Ers and Epektasy:

St. Gregory of Nyssa and the Consummation of Desire

James Columcille Dever

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1 Prolegomena to Desire: Divinity Infinity and the Diastemic Distinction

Diastma is nothing other than creation.

-Nyssen, On Ecclesiastes1
The irreducible distinction between the Creator and the creature is essential to Gregory of
Nyssas theory of epektasis. It is the Lords nature to exist. Creation exists only insofar as it
participates in the inexhaustible being of the Lord. Nyssen describes this creaturely mode of
being as extended (diastma/diastasis), which refers to the categories of time and space
understood as essential features of creaturely existence. By contrast, the Lord is essentially not
extended, there is no becoming or change in the Lord. For Nyssen, what it means to be a creature
is to be subject to becoming. This reality manifests itself in the order of being and in the order of
knowing. Ontologically, creatures are diastemic and the Lord is not. Epistemologically, there is
no change in the Lord, and thus no time, whereas rational creatures experience time as an
interval of separation between past and present.2 Thus, for Nyssen, both time and space are
ontological realities experienced by creatures,3 but essentially absent in the Lord.4

1 Gregory of Nyssa, In Eccles., quoted in von Balthasar, Hans Urs. Presence and Thought: An
Essay on the Religious Philosophy of Gregory of Nyssa. Trans. Mark Sebanc. (San Francisco,
CA: Ignatius Press, 1995), p. 28
2 Smith, J. Warren, Passion and Paradise: Human and Divine Emotion in the Thought of
Gregory of Nyssa (New York, NY: The Crossroad Publishing Co., 2004), p. 198, who notes that
Gregory developed this understanding of in the context of the Arian controvery and the
subsequent Fourth centruy Trinitarian debates.
3 Cf. Aristotle, Physics, IV.11, who conceives of time as a concept concerning cosmological
relation. It is a measure of movement and enumeration of what happens before or after. See
also, Callahan, John F. Four Views of Time in Ancient Philosophy. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1948), p. 49, and von Balthasar, Presence, pp. 31-33, n. 46.
4 See, Verghese, T. Paul. and in Gregory of Nyssa. Introduction to a
Concept and the Posing of a Problem, in Gregor von Nyssa und Die Philosophie (Lieden: E.J.
Brill, 1976), pp. 249-51

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In his works, diastma is far more often developed in terms of time than of space. Let it
suffice for the purposes of this essay to say that for Nyssen, the spatial aspect of diastma
denotes the nonidentity of the material world, conceived of as a spatial receptacle (chrma
tpoikon).5 Time consciousness, however, is directly relevant to Nyssens understanding of
desire. On his view, the recollection of the enjoyment of past goods and the hopeful anticipation
of enjoying those goods in the future produces the desire associated with dissatisfaction with the
present.6 In the language of diastma, the human subject experiences desire when separated from
the object of her desire. Awareness of lack produces time consciousness for Nyssen.
The human experience of time will be transformed in the eschaton, however, for then
God will be all in all (see, 1 Cor. 15:40, 48). A synthesis of Nyssens account of this
transformation is the substance of this essay in terms of desire. In Nyssens early work On the
Soul and Resurrection,7 desire does not characterize the eschatological mode of being for the
human creature. Since the Lord will be absolutely present, the human will not have ground for
either memory of past enjoyment or the hope for future enjoyment. In beatitude there will be no
dissatisfaction with the enjoyment of the Lord and the delight in his everlasting embrace. Nyssen
offers quite a different account, a dialectic between desire and enjoyment, in the Homilies on the
Song of Songs8 and the Life of Moses.9 In Nyssens later thought, desire does not cease when the
human creature achieves union with God, but increases in stages, moving the soul into a deeper,
more profound intimacy with the Trinity who God is. This essay will attempt a reconstruction of
5 Von Balthasar, Presence, p. 29, 33
6 Cf. Smith, Passion, pp. 198-99 and von Balthasar, Presence, pp. 31-35
7 Gregory of Nyssa, De Anima et Resurrectione, in Ascetical Works, trans. Virginia W. Callahan
(Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1999); PG, 46
8 Ibid, Homilies on the Song of Songs, trans. Richard A. Norris, Jr. (Atlanta, GA: the Society of
Biblical Literature, 2012); GNO, VI
9 Ibid, The Life of Moses, trans. Abraham J. Malherbe and Everett Ferguson (New York, NY:
Paulist Press, 1978); GNO, VII

