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Gregory of Nyssa: Luminous Darkness
The 'Divine Darkness' in Gregory of Nyssa

Since Moses was alone, by having been stripped as it

were of the peoples fear, he boldly approached the
very darkness itself and entered the invisible things
where he was no longer seen by those watching.
After he entered the inner sanctuary of the divine
mystical doctrine, there, while not being seen, he was
in company with the Invisible. He teaches, I think, by
the things he did that the one who is going to
associate intimately with God must go beyond all
that is visible andlifting up his own mind, as to a
mountaintop, to the invisible and incomprehensible
believe that the divine is there where the
understanding does not reach.
Gregory of Nyssa
Life of Moses, 46
That knowledge is cognitive is perhaps the rst assumption with
which one must do away, if he is to properly understand St. Gregory of
Nyssas concept of the divine darkness. Yet it is an assumption so
basic to modern scientic thought that its inuence is hardly given
considerationit is taken entirely as a base fact in the general arena
of learning. Yet it is this very idea which Gregory addresses: the entire
way of knowing with which we approach a knowledge of God. His is a
knowing that goes beyond the connes and limitations of cognition,
with its inherent inability to comprehend the transcendent. It is a
knowing that plunges into the negative, into the darkness of that
place where the understanding does not reach, and there nds the
height of true knowledge.
Gregorys concept of mystical knowing is best expressed in his image
of the divine darkness: a symbol that is perhaps one of his greatest
gifts to the realm of Christian thought. It is presented most clearly in
his famous text, The Life of Moses, and it is primarily from that text

that this brief examination shall be made.

Divine Ascent: the Mountain.
The Life of Moses presents us with one of the early Churchs most
elegant eorts at symbolic interpretation of Scripture. Gregory
discusses the story of Moses and the Jewish exodus from its historical
perspective, eectively paraphrasing the Exodus account, then moves
on to a spiritual interpretationa contemplative examination of its
inner meaning. The entire motion of Moses life, from his rst hearing
and heeding the calling of the Lord, to his guidance of the Chosen
People out of bondage and into freedom, to his ascent up Sinai to
receive the Law from God; all is seen as a great and progressive
symbol for the spiritual life of the Christian believer.
One must begin a discussion of the divine darkness with an
acknowledgement that, in Gregorys writing, it is not the only way of
knowing. Indeed, it is not even the rst. In the story of Moses,
Gregory makes plain the fact that much indeed preceded the
patriarchs ascent of Sinai. So, too, must much precede the Christians
entrance into the darkness of divine knowledge.

Again the Scripture leads our understanding upward

to the higher levels of virtue. For the man who
received strength from the food and showed his
power in ghting with his enemies and was the victor
over his opponents is then led to the ineable
knowledge of God. Scripture teaches us by these
things the nature and the number of things one must
accomplish in life before he would at some time dare
to approach in his understanding the mountain of the
knowledge of God.[1]
The history of Moses is not a collection of stories, Gregory seems to
say, but one great story of progression and development. Moses was
not chosen immediately to climb the mountain, but rst to be a
shepherd and a soldier; and only when having completed the
necessary precursors was he to hide in the cleft of the rock and see
God. One nds in Gregorys symbolic interpretation of this text an
insistence upon a progression of knowledge, and further of an
intimation of knowledge in types. There was a time when Moses knew
God from story, then from His guidance in battle, then from His
leadership into victory. And then there was the time when knowledge
came ineably, and Moses truly knew God.
In fact, Gregory presents three principal ways within the spiritual life,
and as J. Danilou rightly notes, they are somewhat dierent from

those generally encountered.[2] One seee them most clearly in a

passage from the Commentary on the Canticle of Canticles:

Moses vision of God began with light; afterwards

God spoke to him in a cloud. But when Moses rose
higher and became more perfect, he saw God in the
darkness.
One cannot assess Gregorys concept of the divine darkness in
exclusion from this full design of upward motion. The way of light, the
way of knowledge as if in a cloud, and the darkness at the peak of
the mountaintop are all interconnected, building one upon the next in
the faithful seekers quest for union with God. The mountain of
knowledge is a steep climb, and while the view from the top is worlds
apart from that at the bottom, the mountain is still a single
monument.
The way of light, which one encounters at the beginning of the
spiritual journey, is the most common way of knowing. Gregory is
realistic in his assertion that the great majority of people do not climb
to the top of the symbolic mountain of knowledge:

The knowledge of God is a mountain steep indeed

and dicult to climbthe majority of people
scarcely reach its base.[3]
It is not in the darkness, but in the light that the majority of humanity
rests in its knowledge. This, indeed, is the realm of cognition. One is
stripped of his ignorance when he grows in the light; and through
such an illumination he begins to see more clearly the world around
him. To this degree, one begins to see more clearly, too, the nature of
God. Moses rst saw God as light, radiating from the bush at the base
of the mountain, and through this light was revealed not only a new
knowledge of the Creator, but a heightened knowledge of the human
person, and what must be done to grow further still in true
knowledge.

