, 254, £66.00, $105.00 (0-7923-5000-6).

Laurence B McCullough, John Gregory and the invention of professional medical ethics and the profession of medicine, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998, pp. xv, 347, £86.00, $140.00 (0-7923-4917-2). - Laurence B McCullough, John Gregory's writings on medical ethics and the philosophy of medicine, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998, pp. xi, 254, £66.00, $105.00 (0-7923-5000-6).

John Gregory's Writings on Medical Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine (review)

John Gregory's Writings on Medical Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine (review)

John Gregory and the Invention of Professional Medical Ethics and the Profession of Medicine, and: John Gregory's Writings on Medical Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine, and: Medicine and Morals in the Enlightenment: John Gregory, Thomas Percival and Benjamin Rush (review)

John Gregory and the Invention of Professional Medical Ethics and the Profession of Medicine, and: John Gregory's Writings on Medical Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine, and: Medicine and Morals in the Enlightenment: John Gregory, Thomas Percival and Benjamin Rush (review)

Book Review John Gregory and the Invention of Professional Medical Ethics and the Profession of Medicine (Philosophy and Medicine. Vol. 56.) By Laurence B. McCullough. 347 pp. Boston, Kluwer Academic, 1998. $140. 0-7923-4917-2 John Gregory's Writings on Medical Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine (Philosophy and Medicine. Vol. 57.) Edited by Laurence B. McCullough. 254 pp. Boston, Kluwer Academic, 1998. $105.

Book Review John Gregory and the Invention of Professional Medical Ethics and the Profession of Medicine (Philosophy and Medicine. Vol. 56.) By Laurence B. McCullough. 347 pp. Boston, Kluwer Academic, 1998. $140. 0-7923-4917-2 John Gregory's Writings on Medical Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine (Philosophy and Medicine. Vol. 57.) Edited by Laurence B. McCullough. 254 pp. Boston, Kluwer Academic, 1998. $105.

Gregory Nazianzinos and Byzantine hymnography

Frequent references have been made by several scholars to the use of Gregory's writings as a ‘mine’ for Byzantine hymnography. The discussions have usually stopped with three or four quick citations of the instances that best exemplify the borrowing. To date there has not been any systematic effort to research the topic in greater detail. This failure is understandable. Such a research presupposes knowledge not only of Gregory's writings, a major task in itself since his works occupy four volumes of PG, but also of Byzantine hymnography which is scattered throughout several volumes used by the Orthodox Church in its daily heortologion. Adding the possibilities that might exist among the mss of Grottaferrata and those that might exist in the Vatican Library, one can easily understand the magnitude of the task and its complexities. This paper attempts a limited but still daunting undertaking: the ferreting out of the borrowings from Gregory by the Byzantine hymnographers whose hymns are still used by the Orthodox Church. Beyond the obvious borrowings by the hymnographers from Gregory lies the insoluble problem of what may be directly borrowed and what indirectly. How can one prove that similarities or even identities in the language denote direct borrowing of one author from another? The complexities of such an investigation notwithstanding, the effort should be made, even on a limited scale, because of the interest and the challenge involved.

Imperialism and the Natural World edited by John M. MacKenzie, and: Macropolitics of Nineteenth-Century Literature: Nationalism, Exoticism, Imperialism edited by Jonathan Arac (review)

86Victorian Review Devoting Part I to English perceptions of such social phenomenon as Merchant Planter, Western Man, American Woman, and the Slave, and Part ? to American perceptions of the English Gentleman, the Aristocracy, the Poor, and so on, Mulvey provides much rich analysis. He is especially good, for instance, on English writing about slavery, making even fuller use of Fanny Kemble's writings than does Foster, limited as she is by her concern with the woman traveller's quest for emotional release: for Mulvey, Kemble becomes a figure filled with "complex (and sometimes contradictory) patterns of reactions and sympathies" (92). Mulvey also nicely gathers together Victorian fears of social disruption, yoking MatthewArnold's wistful appeal for sweetness and light with Henry James's evocation of an "Anglo-Saxon light" that might provide an aristocratic ordering of the unfortunate (for him) political conditions of America (146). If Childs provides a kind of stately-homes and artifacts approach and Foster a sensible and sensitive map for the terrain, then Mulvey is an informed, ironic guide. Of the three tours of travel-writing under review here, Murve/s is most obviously the one whose critical speculations make one wish for a further theoretical spin, a detour, so to speak, into the discursive byways of European self/alien "other." Deirdre David Temple University John M. MacKenzie, ed. Imperialism and the Natural World. Manchester: U of Manchester P, 1990. viii + 216. Jonathan Arac and Harriet Ritvo, eds. Macropolitics ofNineteenth-Century Literature: Nationalism, Exoticism, Imperialism. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1991. vi + 309. $39.50 US (cloth) Despite a shared focus on nineteenth-century, mainly British imperialism, these two volumes seem superficially very different. Macropolitics contains twelve essays (plus introduction) by literary scholar-critics, all ofwhom are responding to the new historicism and recent debates about cultural history, cultural studies, and forms ofideological critique. Imperialism and the Natural World, in the "Studies of Imperialism" series edited by John MacKenzie, consists of eight essays (plus introduction) by historians of science and of empire, all of whom pursue themes of ecology in relation Reviews87 to the imperialist exploitation of nature. The contributors to Macropolitics reinterpret a variety of mainly literary texts in relation to empire; the contributors to Imperialism and the Natural World seek to study the ways the natural environment and nonwestern peoples economically dependent on that environment, were affected by imperialist encroachments. One set of authors rereads various western texts; the other set attempts to read "the book of nature," after it has been partly erased, translated, destroyed by imperialism—and to do so at least some of their evidence has to come from nonwestern sources (but mostly their sources are also western texts, mainly official or governmental). Half of the contributions to Macropolitics reinterpret canonical works of literature in relation to the three "isms" of the subtitle (nationalism, exoticism, imperialism); these include Shelley's Hellas (Mark Kipperman), Dombey and Son (Jeff Nunokawa), Jane Eyre (Susan Meyer), Moby Dick (Wai-chi Dimock), Salammbô and L'Education sentimentale (lisa Lowe) and Heart of Darkness (Chris Bongie). Marlon Ross adds an excellent analysis of "romantic nationalism" in Burke, Wordsworth, Hazlitt and Scott, while Nancy Vogeley contributes an interesting but less successful essay on The Discourse of Colonial Loyalty: Mexico 1808" (52). While Vogeley demonstrates the ambiguities in "Mexico's discourse of loyalty in the last years ofcolonial rule," her relatively short essay depends too much on lengthy quotations and translations. James Knapp's excellent study, "Irish Primitivism and Imperial Discourse: Lady Gregory's Peasantry," demonstrates how Lady Gregory's writings, and her project of an Irish national theatre, express the ambiguities of being both colonizer and colonized. And Loren Kruger contributes an essay related to Knapp's, because it deals with "instituting national (popular) theater in England and France" (243), though it has less to say than most of the others about imperialism. The two least literary—or most historical—contributions to Macropolitics I also think excellent, even though they are quite different from each other. Bruce Greenfield's essay on the History ofthe Lewis and Clark Expedition (1814) demonstrates clearly and persuasively how the "westering ideology" of the intrepid explorers employs several rhetorical registers to express "the...