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a Gregorian theory of epektasy wherein epektasis is an end (telos) for the human creature,10
but one in which the finite creature participates without possessing or exhausting the infinite
Object of its desire and love. Desire transfigures this creaturely, spatial-temporal extension such
that it becomes capable of perpetual expansion within the eternal omnipresence of the Lord
without being dissolved into it.
2 Difficulties with Desire
We stated that we are led to God through desire, being drawn up to Him from below as if by
some rope. It seems, however, that our argument is opposed to our goal.
-Nyssen, On the Soul and Resurrection11
Gregory of Nyssas dialogue On the Soul and Resurrection was composed sometime
during the mid-380s.12 It is dramatically set shortly after the death of Nyssens brother, Basil, in
379. It includes an early attempt on the part of Nyssen to flesh out a theory of epektasy and to
determine the role that desire has in the perpetual progress of the soul. In the dialogue, both the
argument and the action reveal the tension Gregory perceives in human nature between the
impassible (apatheia) nature of God, in whose image human beings are created, and the
workings of the a-rational (alogos) human passions.13 Through the practice of Christian
philosophy, or asceticism, human creatures begin to order and purify the a-rational passions
stemming from desire now in order that they may come to perfection after death. The dialogue
10 See, Danilou, Jean. Platonisme et thologie mystique: Essai sur la doctrine spirituelle de
saint Gregoire de Nysse (Paris: Aubier, 1944), p. 298; cf. From Glory to Glory: Texts from
Gregory of Nyssas Mystical Writings, trans. and ed. Herbert Musurillo, SJ, introduction by Jean
Danilou (New York, NY: Charles Scribners Sons, 1961). is not a term employed by
Nyssen himself, but one derived from the verb (see, Phil. 3:13), which describes the
perpetual progress of the soul tending towards the Lord in a process of unification and
concentration.
11 De Anima et Resurrectione, trans. Callahan, p. 235; PG, 46.88C
12 See, Silvas, Anna. Macrina the Younger: Philosopher of God. (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols
Pub., 2008), p. 155
13 See, von Balthasar, Presence, pp. 71-87, who notes that this tension runs throughout Nyssens
oeuvre.

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indicates that human creatures may continue to make progress in this purification after death,
wherein the mind (nous) is cleansed from a-rational desires, knowing and loving God more
purely. On this account, when God is all in all, human erotic-desire (epithymia)14 is
transfigured into passionless charity (agap), lacking nothing good, wherein Gods truth,
goodness and beauty produce only enjoyment (apolausis).
After giving an account of the immortality of the soul and sketching its nature, Gregory
presses his sister and teacher Macrina to speak about the powers (dynamis) proper to the souls
nature. He notes the presence of both a faculty of intelligence (thertikos) and faculties
according to desire and to spiritedness (kata epithymianthymon).15 Macrina argues that these
latter faculties are not part of our rational nature. She claims that they are in fact alien to our true
nature because what is alien to God is outside the definition of the soul given by the inspired
Scripture.16 Being impassible (apatheia), the divine nature does not partake of either desire or
spiritedness. Human nature shares the desiring and spirited faculties with a-rational creatures,
and thus they are not particular to human beings as such. In the soul, the higher, rational nature
fights against these lower faculties in order to subdue them. If they are not subjected by reason,

14 does not appear in De Anima et Resurrectione, but Gregorys Platonic frame (note the
reference to the Platonic chariot, Callahan, p. 216; PG, 46.49B; cf. Plato, Phaedrus, 246A-B) and
his general descriptions of (see, e.g., Callahan, p. 219 PG, 46.56A) follow a broadly
Platonic conception of . Macrina says: ' ,
, ' , '
, , .[And if we define
desire in itself, we will say that it is desiring what we lack, or a yearning for the enjoyment of
pleasure, or a pain because we lack power regarding what we want, or a condition towards some
pleasure, for which enjoyment is absent.]
15 De Anima et Resurrectione, trans. Callahan, p. 215; PG, 46.48C
16 Ibid, p. 217; PG, 46.52A

