1

De instituto Christiano

OF GREGORY, BISHOP OF NYSSA, CONCERNING THE GOAL ACCORDING TO GOD AND OF THE ASCETICISM ACCORDING TO TRUTH

If anyone, having withdrawn his thought a little from the body and having come outside the slavery and folly of the passions, should look upon his own soul with undeceived and sincere reason, he will see clearly in its nature both the love of God for us and the will of His creation. For, observing in this way, he will find inherent and connatural to man the impulse of desire for the beautiful and the best, and, of that intelligible and blessed image of which man is a copy, the passionless and blessed love united with his nature. But a certain deception of these visible and ever-flowing things through irrational passion and bitter pleasure, deceiving and enchanting the soul that is careless and unguarded through indolence, 8,1.41 draws it toward a terrible evil, an evil which is born from the pleasures of life and which begets death for its own lovers. For this reason, the grace of our Savior bestowed the knowledge of the truth, the saving remedy for souls, to those who receive it with longing; by which the enchanting deception of man is dissolved, and the dishonorable mind of the flesh is extinguished, as the soul that has received this knowledge is guided by the light of truth toward the divine and its own salvation. Since, therefore, you, worthily receiving this knowledge and rightly directing the divine love according to the nature given to the soul, have eagerly come together, fulfilling in common the apostolic character in your actions and desiring to receive from us some guiding and leading discourse for the journey of life, which will lead to the straight path, showing precisely what is the goal of this life for those who pursue it, what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, what kind of path leads to this goal, how it is fitting for those traveling this path to be with one another, how those in authority ought to direct the choir of philosophy, what toils those who are about to ascend to the summit of virtue must use, and how they are to prepare their own souls worthily for the reception of the Spirit; since, therefore, you demand this discourse from us, not 8,1.42 simply from my mouth but impressed in letters, so that having it laid up in these, as if from a treasury of memory, you may take this † for your needs as occasion arises, we shall try to speak according to the grace of the Spirit which is supplied to us for the present eagerness, knowing precisely that the rule of piety among you is fixed in the right dogma of the faith, holding one divinity of the blessed and eternal Trinity, in no way and in no respect altered, but understood and worshipped in one substance, one glory, and the same will, according to the three hypostases, as we have previously, before many witnesses, laid down our confession to the Spirit who bathed us in the font of the mystery; being conscious that you have this pious and unerring confession of the faith firmly established in the depth of your soul, and your impulse and ascent upward to the good and blessed through the course of your actions, we write to you the brief seeds of teaching, selecting from the †scriptures 8,1.43 previously given to us by the Spirit, and in many places setting down the very words of scripture as needed, for the confirmation of what is said and for the manifestation of our own understanding concerning it, so that we might not seem, having abandoned the grace from above, to bring forth illegitimate offspring ourselves from some paltry and humble mind and, fashioning forms of piety with external reasonings, to introduce these ignorantly into the scriptures with our own opinion

1

De instituto Christiano

ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΥ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΝΥΣΣΗΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΚΑΤΑ ΘΕΟΝ ΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΤΑ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑΝ ΑΣΚΗΣΕΩΣ

