Theological Work in Gregory of Nyssa and Renovation of Theological Work Today. Conceptual Framework from De Vita Moysis and In Canticum Canticorum*

Gabriel Alberto Jaramillo Vargas, Orlando Solano Pinzón

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Theology as an exercise in constant elaboration and in dialogue with the signs of the times, needs to be renewed permanently to respond to the urgent challenges of a postmodern culture that is increasingly disenchanted and wounded. This article will show some results of the doctoral research carried out by the author at the Pontifical Xavierian University (Colombia), titled “Theological work in Gregory of Nyssa and renovation of theological work today. Contributions from De Vita Moysis and In Canticum Canticorum”. One of those problems that some contemporary theologians are urging to renovate is the problem of the separation between theology and sanctity that divided something that was a single reality in the theological work of the Fathers, as “flesh and blood have to be kept together originally to live”. This problem is sharpened in the Latin American context by the slow reception and development of patristic studies. In the current investigation, it seems that Gregory of Nyssa has a particular contribution to this problem in two of his most mystical works. Indeed, he displays his specific way of doing theology. From the hermeneutic of appropriation in Paul Ricoeur, in which the interpreter lets himself be guided by the world opened by the text, understands it, and appropriates it into an experience that allows him to discover new dimensions of his being in the world, this article aims to to show a synthesis of Gregory’s theological work in The Life of Moses and Homilies of the Song of Songs. In this sense, the theological position of Gregory could be understood in the conceptual framework of the following categories: μυστήριον, μυσταγωγία, μυστικά, γνóφος, ἀκολουθία and ἐπέκτασις. These six important categories could help in the renovation efforts already being promoted by the Second Vatican Council and are present in Latin-American contextual theologies, following the double renovating dynamism ad fontes and a giorno.

Original languageEnglish
JournalTheologica Xaveriana
Volume72
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022

Keywords

  • Gregory of nyssa
  • Patristics
  • Renovation
  • Theological work

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