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then they lead to self-destruction. Macrina goes so far as to say that, the eradication of [these
faculties] is not only not harmful, but even beneficial to our nature.17
Others have observed that Macrinas harsh teaching concerning the passions undergoes a
subtle modification throughout the dialogue.18 The dramatic action of the dialogue indicates that
she recognizes the importance of the emotions for pedagogy, indulging Gregorys passion over
the death of their brother before directing that passion towards philosophical discourse. Her
initial suggestion that these faculties be absolutely purged from the soul is chastened later in the
dialogue when she admits, having been prompted by Gregory to do so, that these appetitive
impulses can serve the pursuit of virtue when directed by the mind and that this in fact coheres
with the witness of Scripture.19 Gregory pushes Macrina to say that the desiring faculty and the
spirited faculty are one way that the human creature might move towards God in charity
(agap) and for moving away from temptation.20 This occurs both when the intellect is trained
to command desire, by directing it away from apparent goods and towards real goods. Further,
the intellect is capable of accessing intelligible goods that transcend the sensual impulses
towards material goods shared with a-rational creatures.21 Asceticism consists of practices meant

17 Ibid, PG, 46.53C: ' , ,

. [...And thus the eradication [of these faculties] lays near us, then not
only does it not injure [us], but it is even beneficial to [our] nature].
18 See, e.g., Williams, Rowan. Macrinas Deathbed Revisited: Gregory of Nyssa on Mind and
Passion, in Christian Faith and Greek Philosophy in Late Antiquity, eds. L. Wickham and C.
Bammel. (Lieden: E.J. Brill, 1993), pp. 227-46 and Smith, J. Warren, Macrina, Tamer of Horses
and Healer of Souls: Grief and the Therapy of Hope in Gregory of Nyssas DE ANIMA ET
RESURRECTIONE, Journal of Theological Studies, NS, Vol. 52, Pt. 1 (Oct., 2000), pp. 41-42.
19 De Anima et Resurrectione, trans. Callahan, p. 220; PG, 46.56C-57A
20 Ibid, p. 224; PG, 46.65A-B
21 Ibid, p. 237; PG, 46.89A; Macrina offers the elegant example of a soul being drawn by the
beautiful music of a choir from the city street into a church to illustrate how the soul is drawn
from sensual appetites to contemplation of the divine.

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to habituate the intellect to exercise its proper function over the lower faculties, directing them
towards real and intelligible goods, and in particular, towards the divine Beauty.
Divine Beauty attracts whomever contemplates it, but can only be fully present to the
soul in the eschaton.22 The human creature moves closer to this goal at death, which God uses as
a purgative step towards the restoration of the humans true nature.23 As Macrina had stated
earlier, however, this original nature does not include the passions. She claims: If, therefore,
either because of care taken now, or because of our purification afterwards, our soul should
become free from its association with the irrational passions, it will never be hindered from the
contemplation of the beautiful.24 For Macrina, eschatological contemplation (theria) is
characterized essentially by the enjoyment (apolausis) of the divine beauty. She says,
But the Divine is beautiful by its own nature, to which the soul will be joined on
account of its purity, uniting with what is proper to it. If this occurs, there will no
longer be a need for any movement (kinses) based on desire (epithymian) to
lead us to the beautiful. The one who lives in darkness has a desire for the light. If
he comes into the light, the enjoyment (apolausis) of it follows upon the desire
and the power of enjoying (exousia ts apolauses) makes the desire useless and
foolish.25

In the here and now, the soul is moved by the desiring faculty towards that which is truly
beautiful under the command of the intellect. Macrina argues, however, that once the Divine,
beautiful by its own nature rather than by participation, becomes the sole object of the
22 Ibid:
[For beauty is somehow attractive according to our nature for all those gazing towards it.]
23 Ibid, pp. 232-33; PG, 46.81A; this is not to say, however, that here Gregory adopts necessary
universalism. In his exegesis of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk. 19:19f), he is careful to
delineate the opposed trajectories of the two men, though not ruling out the possibility of the rich
mans restoration.
24 Ibid, p. 237; PG, 46.89B
25 Ibid

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intellects contemplative ascent, desire will cease to motivate the soul. Gregory, however, worries
that since desire, disciplined by ascetic practice, was capable of drawing the human creature into
contemplation of God in this life, its absence would require a cessation of progress, or worse,
self-satisfied satiety (hybrists koros).26
In order to avoid this charge, Macrina introduces an account of divine infinity that will become
central to Nyssens account of epektasy in his later works. She here initiates the transformation
of erotic-desire into impassible charity. She says,
Self-satisfied satiety (hybrists koros) does not touch the truly beautiful. And
since the habit of loving (agaptikn) the beautiful is never broken by satiety, the
divine life, which is beautiful by nature and has from its nature a love
(agaptiks) for the beautiful, will always be activated by love (agap). Nor does
it have a limit of its activity of love, since we assume that beauty has no limit
(horon) that would cause love to cease when beauty comes to an end (peras). Its
nature is not to accept anything inferior and it continues to an unending
(aperanton) and boundless (aoriston) good.27

