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Chapter 11 - A Relevant Mystery

Intuitive and Reflective Thought in Gregory of Nyssa’s Representations of Divine Begetting in the Against Eunomius

from Part V - Texts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2022

By
Isabella Sandwell
Edited by
Esther Eidinow ,
Armin W. Geertz  and
John North
Esther Eidinow
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Armin W. Geertz
Affiliation:
Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
John North
Affiliation:
University College London
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Summary

In this chapter I argue that we should take seriously the numerous vivid images of material begetting in Gregory of Nyssa’s Against Eunomius because they provide him with a more experientially based, and so intuitive, way to conceive of the hard-to-grasp idea that the first and second Person of the Trinity were both distinct entities and also unified in essence or nature. However, I shall also argue that Gregory was at the same time continuously correcting problems that an intuitive model of begetting might bring to the divine by returning to more theologically correct, reflective ways of conceiving of the divine. I shall argue that via this oscillation between intuitive ways of thinking about the divine and reflective and theological ways of thinking about it, which Ilkka Pyysiӓinen has argued is normal for theological discourse, Gregory was able to present the Trinity as what Dan Sperber has defined as a ‘relevant mystery’.

Keywords

intuitive or implicit thoughtreflective thoughtcognitively optimal conceptscognitively costly conceptsthe Trinitycreed of NicaeaGregory of Nyssadoctrine
Type
Chapter
Information
Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience , pp. 266 - 289
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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