Ari Ojell - From Divine Denial to Human Negation:Gregory of Nyssa and Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita on apophasis

As much as Gregory of Nyssa is one of the great architects of the Christian ‘apophasis’ or ‘negative theology’, in his writings he actually hardly ever uses the word apophasis, ‘negation’ or ‘denial’. Importantly, however, he uses it once in De vita Moyses in a very crucial instance, when explaining the idea of the divine incomprehensibility learned by Moses when entering the dark cloud. Gregory there asserts that the fact that the knowledge of the divine essence is unavailable to all rational creatures, may also be learned from the denial (apophasis) proclaimed by the sublime John, who says: ‘No one has ever seen God’. 

My aim in the communication is to address the importance of Gregory’s utilization of the word apophasis in this very instance, for the later development of the Christian apophatic tradition in Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita. In short, I will argue that for Gregory, still, apophasis stood for a ‘divine denial’. For Gregory, there is God saying ‘no’, the speaking God, instructing us, ‘you cannot know my essence’, in the words of his servant. Thus the unknowability of the divine essence is something that God has revealed of Himself. It is not insensible to think that Pseudo-Dionysius took Gregory’s use of the word apophasis as a license from his own tradition, for taking over the Neoplatonic method of negation, where the human agent is active in negating things of God, when intellectually fighting his way toward the Unknowable God as No-thing.  So, what for Gregory was a ‘divine denial’ as a part of the divine self-revelation, Pseudo-Dionysius took and transformed into ‘human negation’ as a method. What other consequent transformations occurred thereby will also be discussed shortly in the communication.

Aaron Overby - Christian Polemics in Edessa: Was the Doctrine of Addai targeted against the Manicheans?

The Doctrine of Addai has raised the imaginations—and the suspicions—of many of its readers as the legendary account of the foundation of the Christian church in Edessa. Among several theories of its origin and purpose which dominate the scholarship is the proposal that it originated as an anti-Manichean polemic, taking some of the details that were known about Mani and his disciple Addai and crafting them into a competing account of Edessa’s first Christians. This explanation has been accepted by many notable scholars and adopted into their own discussion of the text, while others have found it to be at least an intriguing possibility. This paper will review the discussion offered in the scholarship on this text and look at the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence that has been presented. It will argue that the theory of the DocAdd being anti-Manichean polemic is too limited an explanation. While it offers a suggestive interpretation of the early narrative elements of the text—from which almost all the pieces of evidence for the theory are taken —it remains unconvincing as a portrayal of the text as a whole. It does not reflect the message contained in the extensive addresses of Addai, nor the definition given in the text to the scriptural canon. By way of conclusion, it will be shown that the latter question of canon offers an even stronger argument in the text against Manichaeism, but only as one of several religious groups that were rejected as heretical by the community of the DocAdd.

Robin Orton - ‘Physical' soteriology in Gregory of Nyssa: a response to Reinhold Hübner

In Die Einheit des Leibes Christi bei Gregor von Nyssa (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1974) Reinhold M. Hübner argues that Gregory’s soteriology was not primarily ‘physical’. By this he means that is that it is not, as earlier scholars had argued, based on the fundamental identity between Christ’s human nature and the human nature of those who are to be saved (that is, with the Church as the Body of Christ or, more widely, with the whole human race conceived as an ontic unity.)  Rather, he claims, Gregory sees the Church primarily as a new creation in the Spirit, with its unity based not on any ‘physical’ identity with the body of Christ but solely on faith and virtue. He also argues that, for Gregory, the soteriological agent, the ἀρχή of the salvation of humankind,  is not Christ’s human nature, but rather what he calls the ‘Logos-Dynamis’, the divine principle, operating in our human bodies.

It will be argued that the evidence which Hübner adduces for challenging the ‘physicalist’ (or, perhaps better, ’solidarist’) interpretation of Gregory’s soteriology is not very convincing. Hübner concedes that there are passages in Gregory’s oratio catechetica which clearly suggest a ‘solidarist’ soteriology; it will be argued that his attempt to explain these away is unpersuasive. So far as the soteriological role of the Logos is concerned, it will be argued that Hübner’s attempt to defend this on the basis of a passage from chapter 32 of the oratio catechetica is based on a misinterpretation of the context and purpose of that passage. 

Finally, it will be tentatively suggested that from the theological point of view Hübner’s attempt to read Gregory in a way that excludes or at any rate downplays exclude one particular soteriological motif is unnecessarily negative and restrictive. 