In the present age, erotic desire is characterized essentially by absence and lack, and every
possible object of our desire is necessarily ephemeral and its beauty opaque. A dynamic tension
between hope and memory motivates the soul to pursue desirable goods.28 These finite goods,
however, fail to satisfy. Afflicted by the passage of time, desire wanes through the experience of
some inevitable defect in the object, or weariness in the lover. Human erotic desire perpetually
vacillates between the memories of past satisfaction, hopes for future satisfaction, and the
26 See, Smith, Passion, pp. 106-115 for a detailed account of Origens theory of and its
influence on Nyssen.
27 Ibid, p. 240; PG, 46.96C-97A
28 Ibid, pp. 238-42; PG, 46.92A-100B Hope for the future possession of the beloved object
arouses motion towards its apprehension. Its finite beauty leaves a mark within the memory as an
impetus for future hope. Hope in this age, however, is often left unfulfilled and the memory often
deceives.

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lightning flash of present enjoyment, which fades quickly into one or the other. This is all
fundamentally altered in the eschaton, however. According to Macrina, the divine beauty will
constantly activate our love for it without the grasping character of erotic desire. The activity of
love will never cease because its object is infinite and without limit. The divine beauty, which is
without fault or blemish, perpetually activates the human capacity to love its unending and
boundless goodness forever. The lack that once motivated erotic desire in the present age will
be completely absent in the age to come. Erotic desire will thus be transfigured into a passionless
charity.
3 Dialectic of Desire and Delight

Rise up! Come, my intimate, my beauty, my dove! Come, my dove, into the shelter of the rock,
near to the outer wall. Reveal your face to me and let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet
and your face is darling.
- Song of Songs, 2:13c-1429

Nyssens Homilies on the Song of Songs is a very different type of work than the dialogue On the
Soul and Resurrection.30 While in the dialogue, Gregory constantly returns to the necessity that
their discourse be chastened by attention to the divine Scriptures, the Homilies are explicitly

29 Song of Songs (LXX), 2:13c-14; cf. Homilies, ed. Norris, p.173-77; GNO, VI.160.10-164.15:
, , , , , , ,
, ,
, , . In Nyssens analysis, the Word speaks to the
Bride/Soul in the first potion of the verse ( ). In the second potion
( ) the Bride/Soul speaks to the Word.
30 According to Cahill, J.B. The Date and Setting of Gregory of Nyssas Commentary on the
Song of Songs, Journal of Theological Studies, ns. 31, no. 2 (Oct., 1981), pp. 447-60, these
sermons were delivered between 391-94 and later edited by Nyssen.

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exegetical. Nyssen reads the Song as a series of moving pictures,31 the form of which gesture
towards his own theory of epektasis. The Homilies are not merely a dogmatic treatise.
Throughout, Nyssen remains submissive to the multivalent images of the Song attending to their
own internal dynamism and sensual language. The eroticism of the text serves his account of the
souls yearning for the Lord, who is both present and absent to the soul in this age, but who is
wholly present in the age to come. For Nyssen, the Song anticipates the souls eschatological
immersion in the infinity of the Lords embrace, productive of everlasting delight. Rather than
extinguishing desire through enjoyment, the Homilies argue that enjoyment is the very source of
a more perfect and intense desire, which goads the soul upward into the interiority of the divine
Lover. The dynamic interplay between desire and enjoyment as the motive force underlying
Nyssens theory of epektasy is a narrative thread woven deeply into the fabric of these Homilies.
In particular, Gregory deploys three potent images in concert with the Scriptural text that
illustrate his theory of epektasy: that of the fountain (pg), that of the wound (plg, or
trauma), and that of the hole in the rock (skep ts petras).
Gregorys interpretation of the Brides response to the Lord, whose voice knocks at the
door (Song, 5:2b, Homily XI), concerns the souls desire for union with God. For Nyssen, since
the voice is heard, rather than the face seen, it is revealed that, that which is not yet
comprehended is infinitely greater (apeiroplasion) than that which has been comprehended.32
Gregory employs the image (eikona) of the fountain in order to illustrate, how everything that
is laid hold on becomes the starting point for something yet higher.33 He writes,

