The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review

THE DOCTRINE OF SYNERGISM IN GREGORY OF NYSSA'S DE INSTITUTO CHRISTIANO XIMPORTANT BUT widely neglected topic in contemporary moral theology is the relationship between grace and works in the Christian moral life. To develop a cogent and generally acceptable theory about grace and works has never been an easy task, as we plainly see from the Pelagian controversy of the fifth century and the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth. Yet despite the difficulties involved , moral theologians must address this issue if they are to present a comprehensive theory of Christian ethics. And as they take up this task, they might find an unexpectedly fruitful resource in an ascetical treatise of Gregory of Nyssa, Ilepl rov ' () ' ~ ' ~ ' '\ '() ' ' (" 0 th G l Kara €0V Kara a11.YJ €taV aO"KTJO"EW) or virtue (apeT-ry). The attainment of perfection or virtue demands both the purification of vices from the soul (see 48.1-~; 54.11-19) and the cultivation of specific virtues (see 74.15-18; 77.15-78.4). Expanding upon his goal imagery, Gregory likens life to a journey (7rope£a) (41.14; 64.15). One must travel (7ropeveCT0at) down the right path (086.;;) (41.18-19). Sometimes Gregory Nyssa: Ascetical Works, trans. Virginia Woods Callahan (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press), pp. 127-58. The five passages where xa.p6. is mistranslated are: 78.3,4 (p. 151, 1. 38 of the translation); 79.4 (15~.16); 83.17 (155.7); SU (155.9). 434 DONALD C. ABEL, S.J. speaks of walking toward the goal (48.13-14; 63.13); at other times he speaks of running toward it (48.9-10; 66.17-18). In two final metaphors, he exhorts the monks to arrive at the harbor which is the will of God (76.7; 8~.4-5) and to make the "ascent [avoOVi] to the summit of the virtues" (84.19). At first sight, Gregory's words about attaining the goal of life seem to imply that there is some final and unchanging state which constitutes the object of Christian asceticism. Such is not Gregory's position, however. For Gregory holds that since man came into being through change, change must be an essential feature of human nature, both in this life and the next.14 According to Gregory, man has " a natural impulse toward the beautiful and the best" (40.7-8), i.e., toward the Good, toward God. Since the Good is infinite, there is no limit to the distance man can travel in that direction. So even after death man will be making perpetual progress in his journey toward God. As the soul grows in goodness, its capacity for goodness increases. " Such are the wonders that participation in the Divine blessings works; it makes him in whom they come larger and more capacious." 15 Evil, on the other hand, is finite, and hence there is a limit as to how far one can go in that direction.16 The perfection or virtue which constitutes the goal of life, consequently, is not something static. As Jean Danielou explains in an essay on Gregory, "It is ... a mistake to imagine perfection as a state of complete immobility ... Perfection is progress itself: the perfect man is the one who continually makes progress. And this cannot have a limit." 17 The basic reason why men go astray on their journey to God lies in their subjection to their passions, especially pleasure 14 Jean Danielou, S.J. "Introduction" to From Glory to Glory: Texts from Gregory of Nyssa's Mystical Writings, trans. and ed. Herbert Musurillo, S.J. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961), p. 48. 15 Everett Ferguson, "God's Infinity and Man's Mutability: Perpetual Progress According to Gregory of Nyssa," The Greek Orthodox Theological Review IS (Spring-Fall 1973), p. 71. 1 • Ibid., pp. 66-67. 17 Dani) (see 55.13-15; 75.6-8), and the soul is deceived into thinking that an apparent good is a genuine good.19 Gregory likens the passions to waves which beset the soul as it tries to make its way to the heavenly harbor (82.1-5). Since man is blinded by his passions...