Willemien Otten: Rhetoric and Theology in Tertullian

Forty years after the publication of Robert Sider’s Ancient Rhetoric and the Art of Tertullian (Oxford 1971) the problem of how to assess the rhetorical skill of Tertullian remains very much in the forefront of Tertullian studies today. Given the wealth of studies on Montanism, on ancient culture (cf. J.-C. Fredouille, Tertullien et la conversion de la culture antique [1972]), and on early Christian exegesis and rhetoric published in the intervening years, alongside the appearance of new editions, and a new historiographical appreciation for the rhetorical style of patristic authors (cf. E. Clark, History, Theory, Text: Historians and the Linguistic Turn [2004]), we seem to be in a better position to contextualize and situate Tertullian’s thought, which makes a workshop on “Rhetoric and Theology in Tertullian” at this time opportune. Much is involved in the investigation of Tertullian’s rhetoric, as we have to take into account that Tertullian was an occasional writer, who did not put pen to paper unless he had to solve a theological problem. But reducing his rhetoric to a mere instrument seems to do injustice to what Sider has rightly termed “the art of Tertullian”.

In pursuing Sider’s line of thought, the workshop wants to concentrate on the following fundamental dilemma: Is rhetoric for Tertullian a strategy which allows this notably antagonistic patristic thinker to go after his opponents —Catholic, Jewish, Montanists of a less spiritualist bend— as fiercely as possible, or should rhetoric be situated instead at the heart of both his literary ambitions and his controversial theological views in ways that make him significantly different from other patristic writers?

Chair: Prof. Karla Pollman (UK)

Presenters:

1. David Wilhite, (USA): “What Tertullian learned from Paul.”

2. Frédéric Chapot, France: “Rhetoric and Theology in the Adversus Praxean.”

3. Willemien Otten, USA: “Tertullian’s Rhetoric of Redemption: De carne Christi and De resurrectione mortuorum.”

Respondent:

Prof. Geoffrey Dunn, Australia

Daniel Opperwall: Sinai and Corporate Epistemology in the Orations of Gregory of Nazianzus

The image of Moses' ascent of Mt. Sinai from Exodus 19 is among the favorites of Gregory of Nazianzus, especially in his discussions of the problem of Christian knowledge of God.  Drawing heavily from the narrative content of the passage, and paying special attention to the roles of Moses, Aaron, and the Hebrew people waiting below the mountain, Gregory uses the story to illustrate a number of complex points regarding how Christians are able to come to a knowledge of God.  His use of the passage in this way has been explored in some recent scholarship, but as yet no study has examined the corporate and ecclesiastical elements of Gregory's use of the narrative.  This paper explores Gregory's use of the characters of Moses, Aaron, and the people at large in making several key arguments about how, in Gregory's view, the Church as a whole is led to the knowledge of God.

            In numerous passages scattered throughout his Orations (esp. 2, 11, 20, 28, 32) Gregory uses the Exodus narrative to explore the relationship between Christianity's spiritual leaders, and the broad mass of Christians who make up the Church.  Gregory especially relies on the narrative to illustrate his understanding that, for the mass of Christians, no direct approach to the knowledge of God is possible.  At the same time, Gregory uses the characters of Moses and Aaron in particular to indicate the important responsibility of Christian spiritual elites to lead other Christians towards God.  Gregory's discussions of the interlacing relationships which exists between Moses, Aaron and the Hebrew people reveal a consistent vision of corporate epistemology driven by Church leadership.  Through careful reading, this study of Gregory's use of the Sinai narrative serves to open a new window on Gregory's deeply corporate epistemology, while also helping to illuminate more fully the details of Gregory's vision of Christian leadership, its requirements, and its role in making the Church the place in which God is known to Christian seekers.

Jared Ortiz: Creation, Imitation, and Conversion in Book Eight of Augustine's Confessions

There seems to be a growing consensus that the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo is fundamental for Augustine’s thought.  Scholars ranging from Marie-Anne Vannier to Carol Harrison to Tarsicius van Bavel to Luigi Pizzolato have all generally agreed that creation not only provides the natural starting point for Augustine’s theological reflection, but also “determines the way in which he subsequently expounds his entire understanding of the faith” (Harrison, 2006).  This is evident, though understudied, in the Confessions, which begins with Augustine seeking for a way to understand the distinction between the magnus Dominus and the pars creaturae, ends with an allegorical reading of the creation account of Genesis, and tells in between the story of his coming to terms with what it means to be created.  If creation occupies such a central place in Augustine’s thought, then what kind of light can it shed on the narrative of his conversion in Book Eight of the Confessions?

In this short communication, I will argue that Augustine situates his conversion narrative within the context of the Trinity’s creative act and that, in Book Eight, the creational notion of imitation is the key to understanding this.  For Augustine, the Word is the Image of the Father, the perfect Imitation, through whom all things are made in a trinitarian act of creatio, conversio, formatio.  All things, then, imitate, in varying degrees, the perfect Imitation because they bear the mark of this creative act in their ontological make up.  In Book Eight, God puts before Augustine a series of exempla to imitate—Victorinus, Anthony, the two agentes in rebus, the children of Lady Chastity—who are presented as men and women converted through and con-formed to the Incarnate Word, that is, they are presented as those who have been re-created in Christ by imitating the Imitation.  Through these re-created imitators, Augustine sees what he was created to be and is led by the Word into imitation of the Word, who effects his conversion and formation, thereby re-creating him after the pattern of his original creation.