31 Norris, R.A. The Soul Takes Flight: Gregory of Nyssa and the Song of Songs. Anglican
Theological Review, Vol. 80, no. 4 (Fall, 1998), p. 521
32 Homilies, trans. Norris, p. 337; GNO, VI.321.1-3
33 Ibid, p. 337; GNO, VI.320.9-10

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Suppose that someone draws near to that fountain (pg) that the Scripture
says welled up out of the earth at the beginning, and so abundantly that it
flooded the whole face of the earth [cf. Gen. 2:6f]. The person who has
drawn near the fountain will marvel at the limitless (apeiron) supply of
water that ever (pantote) gushes out and flows from it, yet he would not
say that he has seen all of the water.34

Even if one were to contemplate the gushing spring for a long time, it would be as if one was
only just beginning to contemplate the water, which never stops in its everlasting (aei rheon)
flow.35 The fountain is a figure for the infinite, limitless character of the Lord, who is always
being discovered as more novel (kainoteron) and more surprising (paradoxoteron) than what has
already been grasped.36 For the soul intimate with the Lord, this contemplation is delightful,
amazing, marvelous, but it does not quench desire: she never comes to a halt in her desire
(epithymias) to see, since what she looks forward to is in every possible way more splendid and
more divine than what has been seen.37 When the contemplative soul drinks in this vision of the
Lord, rather than being sated by the sight, the souls desire stretches out towards the ever-new
Beauty before her.
Gregory attends to the dynamic between desire and enjoyment when commenting on the
beginning of faith (Song, 4:8f, Homily VIII). He writes,
The fountain (pg) of good things always draws the thirsty to itself just
as in the Gospel the Fountain (pg) says, If anyone thirsts, let him come
to me and drink [Jn. 7:37]. In using these words, he set no limit (horon)
to the thirst, to the urge (horms) to come to him, or to the enjoyment
(apolauses) of the drinking[Rather], he issues a continuing invitation
to thirst and to drink and to be impelled to him. To those who have already
tasted and have learned from experience that the Lord is good [cf. Ps.
34 Ibid, p. 339; GNO, VI.321.7-12
35 Ibid, GNO, VI.321.14-15
36 Ibid, GNO, VI.321.16-19
37 Ibid, GNO, VI.321.21

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33:9; 1 Pet. 2:3], the tasting becomes, as it were, an invitation to partake of
yet more.38

The soul does not disinterestedly contemplate the gushing spring in the garden, but comes to it
thirsting for the abundantly flowing water. The Lord, who is the unlimited Source of this water,
does not limit the souls ability to enjoy the drinking. Drinking from this fountain is productive
of the more intense desire to drink all the more, to respond with eagerness to the infinite
generosity of the Lord. According to Gregory, everywhere in the Scriptures the divine nature is
understood to be the living water. When he returns again to the fountain icon, however, he
argues that in the Song, the Lord constitutes the Bride as a well of living water (phrear hydatos
zntos).39 The most paradoxical (paradoxotaton) thing of all, however, is that of all the wells
that contain a mass of water, only the Bride contains within herself water that is in transit
(diexodikon), so as to possess a wells depth (bathos), but at the same time a rivers unceasing
motion (aeikinton).40 The Bride is made an exact copy of the Fountain, the Life, and the Water,
whom she receives within the well of her soul, becoming a storehouse of that living water.41
For Nyssen, the Bride is capable of being at rest while paradoxically moving into the Lord.
Enjoyment has the character of rest, while desire has that of motion. This image holds both in a
dynamic tension that allows for the souls ascent into the Source of all living water.

38 Ibid, GNO, VI.248.5-12

39 Ibid, GNO, VI.292.20-293.2
40 Ibid, GNO, VI.293.3-6
41 Ibid, GNO, VI.293.11-14

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Gregory deploys the image of the wound as a similarly multivalent, yet more explicitly
Trinitarian image,42 drawn directly from the text of the Song itself (2:5; 5:7; 5:8, LXX).43 In his
most extended treatment of the wound, he claims that the Bride praises the accurate archer,
whose arrow has pierced her heart.44 In Nyssens analysis, the Archer is God the Father, who is
love (agap) and who shoots the Only Begotten God as an Arrow, tipped with a triple point
smeared with the Spirit of life into the heart of the soul being saved. Gregory praises the arrow as
sweet and this wound as happy because the gash it tore in the soul has created the necessary
conditions for the Lord to dwell therein. Rapidly, he shifts the image of the Arrow-Son to that of
the Arrow-Bride, who is suddenly in the hands of the Archer.45 The Archer, now the
Bridegroom-Son, guides the Arrow-Bride to its heavenly target.46 Nyssen conflates the images of
the Arrow and the Bride: in the martial sense she is guided to the good target, but in nuptial
sense she is received into the participation (metousian) of his incorruptible eternity.47 She is
shot forth, arcing into beatitude, by the left hand of the Archer, yet at the same time the right
hand of the Bridegroom holds her tightly so that she is not separated from the Archer, so as at
once to be borne by the flight and to be at rest in the hands of the Archer.48

