The Mimetic Life: Imitation and Infinity in Gregory of Nyssa The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Motia, Michael Ali. 2017. The Mimetic Life: Imitation and Infinity in Gregory of Nyssa. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37365507 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA The Mimetic Life: Imitation and Infinity in Gregory of Nyssa A dissertation presented by Michael Ali Motia to The Committee on the Study of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Religion Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts April 2017 ! © 2017 Michael Ali Motia All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisors: Professors Charles Stang and Amy Hollywood Michael Ali Motia The Mimetic Life: Imitation and Infinity in Gregory of Nyssa Abstract “Christianity is mimesis of the divine nature,” writes Gregory of Nyssa, the fourth- century CE author who also first makes the infinitude of God central to his theological project. How does one imitate the infinite? Or, perhaps more importantly, why frame the Christian life as an imitation of something infinite? This question becomes more urgent when it is set in the classical Greek and Roman worlds, which were organized largely through mimetic relationships. How a teacher molds a student, how art shapes a soul, and how the Creator creates creation— questions most intimate or most cosmic, questions of identity, cultivation of the self, formation of desire, power and persuasion, and more—are framed in terms of archetype and imitation. The ubiquity of this discourse in the classical world and in the early Church, however, can blind readers to the multiple ways mimesis is conceptualized to form desiring selves and communities. In late antiquity, discourses of mimesis that were previously held apart—aesthetic representation and ontological participation—combine and require new ways to theorize and form subjects. Gregory’s most famous contribution to Christian thought—divine infinitude and the human imitating of that infinitude in our endlessly expanding desire for God—is best understood, I argue, as a working out of these combined discourses of mimetic relationships. This transformation of mimesis requires and inspires, for Gregory, a new set of names, spaces, and characters to imitate, and also subtly transforms the function of mimesis. Mimesis becomes ! iii no longer a stepping stone or penultimate good, but the very end of the Christian life. It organizes a set of practices, a way of life, aimed at Christian perfection. ! iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments vi Introduction 1 The Mimetic Life Chapter One 18 Two Tracks of Mimesis Chapter Two 64 Crossing Tracks: Mimesis in Neoplatonism Chapter Three 107 Early Christian Mimesis Chapter Four 166 Mimetic Names Chapter Five 223 Mimetic Spaces Chapter Six 290 Mimetic Characters Conclusion 365 Bibliography 375 ! v Acknowledgments For Gregory of Nyssa, the key to living well was to choose the right examples and to sit with them for long enough that you might catch their halo. He imitated those examples, but he also lived in their world. It is overwhelming to know that I have lived in a world made by people who were kinder, smarter, and more generous than I had any right to expect. My dissertation committee has been a dream team. Charles Stang introduced me to oysters, stirred cocktails, and the world of late antiquity. He poured over drafts and consistently made time to talk through problems or cool overheating anxieties. His first year as a professor was my first year at Harvard Divinity School, which means that as long has he has been teaching, he has endured my ill-conceived ideas and rough drafts with patience, wisdom, and clarity. I would wish that on nobody, but my gratitude to him knows no bounds. Walking into Amy Hollywood’s Derrida seminar may be as close to a conversion moment as one can have in an academic life. It was only the first of many courses and conversations I would have with her, but it left an indelible mark. Her teaching is rivaled only by her advising. Her detailed, incisive comments made this dissertation far better. And our discussions about mystical theology, contemporary literature, and good food are cherished memories. Mark Jordan’s eye for translation, love of Plato, and subtle habits of reading with an eye toward ethical formation have underpinned and improved much of this project. Beyond my committee members, I have benefited from wonderful colleagues and friends. When Susan Harvey heard that I was a stray Harvard student living in Providence, she took me in with characteristic warmth and offered consistently generous critiques. Stephanie Paulsell, Arthur Urbano, Rebecca Stephens Falcasantos, Todd Berzon, Greg Given, Craig Tichelkamp, Filipe Maia, Michael Mango, Cassie Houtz, John Portlock, Josh