Mystery, Importance of

[loostudent]

This reminds me of the thread about purpose of life. Infinity is Mystery. There is no end to seeking the Creator. Or as in spiritual theology of Gregory of Nyssa:

Infinity

Gregory's second main contribution is his spiritual theology. He is the first Christian theologian to argue for the infinity of God. Origen, often called a major influence on Gregory, had explicitly argued that God is limited, an essential notion in Platonism, since to be limited is to be clearly defined and knowable. Gregory, however, argues that if God is limited he must be limited by something greater than himself; he is therefore without boundaries. The idea had already been developed by neoplatonic philosophers, especially Plotinus, another important influence on Gregory, but he is the first Christian to defend it, apart from some hints in the work of Irenaeus.

Accordingly, Gregory argues that since God is infinite he cannot be comprehended. In contrast, Origen had spoken of the spiritual journey as a progression of increasing illumination, as the mystic studies Scripture and comes to learn more about God.

Stages

Gregory speaks of three stages of spiritual progression: initial darkness or ignorance, then spiritual illumination, and finally a darkness of the mind in contemplation of the God who cannot be comprehended. (See apophatic theology.)

Like earlier authors, including the Jewish Philo of Alexandria, he uses the story of Moses as an allegory for the spiritual life. Moses first meets God in the burning bush, a theophany of light and illumination, but then he meets him again in the cloud, where he realizes that God cannot be seen by the eyes. Ascending Mount Sinai, he finally comes to the "divine darkness", and realizes that God cannot be known by the mind either.

It is only through not-knowing and not-seeing that God can, paradoxically, be known and seen. This notion would be extremely influential in both Western and Eastern spirituality, via the mystical writings of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Thus he is a major figure in the history of apophatic theology and spirituality.

Epektasis

Related to this is Gregory's idea of epektasis or constant progress. Platonic philosophy said that stability is perfection and change is for the worse; in contrast, Gregory described the ideal of human perfection as constant progress in virtue and godliness. In Gregory’s theology, God himself has always been perfect and has never changed, and never will. Humanity fell from grace in the Garden of Eden, but rather than return to an unchanging state, humanity's goal is to become more and more perfect, more like God, even though humanity will never understand, much less attain, God's transcendence. This idea has had a profound influence on the Eastern Orthodox teaching regarding theosis or "divinization".

Gregory also taught that while it cannot be known whether or not all humans will be saved, as Origen speculated, faithful Christians may hope and pray for the salvation of all, even after death. He thus presents a hopeful alternative to those theologies, such as that of Augustine, which state that at least some, of necessity, will be eternally condemned to hell.

(OrthodoxWiki)