42 See, Laird, Martin. Under Solomons Tutelage: The Education of Desire in the Homilies on
the Song of Songs, Modern Theology 18, no. 4 (October, 2002), pp. 518-19 and Coakley, Sarah,
Re-thinking Gregory of Nyssa: Introduction Gender, Trinitarian Analogies, and the Pedagogy
of the Song, Modern Theology 18, no. 4 (October, 2002), pp. 438-41
43 Song of Songs (LXX), 2:5b, , [because I am wounded by love]
5:7-8, , , [The
guards making their rounds in the city found me, they struck me, they wounded me]
; [What will you report to him? That I have
been wounded by love].
44 Homilies, trans. Norris, p. 141; GNO, VI.127.7-8
45 Ibid; GNO, VI.128.13-14
46 Ibid; GNO, VI.129.3-5
47 Ibid, p. 143; GNO, VI.129.6-7
48 Ibid; GNO, VI.129.14-17

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When Gregory attends to the wound in its next explicit occurrence in the Song (5:7b, Homily
XII), he draws the readers attention to the context in which the Bride receives that sweet
wound (glukeia plg): 49
Let us take careful account of what is set forth just before these lines. The Word
passed by the Bride [Song, 5:6b] in the sense that he became unattainable for the
one who desired him. He did not, however, pass her by so as to leave the one he
outpaced behind, but rather so as to draw her to himself.50

The wound, administered by the divine rod, comforting staff or Spirit, is the means by
which the Bride makes her higher ascent free from mortal attachments.51 The wound inflames her
noble yearning for incorruptible Beauty in such a way that her desire to contemplate that
Beauty is constantly being renewed. The desire never dullsbecause of satiety (kor) as the
soul always strains forward (epekteinomen) toward what lies ahead [Phil. 3:13].52 Thus,
according to Nyssen, the Bride never ceases in her progress toward the better, because that
which is ever in process of being discovered is at every point more beautiful than what has
already been apprehended (prokateilmmenou).53 The wound prompts the Bride to continue her
pursuit of the Bridegroom, who draws her closer to himself without being fully comprehended.
In Gregorys final extended treatment of the icon of the wound (Song, 5:8d; Homily XIII), he
argues that the dialectic of desire experience by the Songs Bride becomes a model for our own
divine ascent, which begins through the gift of faith now, reaching forward toward the perfection
promised in beatitude. Once again, Nyssen figures the Lord as loves archer (tetpmen
49 Ibid, p. 383; GNO, VI.362.14-15
50 Ibid; GNO, VI.362.19-363.2
51 Ibid; GNO, VI.365.17-19
52 Ibid; GNO, VI.366.11-16
53 Ibid; GNO, VI.366.18-20

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agaps), who wounds the souls of those who would love him perfectly.54 In fact, Nyssen goes so
far as to describe the Lord as the beautiful Lover (erasts), who lodges the desire to return to
his embrace in the soul by means of the arrow that is faith working through love (agap) [Gal.
5:6].55 Gregory does not draw a sharp distinction between ers and agap, which both describe
the way in which the soul erotically desires communion with the Lord, and the way in which the
Lord relentlessly pursues those whom he created. By the gift of faith the human creature begins
to realize its eschatological destiny in the present age. In the age to come, the human creature
will continue to be motivated by the same fiery arrow of love (ertos) that initiated her
ascent.56 The traditional distinction between ers and agap collapses, for agap when
intensified is called ers.57 Our eschatological perfection will be one of intensified agap that
resembles earthly ers in all but its divine Object, which is incorporeal, immaterial, and infinite.
The soul who erotically loves the Lord thus discovers that her perfect enjoyment is to be found in
the realization of the Beauty ever ancient, ever new, who will always arouse and excite her desire
for communion. The Brides companions, the daughters of Jerusalem (Song, 5:8a), witness her
happy exodus into the Lord and begin to contemplate her ascent. The daughters here figure
as all of those who would undertake the same ascent, following in the path of the Bride, into the
intimacy of the Lords communion (koinnian).58
The Bride is not the sole Scriptural exemplar for Nyssen, who does not lightly describe her
ascent to the Lord as an exodus. Throughout Nyssens works, Moses is a paragon of Christian
virtue and spirituality, a type for Christ, who mediates the Lords love. His ascent in the life of
54 Ibid, p. 399; GNO, VI.377.19-20
55 Ibid; GNO, VI.378.12, 20-21
56 Ibid, p. 403; GNO, VI.383.8
57 Ibid; GNO, VI.383.9
58 Ibid; GNO, VI.378.17