Εἴ τις μικρὸν ἀποστήσας τοῦ σώματος τὴν διάνοιαν καὶ τῆς τῶν παθῶν

δουλείας τε καὶ ἀφροσύνης ἔξω γενό μενος ἀδόλῳ καὶ εἰλικρινεῖ λογισμῷ τὴν αὐτὸς ἑαυτοῦ κατίδοι ψυχήν, ὄψεται καθαρῶς ἐν τῇ ταύτης φύσει τοῦ θεοῦ τήν τε πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀγάπην καὶ τὸ βούλημα τῆς ἐκείνου δημιουργίας. εὑρήσει γὰρ τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον ἐπισκοπῶν συνουσιωμένην τε καὶ συμπεφυκυῖαν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ καλόν τε καὶ ἄριστον τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ὁρμὴν καὶ τῆς νοητῆς ἐκείνης καὶ μακαρίας εἰκόνος, ἧς ὁ ἄνθρωπος μίμημα, τὸν ἀπαθῆ καὶ μακάριον ἔρωτα συνημμένον τῇ φύσει. ἀλλὰ πλάνη τις τῶν ὁρατῶν τούτων καὶ ῥεόντων ἀεὶ διὰ πάθους ἀλόγου καὶ πικρᾶς ἡδονῆς τὴν ἀμελῆ καὶ ἀφύ λακτον ὑπὸ ῥᾳθυμίας ψυχὴν ἀπατῶσα καὶ γοητεύουσα 8,1.41 πρὸς κακίαν ἕλκει δεινήν, γεννωμένην τε ἐκ τῶν ἡδονῶν τοῦ βίου καὶ γεννῶσαν θάνατον τοῖς ἑαυτῆς ἐρασταῖς. διὰ τοῦτο τὴν γνῶσιν τῆς ἀληθείας, τὸ σωτήριον ταῖς ψυχαῖς φάρμακον, ἡ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν τοῖς πόθῳ δεχομένοις ἐδωρήσατο χάρις· ὑφ' ἧς λύεται μὲν ἡ γοητεύουσα τὸν ἄνθρωπον πλάνη, τὸ δὲ τῆς σαρκὸς ἄτιμον κατασβέννυται φρόνημα, τῷ τῆς ἀληθείας φωτὶ πρὸς τὸ θεῖόν τε καὶ τὴν ἑαυτῆς σωτηρίαν ὁδηγουμένης τῆς ψυχῆς, ἣ τὴν γνῶσιν ἐδέξατο. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν ταύτην ὑμεῖς ἀξίως λαμβάνοντες τὴν γνῶσιν καὶ τὸν θεῖον ἔρωτα κατὰ τὴν δοθεῖσαν τῇ ψυχῇ φύσιν εὐθύνοντες συνεληλύθατε προθύμως, κοινῇ πληροῦν τες τὸν ἀποστολικὸν ἐν ταῖς πράξεσι χαρακτῆρα καὶ πο θοῦντες ὁδηγόν τινα παρ' ἡμῶν καὶ ἡγεμόνα τῆς τοῦ βίου πορείας λόγον λαβεῖν, ὃς εἰς τὴν εὐθεῖαν ἄξει, δεικνὺς ἀκριβῶς τίς μὲν ὁ τοῦ βίου τούτου τοῖς μετιοῦσι σκοπός, τί δὲ τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ εὐάρεστον καὶ τέλειον βούλημα τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ποία τις πρὸς τὸν σκοπὸν τοῦτον ὁδός, ὅπως τε συνεῖναι προσήκει τοὺς ταύτην πορευομένους ἀλλήλοις, καὶ ὅπως χρὴ τοὺς προεστῶτας εὐθύνειν τὸν τῆς φιλοσο φίας χορόν, οἵοις τε δεῖ πόνοις κεχρῆσθαι τοὺς ἐπὶ τὸ ἀκρότατον μέλλοντας ἀνιέναι τῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ τὰς ἑαυτῶν ψυχὰς πρὸς τὴν τοῦ πνεύματος ὑποδοχὴν ἀξίας παρασκευά ζειν· ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν τοῦτον ἡμᾶς ἀπαιτεῖτε τὸν λόγον, οὐχ 8,1.42 ἁπλῶς ἀπὸ στόματος ἀλλὰ γράμμασι τυπωθέντα, ὅπως ἐν τούτοις ἔχοντες αὐτὸν ἀποκείμενον καθάπερ ἐκ ταμιείου μνήμης πρὸς τὰς κατὰ καιρὸν χρείας ταύτην † λαμβάνητε, πειρασόμεθα κατὰ τὴν χορηγοῦσαν ἡμῖν τοῦ πνεύματος χάριν ἐπὶ τῇ παρούσῃ προθυμίᾳ εἰπεῖν, εἰδότες ἀκριβῶς ὡς ὁ τῆς εὐσεβείας ἐν ὑμῖν κανὼν τῷ ὀρθῷ τῆς πίστεως πέπηγε δόγματι, μίαν ἔχων τῆς μακαρίας τε καὶ ἀϊδίου τριάδος θεότητα μηδαμῶς μηδαμῇ παρηλλαγμένην ἀλλ' ἐν μιᾷ μὲν οὐσίᾳ, μιᾷ δὲ δόξῃ, τῷ αὐτῷ δὲ βουλήματι νοουμένην τε καὶ προσκυνουμένην κατὰ τὰς τρεῖς ὑποστάσεις, ὡς προλαβόντες ὑπὸ μάρτυσι πολλοῖς κατεθέμεθα τὴν ὁμολο γίαν τῷ λούσαντι ἡμᾶς ἐν τῇ τοῦ μυστηρίου πηγῇ πνεύματι· ταύτην συνειδότες ὑμῖν τὴν εὐσεβῆ καὶ ἀδιαμάρτητον τῆς πίστεως ὁμολογίαν ἐν τῷ βάθει τῆς ψυχῆς ἀσφαλῶς ἱδρυμένην τήν τε ἄνω πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ μακάριον διὰ τῆς τῶν πραγμάτων πορείας ὁρμὴν ὑμῶν καὶ ἀνάβασιν, γράφομεν ὑμῖν βραχέα τὰ σπέρματα τῆς διδασκαλίας, ἀπὸ τῶν προδωρηθέντων ἡμῖν παρὰ τοῦ πνεύματος †γραφῶν 8,1.43 ἐκλεγόμενοι, καὶ αὐτὰ δὲ πολλαχοῦ τὰ τῆς γραφῆς ῥήματα κατὰ τὴν χρείαν τιθέντες εἰς πίστιν τῶν λεγομένων καὶ εἰς φανέρωσιν τῆς ἡμετέρας περὶ αὐτὴν ὑπολήψεως, ὅπως ἂν μὴ δοκοίημεν ἀφέντες τὴν ἄνωθεν χάριν νόθα τίκτειν αὐτοὶ φαύλῃ τινὶ καὶ ταπεινῇ διανοίᾳ καὶ τοῖς ἔξωθεν λογισμοῖς τύπους εὐσεβείας πλάττοντες τούτους ἐπεισά γειν ἀμαθῶς ταῖς γραφαῖς φρονήματι