"the truth is that many lesbians and gay men are quite attached to the concept of sex as a natural, biological, material thing. Yes, we are very well aware that sex can be expressed in many different ways. A drag queen and a rugby player are both biologically men, with different expressions of gender. Indeed, a drag queen can also be a rugby player and express his gender identity in a variety of ways, depending on time and place. But he is still a man. . . . Transgender people pose no threat to us, and the vast majority of gay men and lesbians wholeheartedly support protections for transgender people. But transgenderist ideology — including postmodern conceptions of sex and gender — is indeed a threat to homosexuality, because it is a threat to biological sex as a concept.
"And so it is not transphobic for a gay man not to be attracted to a trans man. It is close to definitional. The core of the traditional gay claim is that there is indeed a very big difference between male and female, that the difference matters, and without it, homosexuality would make no sense at all. If it’s all a free and fluid nonbinary choice of gender and sexual partners, a choice to have sex exclusively with the same sex would not be an expression of our identity, but a form of sexist bigotry, would it not?"
Andrew Sullivan, "The nature of sex," "Interesting times," "Intelligencer," New York, 1 February 2019. Has Sullivan grappled elsewhere with what the gay/lesbian and the transgender identities would seem to have in common, though?
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.