That light [of the burning bush] teaches us what we

must do to stand within the rays of the true light:
Sandaled feet cannot ascend that height where the
light of truth is seen, but the dead and earthly
covering of skins, which was placed around our
nature at the beginning when we were found naked
because of disobedience to the divine will, must be
removed from the feet of the soul. When we do this,

the knowledge of the truth will result and manifest

itself.[4]
The way of knowing through the light involves a process of
purication, of stripping away what Gregory often refers to as the
garment of skinnot skin in its biological sense, but in its symbolic
sense of that which covers and hides the true essence of human
nature. Danilou writes of the light, This way is marked by the
purication of the soul from all foreign elements and by the
restoration of the image of God.[5]
This process, then, leads into the second way of knowing: that which
brings about a knowledge of God within the mirror of the soul, as in a
cloud. Here are the rst hints of a truly mystical knowing, if one takes
that term to mean knowledge by direct experience, as opposed to
mere cognition. Having puried ones self of the perversion of the
passions (Danilou correctly notes that it is not the passions and
bodily inclinations themselves that are to be puried in Gregorys
thought, but rather their perversion),[6] the soul begins to come into
the knowledge of the unseen. In the Commentary on the Canticle of
Canticles, Gregory compares this to a cloud: as the cloud descends
upon a person (or, perhaps more accurately, as a person ascends into
the cloud), the vision of the senses begins to blur. No longer is
knowledge purely a sensory, cognitive act, but the cloud begins to
accustom the soul to seek inwards for the knowledge that is hidden.
This abandonment of a reliance upon the senses is noted also in The
Life of Moses, when the great patriarch drives the animals away before
climbing the mountain.

When this had been accomplished and the herd of

irrational animals had been driven as far from the
mountain as possible, Moses then approached the
ascent to loft perceptions. That none of the irrational
animals was allowed to appear on the mountain
signies, in my opinion, that in the contemplation of
the intelligibles we surpass the knowledge which
originates with the senses.[7]
When this knowledge that originates with the senses is surpassed,
one begins to know through the soul itself, as through a mirror. In
Gregory, this concept is based upon a fundamental Christian theme:
the indwelling of the Trinity within the human person. As the godhead
dwells within the soul, so is the soul able to relate to the person a
knowledge of it, in a manner of knowing that is no longer sensory. The
soul acts as a mirror, which projects into ones knowledge the very
nature of God.

The contemplation of God is not eected by sight

and hearing, nor is it comprehended by any of the
customary perceptions of the mind. For no eye has
seen, and no ear has heard, nor does it belong to those things
which usually enter into the heart of man.[8]

This is the beginning of a knowledge of God by the heartby the

intimate presence of God Himself. Yet it is only faint, and is still
blurred, as one would expect within a cloud. The soul must still be
puried, and must become ever more accustomed to this new way of
knowing. It must, indeed, shed its reliance upon cognition, and
embrace the seeming groundlessness of an ineable knowledge. The
person

must wash from his understanding every opinion

derived from some preconception and withdraw
himself from his customary intercourse with his own
companion, that is, with his sense perceptions, which
are, as it were, wedded to our nature as its
companion. When he is so puried, then he assaults
the mountain.[9]
The Divine Darkness.
We arrive, then, at the darkness. At the mountains peak, when one
has ascended to the heart of the cloud, he nd himself in the darkness
of night. Now all light is gone, and the cloud has become so thick that
one at last sees nothing at all. In this place, where the senses cease
their sensing, the soul is left to pure contemplation, and there it sees
God.[10]
This notion of darkness being the highest form of knowledge at rst
seems at odds with Gregorys earlier discussions of knowledge as
light and the escape from ignorance as the escape from darkness.
Gregory himself addresses this seeming paradox:

Scripture teaches by this that religious knowledge

comes at rst to those who receive it as light.
Therefore what is perceived to be contrary to religion
is darkness, and the escape from darkness comes
about when one participates in light. But as the mind
progresses and, through an ever greater and more
perfect diligence, comes to apprehend reality, as it

approaches more nearly to contemplation, it sees

more clearly what of the divine nature is
uncontemplated.[11]
One nds here clear reference to the dierent ways of knowing
implicit in Gregorys works. Knowledge is as light when we are babes
in the faithwhen ones understanding is relatively weak and
knowledge consists in its expansion. Then it is as light added to a
room, which clears away the darkness that the contents may be freely
seen. Then comes the mirror of the soul as in a cloud, and nally, the
darkness.
The image of the darkness is the capstone of Gregorys spiritual
theology. It consists of the nal stage on the ascent of knowledge: in
fully shedding the senses and cognitive reason as sources of truth, in
nally realisingin a direct and personal waytheir inability to grasp
the transcendent and ineable, and coming to know God by a grasp of
His unknowability.