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virtue and his standing on the rock are recalled in the Homilies on the Song of Songs, but
occupy a central place in Nyssens Life of Moses. That work offers an account of Moses life that
attends to his progress in knowledge and love of God, who invites him into the divine
Darkness yet passes beyond him as he remains within in the rock (see, Ex.33: 21-23). As in the
dialogue On the Soul and Resurrection, the account of Moses ascent in the Life of Moses and
Gregorys treatment of that theme in the Homilies emphasize asceticism and habituation to virtue
as the necessary prolegomena to an eschatological immersion in the Lord. This immersion,
however, like the Brides in the Homilies, is one of eternal progress, facilitated by the interplay
of delight in communion with the Lord and desire for that intimacy to deepen eternally.
The Life of Moses contains Gregorys most theologically developed articulation of his
theory of epektasy as a perpetual progress in the life of virtue.59 Following the Exodus narrative,
Gregory traces the literal history of the man,60 and then offers a theological reflection
(theria) on Moses as an exemplar of the perfection of the virtuous life.61 Gregory attends
carefully to the sequence (akoluthia) of his narrative, gradually revealing how Moses strips
away all earthly desires and attachments until the vision of the Lords glory is his sole petition.
The Lord, however, leads Moses to despair (apelismos), affirming that the vision of the Lords
face is not possible for a human creature (cf. Ex. 33:20f).62 Instead, the Lord hides Moses within
the hole in the rock and passes by, revealing his backside to Moses, who thought he saw what
he was seeking.63 Gregory argues that the text signifies a truth about the movement of a soul
59 Cf. Smith, Passion, p. 214; He writes, Here he presents his final view of epektasis
Arguably the heart of the Life of Moses lies in Nyssens extended commentary on Moses request
to see Gods face and instead being shown Gods backside (Ex. 33:12-32).
60 Life of Moses, trans. Abraham J. Malherbe and Everett Ferguson, p.50; GNO, VII.1.33.3-4
61 Ibid, p.136; GNO, VII.2.143.19-21
62 Ibid, p.111-12; GNO, VII.2.110.14
63 Ibid, p.112; GNO, VII.2.110.19-23

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that has been perfected, The soul rises ever higher and will always makes its flight yet higher by
its desire (epithymia) for heavenly things, straining ahead (sunepektainomen) for what is still to
come [Phil 3:13].64 The ascent of the soul into the Lord never ends, first, because its divine
Object is inexhaustible, unlimited, infinite; and second, because the souls desire for its object is
never extinguished by enjoyment. Gregory writes,
This truly is the vision of God: never to be satiated (koron) in the desire
(epithymias) to see him. But one must always, by looking at what he can see,
rekindle his desire to see more. Thus, no limit (horos) to the Good can be found,
nor is the increasing of the desire for the Good brought to an end because it is
satiated.65

One sees this dialectic of desire and enjoyment in Moses, who upon seeing the backside of the
Lord desired to see him all the more. In the context of the Scriptural narrative this is not an
eschatological event, a distinction never clearly drawn in either the Life of Moses or the Homilies
on the Song of Songs. Though Gregory does not make it explicit, an eschatological fulfillment of
our earthly desire for perfection and the vision of the Lord are implied by identifying the rock
upon which Moses stood as Christ, in whom resides the hope of all good things.66
Nyssen offers a similar interpretation of the hole in the rock in the Homilies, which he
describes as the rock of the gospel.67 Moses had been raised up to such heights throughout his
life and experienced various manifestations of the divine presence, yet he never wearied in his
pursuit of the vision of the Lord. If the Lord passed Moses by when he asked to see his glory,
then the Scripture is teaching that a person who desires (epithymn) to see God catches sight of
64 Ibid, p.113; GNO, VII.2.112.16-20
65 Ibid, p.116; GNO, VII.2.116.17-23
66 Ibid, p. 118; GNO, VII.2.119.23-120.1
67 Homilies, trans. Norris, p. 175; GNO, VI.163.19

