Monday, August 8, 2022

"Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything. People kill one another over idols. Wonder makes us fall to our knees."

     Pseudo-Gregory of Nyssa, considered as an accurate quotation.

     Nyssa specialist Prof. Giulio Maspero, of the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce in Rome, who has cited the following passage often himself, says "the quote is not literal, here is the source[:]  Gregorio di Nissa, In Canticum, GNO VI, 358, 12-359,4" (note to me dated 4 September 2022) =PG 44, col. 1028D.  That would be this passage from Homily on the Song of Songs 12, which, as translated by Richard A. Norris (Gregory of Nyssa:  Homilies on the Song of Songs (Atlanta:  Society of Biblical Literature, 2012), 378-379, which is keyed to GNO VI), runs as follows:

The great David himself often does the same sort of thing: calling the Divine by a thousand names and then confessing that he has fallen short of the truth. 'You,' he says, 'are a merciful and gracious God, generous and full of compassion and true' (Ps 85:15)—and 'strength' and 'rock' and 'refuge' (Ps 17:2– 3) and 'power' and 'helper' (Ps 45:2) and 'protector' and 'horn of salvation' (Ps 17:3c), and the like. Again he confesses that God’s name is not known in all the earth but rather wondered at [(τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ οὐχὶ γινώσκεται ἀλλὰ θαυμάζεται)]: 'How wonderful,' he says, 'is your name in all the earth' (Ps 8:2, 10). In this manner too spoke the One who responded to Manoah’s question about his child when [Manoah] asked his name: '"It is to be wondered at [(θαυμαστόν ἐστι τοῦτο)]" (Judg 13:18[; LXX:  αὐτό ἐστιν θαυμαστόν]) and is greater than anything that human hearing can take in [(χωρηθῆναι)].' That is why the soul too names the Word in whatever way she can, but her ability does not match her aim. She seeks more than she is capable of. Nor indeed is she able to want all that he is, but only as much as her faculty of choice can intend. Since, then, the One called upon is beyond the reach of the caller’s desire, she says: I called upon him, but he did not answer me.

     Prior to hearing back from Prof. Maspero I had examined and dismissed that passage.  On his authority, though, I now take it to be the core around which this "quotation" has been built up over time.  (Note, however, that although Prof. Maspero has himself cited this passage in support of the claim that according to Gregory of Nyssa "only wonder knows," that's not quite what Gregory says precisely here (alone).  Cf. Lexicon Gregorianum, sv θαῦμα, A.4.b.β. "von d. Wundern Gottes," "allg. von d. wunderbaren Wirken Gottes," "im Zus[ammen]h[ang]. mit d. Gotteserkenntnis (Gott wird mehr (in sein Werken) 'erstaunt', als (in seinem Wesen) erkannt).")
     Prior to the assistance provided by Prof. Maspero, the closest I’d been able to get to a proper citation—attributed to both Gregory of Nyssa and Jürgen Moltmann online—had been via Jürgen Moltmann, who gives

"Concepts create idols.  Only wonder understands"
"Die Begriffe schaffen Götzenbilder, allein das Erstaunen versteht etwas"

     Jürgen Moltmann, The Spirit of life:  a universal affirmation (Minneapolis:  Fortress Press, 2001 [1992; German:  1991]), 73 (and in other books), citing PG 44, col. 377 (and in the original German, too).
     PG 44, col. 377 is roughly secs. 163-167 (on pp. 95-96) of the Classics of Western spirituality translation of The life of Moses by Abraham J. Malherbe and Everett Ferguson, and the closest thing on those two pages occurs at the top of p. 96 (at the bottom of sec. 165):

"Every concept which comes from some comprehensible image by an approximate understanding and by guessing at the divine nature constitutes an idol of God and does not proclaim God."

ὡς παντὸς νοήματος τοῦ κατά τινα περιληπτικὴν φαντασίαν ἐν περινοίᾳ τινὶ καὶ στοχοσμῷ τῆς θείας φύσεως γινομένου εἴδωλον θεοῦ πλάσσοντος καὶ οὐ θεὸν καταγγέλλοντος.

     Note that "wonder" doesn’t occur right here (though "marvel [(
θαῦμα)]" does occur in sec. 170, to give but one possibility in the immediate vicinity).
     Malherbe and Ferguson take their section numbers from the edition published in SC 1, ed. Jean Daniélou (p. 212, sec. 165).  Greek as on p. 88 ll. 2-5 of Bd. 7/1 of the "Jaeger" edition of the Opera, ed. H. Musurillo.

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