Cohen, and AnnMarie Bridges gave me especially helpful feedback on various parts of this project. I am grateful to the North American Patristics Society, the Byzantine Studies Association of North America, and, especially, the Boston and Providence Patristics Groups. Annewies van den Hoek spent many Monday mornings with me translating Gregory. Dinners with my friends in the Harvard Theology Salon were cathartic. The Brown Family Medicine cohort has been a second family. Edmund Freeborn, Michelle Sanchez, and Burns Stanfield have been rocks of support. And large chunks of this project were formed in wonderful car rides between Scranton, New Haven, and Cambridge with Steve Jungkeit. Harvard Divinity School and Harvard University have been good to me. I am grateful for the teachers, students, funding, and friends. But in the end, as Gregory writes, “Grace begins at home.” From baseball games to close readings of Iamblichus, my dad has never let not understanding what I do get in the way of supporting me more than I deserve. My brother Matthew’s love of the Dodgers, quick wit, and kitchen skills made for good meals and great days, often when I needed them most. To say that my mom has been supportive of this project is an understatement worthy of her limitless grace and humility. And, finally, my wife, Morgan, has taught me more about endlessly expanding love than Gregory ever could. Thank you. This is dedicated to you. ! ! vi Introduction The Mimetic Life “Christianity is mimesis of the divine nature [!"#$%#&'#$µ() *$%# %+) ,-.&) /0$-1) µ.µ2$#)].”1 That is how a graying Gregory of Nyssa defines Christianity for his young friend Harmonius. Modern scholars do not have many definitions of Christianity from late antiquity, so the sentence itself is something of a historical gem. But the sentence is also theologically puzzling. Gregory is the first Christian to make the infinity of God central to his theological program, and this raises the question: How does one imitate the infinite? Or, perhaps more importantly: Why frame the Christian life as an imitation of something infinite? If Gregory describes perfection as “never to stop growing towards what is better and never placing any limit on perfection,”2 how does mimesis function within that endless pursuit? And if mimesis assumes a mode of eros—if love leads to likeness, and if imitation incites, intensifies, reorients, and reinforces desire—how does a Christian love what she does not know? Those questions lie at the heart of this project. Gregory’s definition responds to Harmonius’s question, a question that is difficult to render in English:3 3. %45 6"#$%#&'45 %7 *89::-;µ&; The difficult word here is *89::-;µ&. It can !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Gregory of Nyssa, On What it Means to Call Oneself a Christian [hereafter cited as Prof], in St. Gregory of Nyssa: Ascetical Works, trans. Virginia Woods Callahan (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1967), 85. Greek in Gregorii Nysseni Opera Online, 60 vols., ed. Ekkehard Mühlenberg and Giulio Maspero (Leiden: Brill, 1952-) 29:136 (hereafter cited as GNO vol.page). Unless noted otherwise, translations of Gregory are mine with reference to Woods Callahan. For ease of reference I provide both the English and GNO page numbers. 2 Gregory of Nyssa, On Perfection [hereafter cited as Perf], in Saint Gregory of Nyssa: Ascetical Works, 122, GNO 30.213-14. 3 Gregory of Nyssa, Prof 81, GNO 29.129. Whether Harmonius actually asked the question is unimportant for this study. It is common for ancient authors to pose the treatise as the response to a request, not unlike politicians today restating a question so that they can answer the question they want asked. 1 mean a promise, a profession, an art, or a subject (as in the subject of a treatise).4 What is the promise of a Christian? What is the profession of a Christian? What is the art of a Christian? What is the subject of a Christian? What is promised to a Christian? We get some sense of the question from the analogy he draws immediately after posing it: Just as someone who desires to be called a doctor or an orator or a geometrician is not worthy of a title until he has some education as to what it means, that is, until he discovers from experience [*8< %+) 8-."&)] what he is being called, and just as the person wishing to be thus addressed in accordance with truth, so that the calling will not be proved to be a misnomer, will show himself faithful [8#$%=$-%&#] to the title by the practice itself [&>%? %? *8#%2@-0µ&%#]; so, in the same way, if we, seeking the true aim of the profession [*8&::A;µ&%4)] of a Christian, should find it, then we would not choose not to be it when the title is professed [*8&::A;;-%&#] about us.5 Like doctors, Christians should, over time, grow into and then stretch out their titles.