Exploring Gregory of Nyssa

It won't be out until December, making it an ideal Christmas present for those who are interested in the third Cappadocian father, often misunderstood and sometimes misrepresented (especially in the ongoing wars over gender and sex), who is enjoying a considerable upswing in scholarly studies devoted to his thought: Exploring Gregory of Nyssa: Philosophical, Theological, and Historical Studies, eds. Anna Marmodoro and Neil B. McLynn (Oxford University Press, 2018), 288pp.

About this collection the publisher tells us the following:

Exploring Gregory of Nyssa: Philosophical, Theological, and Historical Studies brings together an interdisciplinary team of historians, classicists, philosophers, and theologians to offer a holistic exploration of the thought of Gregory of Nyssa. The volume considers Gregory's role in the main philosophical and religious controversies of his era, such as his ecclesiastical involvement in the Neo-Nicene apologetical movement. It looks at his complex relationships-for example with his brother Basil of Caesarea and with Gregory of Nazianzus. Contributors highlight Gregory's debt to Origen, but also the divergence between the two thinkers, and their relationships to Platonism. They also examine Gregory of Nyssa's wider philosophy and metaphysics; deep questions in philosophy of language such as the nature of predication and singular terms that inform our understanding of Gregory's thought; and the role of metaphysical concepts such as the nature of powers and identity.

The study paints a picture of Gregory as a ground-breaking philosopher-theologian. It analyses the nature of the soul, and connection to theological issues such as resurrection; questions that are still of interest in the philosophy of religion today, such as divine impassibility and the nature of the Trinity; and returning to more immediately humane concerns, Gregory also has profound thoughts on topics such as vulnerability and self-direction. The volume will be of primary interest to researchers, lecturers, and postgraduate students in philosophy, classics, history, and theology, and can be recommended as secondary reading for undergraduates, especially those studying classics and theology.

We also have the Table of Contents:

Introduction, Anna Marmodoro and Neil B. McLynn

1. Gregory of Nyssa: A Brief Life and Context, John McGuckin
2. The two Gregories: Nyssen and Nazianzen, Neil McLynn
3. Dressing Moses: reading Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Moses literally, Susanna Elm
4. Allegory and Mysticism in Gregory of Nyssa, Mark Edwards
5. Predication, Metaphysics, and Divine Impassibility in Gregory of Nyssa's Christological Exegesis, Christopher Beeley
6. Spiritual Formation and the Body-Soul Relation in Gregory of Nyssa, Morwenna Ludlow
7. Gregory of Nyssa on the Soul (and the Restoration): From Plato to Origen, Ilaria Ramelli
8. The soul as dynamis in Gregory of Nyssa, Johannes Zachhuber
9. Vulnerability as Secret of Self-direction in Gregory of Nyssa, Sophie Cartwright
10. Gregory of Nyssa and the Three Gods Problem, Andrew Radde-Gallwitz
11. Gregory of Nyssa on the Trinity (with focus on his letter iAd Ablabius), Anna Marmodoro

Conclusion
Bibliography
Index of Names and Subjects
Index Locorum