In constructing a response I have decided to marshal the assistance 4th Century Cappadocian Father Gregory of Nyssa. Although the early Church may seem unpromising territory at first to speak out in support of women, Gregory has, I think, some inspiring things to say and certainly is popular with some feminist theologians. Although there is an awful lot that could be said on this topic, and much that is shared with the other two Cappadocian Fathers, for the sake of brevity I shall, after a few introductory remarks, concentrate on two of his works: The Life of St. Macrina and Homilies on the Song of Songs.Like most ascetic/mystical writers following from Origen, Gregory affirms that most of the things that humans identify themselves by: social status, wealth, family and even one’s physical sex are in fact secondary and ultimately irrelevant to what makes a human a person. What really matters, Gregory affirms time and again, is one’s relationship with God, whether they desire what is truly good and beautiful and pursue a virtuous life or whether their personality is being squandered on earthly desires. Gregory actually reads the Genesis 1 account: ‘So God created humankind in his image...male and female he created them’ as implying that sexuality only appeared in a second-stage of creation, a merciful addition by God so that humanity could continue to exist after they lost sight of God in the fall. Ultimately, humans transcend gender binaries for (as Gregory often repeats) ‘there is neither male nor female in Christ’.
So far this is not sounding overly affirming of women I’ll admit, yet since Gregory sees gender as non-essential, not only does he see the full spiritual equality of women, but he also speaks of spiritual progress in distinctly gendered terms that appear to represent stages of spiritual progress; at times a human is expected to play the man and the woman in relation to God.
St. Macrina- ‘One who went beyond the nature of a woman’
In many ways Gregory repeats the sort of gendered stereotypes of John Piper, the passionate woman and the stern, disciplined man and he may even agree with his 8 traits of ‘masculine’ leadership (scroll down a bit). The only difference is that Gregory found most of them in his older sister, St. Macrina.
Granddaughter of the celebrated Martyr Macrina the Elder, Macrina after the premature death of her fiancée opts to lead a life entirely devoted to God, and so she begins to turn her household into an ascetic community which she leads. Gregory notes her as ‘father, teacher, attendant, mother, the counsellor of every good...’ when she takes up the care of their youngest brother Peter, and he calls her ‘my teacher in all things’. It is Macrina who punctures St. Basil the Great’s ego after returning from university and persuades him to abandon secular glory and commit himself to God instead. It is Macrina who does manual work around the house and shows deep ascetic commitment by sleeping on boards and possessing only one set of clothes. She performs miraculous healings and when either Gregory or her mother succumbs to grief over the death of Basil or another son, Naucratius, respectively (it was a big family) it is Macrina who counsels them, rebuking their softness. It is Macrina who is presented as instructing Gregory on the topics covered in The Soul and the Resurrection.
In the Life of Macrina there has been a complete inverting of the gender stereotypes, she represents Piper’s resolute ‘masculinity’ whilst the men (and particularly Gregory himself) seem to yield to ‘womanly’ passion. This may seem a danger sign though are women expected to just ‘become men’? Is Gregory’s androgyny just masculinity in disguise? I would argue not so. The narrative of the Life finds an abrupt cut-off at her funeral, where Gregory and the Virgins have succumbed to passionate grief over the loss of their sister, teacher and leader. A picture of (masculine) ‘reason’ being overtaken by ‘passion’. This can only be right: as stated, for Gregory one’s personality depends not on their austerity but their desire for God, and he expresses this desire as ‘eros’ for God. Gregory is known as an apophatic writer, a ‘Theologian of Darkness’, eventually if one is to truly unite their soul with God, they have to leave behind not just sin and vice, but word, concepts, discursive thought, and enter a ‘darkness’ of the mind where one is guided by their own ‘eros’ for God, and ‘feel’ his presence with inner ‘spiritual senses’. This is best exemplified by the Bride in his Homilies on the Song of Songs.
The Bride- ‘I am wounded with love’
For Gregory the Spiritual life is a series of (infinite) progressive stages, and what’s more there are certain gendered ways of describing them, and this is very clear in his homilies on the Song. In Homily I Gregory explains the pedagogical functions of the three Wisdom books, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of songs, and notes that in our early stages of spiritual growth, our souls play the ‘male’, courting Wisdom and enjoying her gifts (Wisdom, Sophia, is of course Christ for Gregory) but at the more advanced stages the soul transforms into the Bride, expectantly waiting to receive further revelation from the Bridegroom in the house of the his mother (who Gregory interprets as the Father). Having searched for her beloved outdoors and realizing that no one can tell her where he is because he is incomprehensible to the mind, she returns to the dark bridal chamber and awaits him, resplendent in her virtues, which are like rich perfume and gold and silver. There are a huge number of images that swirl around Gregory’s homilies that could be mentioned, but one of the most striking is the arrow of love in Homily IV.
In a startling piece of Trinitarian imagery, the Father, who is the archer, fires an arrow, who is the Son, into the Bride’s heart, after it has been dipped into the Spirit. She cries out in ecstasy and boasts of her wound, she has been pierced by God. Then, most remarkably of all she herself is transformed into the arrow in the hands of the Son, the bridegroom. Yet Gregory chooses to express this in imagery that is less martial than marital;
the arrow tip the bride’s head held in the left hand of her beloved, the arrow shaft her body, held in the right. It is the feminized soul, the passionate, desiring soul that has found union with God. And this for Gregory is to be the experience of both men and women on their spiritual journey, for in Christ there is neither male nor female.
There is much more that could be said on this topic, and particularly the idea of purity of heart making the soul as a mother giving birth to spiritual thoughts, and I probably haven’t done enough justice to the two works covered here. However I hope I have written enough to suggest to Mr. Piper that perhaps if he wants a ‘masculine’ church, one that desires God as the conference name he spoke at implies, then his best bet, at least according to Gregory, is for it to play the woman all the more.