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the One he seeks by always following after him and that the contemplation (theria) of Gods
face is an unceasing journey towards him, which is brought to fulfillment by following the
Word.68 The journey never ends in the strict sense because the divine nature is not known in
being comprehended (katalambanesthai), but in its eluding every image (phantasian) or faculty
(dynamin) that might comprehend it.69 For Gregory, the souls contemplative union would cease
only when its object was comprehended fully, inducing self-satisfied satiety. The metaphor of
following does not permit the unstable motion of the present age, nor does it confine the soul
to a tragically repetitive cycle of desire and enjoyment. For Nyssen, a stable and progressive
motion in rest characterizes epektasis. Speaking of Moses on the rock (see, Ex. 33:11), he
writes,
This is the most paradoxical thing of all (paradoxotaton): how the same thing is
both a standing still (stasis) and a moving (kinsis). For he who ascends certainly
does not stand still, and he who stands still does not move upwards. But here the
ascent takes place by means of standing still. It is like using the standing still
(stasei) as if it were a wing while the heart flies upward through its stability in the
good.70

The paradox is of course that Moses can only move when he stands still, fitted into the hole of
the rock by the hand of the Lord, who passes by. The soul who follows Moses ascent to the Lord
stands still on the rock of Christ the Word, who leads the soul deeper and deeper into
contemplative union with the Lord. This is parallel to the same dynamic between ers and
agap, which Gregory elsewhere explores. The soul rests in her enjoyment of the Lord, but is
impelled to move towards further delights as a result of having tasted them and found them good.
68 Ibid, p. 377; GNO, VI.356.12-16
69 Ibid; GNO, VI.357.4-6
70 Life, trans. Abraham J. Malherbe and Everett Ferguson, p.117; GNO, VII.2.118.3-6:
... .

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4 Conclusion

The account of epektasy developed in this essay reconciles two understandings of that
doctrine in the works of Gregory of Nyssa. The theory of epektasis is at once a doctrine about the
Lord and a doctrine about human nature. At a glance the two seem utterly incommensurable, and
in a sense, they are. The diastemic gap characterizes their relationship, both in time and
eschatologically. The human creature is essentially finite, limited, and extended; no effort on her
part can escape this ontological reality. The Lord is essentially infinite, unlimited, and eternal.
Yet for all this, the Lord initiates a relationship with the human creature. This relationship is
fundamentally one of love, gifted to the finite creature out of the benevolence of the infinite
Creator, who loved us first (1 John 4:10f), and sent the Word to reconcile human creatures to
himself through the Spirit.
For Nyssen, the faculty of desire is an essential part of the composite human whole.
Considered in itself, desire is ambiguous. Macrina shows in the dialogue On the Soul and
Resurrection how the impulse desire tends either towards finite material things, or, when
purified, might be directed towards the Good. Eschatologically, Macrina teaches Gregory that
when the Lord is fully present to the soul, the purified desire that had motivated the human
creature in time would pass away, being transformed into a passionless charity (agap). The
lingering difficulty is the mode of presence in which the Creator invites the creature to
participate fully in him.
In his later Homilies on the Song of Songs and the Life of Moses, Gregory affirms both
the persistence of the ontological gap between the creature and the Creator and the understanding

Dever, 20
of the infinite Lord as the source of perfect enjoyment. The Scriptural accounts of the Bride and
Moses, however, are powerful images that illustrate the role of the essentially erotic human
desire. The Bride discovers in her pursuit of the Bridegroom that true enjoyment of what she
seeks is ever to make progress in seeking.71 The paradox of Moses ascent by standing still72
holds in dynamic tension both the enjoyment of the Lord in whom the human creature truly rests
and the human creatures eternal, erotic ascent into the delightful presence of the Lord.
This integrative account of Nyssens theory of epektasy sharpens the paradox of static
movement and erotic enjoyment. It opens up the possibility for the faculty of desire being
considered as something more than a lower appetitive faculty, but an essential attribute in a
perfected human creature. This desiring faculty serves as the means by which the perfected
human creature opens her arms to the Lords everlasting embrace and returns that gift of love,
which elicited her initial desire for the Lord.

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