Leaving behind everything that is observed, not only

what sense comprehends but also what the
intelligence thinks it sees, it keeps on penetrating
deeper until by the intelligences yearning for
understanding it gains access to the invisible and
incomprehensible, and there it sees God. This is the
true knowledge of what is sought; this is the seeing
that consists in not seeing, because that which is
sought transcends all knowledge, being separated on
all sides by incomprehensibility as by a kind of
darkness.[12]
And again,

When, therefore, Moses grew in knowledge, he

declared that he had seen God in the darkness, that
is, that he had then come to know that what is divine
is beyond all knowledge and comprehension.[13]
One of Gregorys greatest contributions to the understanding of
personal spirituality and mystical knowledge, was his admission and
embrace of the utter transcendence of God. Humans are creatures of
knowledge and may grow in their understanding of the Creator; yet
there must come a point when they realise that even knowledge is a
gift, and a gift greatly transcended by its Giver. When one has

ascended far enough up the mountain of knowing, he nally comes to

understand that God is beyond knowing, for He is beyond all faculties
by which ones knowing is wrought. Sight and sound, thought and
reason may tell us part of what there is to know about God, but they
can never tell all. One of the greatest steps the Christian can take in
his knowledge of God is that in which he dismisses his cognitive
faculties as the end-all of the climb. Moses did not truly see God until
he stepped out of the light of seeing, and into the thick darkness of
truly knowing.
Yet Gregorys symbol of the divine darkness is not simply a mere
abandonment of positive reason. This would leave his theology
essentially empty, and ultimately devoid of meaning. It is easy to read
his account of Moses withdrawing into the darkness and understand it
to mean a simple resignation of knowledge into ignorance. Yet this is
emphatically not Gregorys message. The darkness is not an
emptiness (and thus a meaninglessness), but rather the ultimate
fullness. It is, indeed, a darkness that is the eect of an excess of
light[14]by the presence of God so complete and so pure that its
ineability comes as a blindness to the senses. Yet it is a blindness
only to the customary way of knowing; in the spiritual realm, it is the
beginning of true sight. It is to come to know that what is divine is
beyond all knowledge and comprehension, and thus to be fully in the
presence of the fullness of divine existence.[15] Moses knew God in
Egypt, in the desert, and in the wilderness; but it was only in the
darkness of the mountaintop that he saw Him.
The Growth of the Soul as the Way of Perfection.
In this short essay we have been concerned with Gregorys use of the
symbol of divine darkness and its signicance to his overall
understanding of the spiritual life. The limitations of this task have
kept us from delving into another, closely-related theme in the Life of
Moses and Gregorys other works: that of spiritual progression. Some
intimation of it has been found in the discussion of the threefold
progress of knowledge (light, the mirror of the soul, and darkness),
yet the extent to which Gregory sees the spiritual life as an entity of
constant growth could not be adequately treated within the scope of
this paper. We would fail to truly understand his concept of the
darkness, however, if we did not make some small mention of it in
closing.
When Moses reached the peak of Sinai and was enveloped in the
thick darkness where God was (Exodus 20.21), he had reached the
summit of his climb. His physical journey could go no further. One
might be tempted, then, to assume that this is also where his spiritual
journey met its climax: the darkness has been reached, and perfection
has been attained. Yet to Gregorys mind, perfection has here only
been attained inasmuch as the mountain peak is but the beginning.

The climb up the mountain of knowledge has reached its summit, and
it is now time for the spiritual journey to begin anew.

For this reason we also say that the great Moses, as

he was becoming ever greater, at no time stopped in
his ascent, nor did he set a limit for himself in his
upward course.[16]
The divine darkness, that which is found at the peak of the mountain,
brings the person to an intimate knowledge of Gods transcendence of
knowledge; and this in turn leads to an ever greater desire to know
God more closely. As such experiential knowledge increases, so does
the desire. The result is an ever increasing movement upwards,
inwards. The soul is ever satised; but in the very moment of
satisfaction, new desire grows. Every moment of the spiritual way of
knowing is characterised by its newness; every point on the journey is
a starting point, and the very perfection of the way consists of its
eternal progression. Gregory writes,

Indeed God would not have shown Himself to His

servant if the vision would have been such as to
terminate Moses desire; for the true vision of God
consists rather in this, that the soul that looks up to
God never ceases to desire Him. () The man who
thinks that God can be known does not really have
life; for he has been falsely diverted from true Being
to something devised by his own imagination. For
true Being is true Life, and cannot be known by us. If
then this life-giving nature transcends knowledge,
what our minds attain in this case is surely not life
(). Thus it is that Moses desire is lled by the very
fact that it remains unfullled () And this is the
real meaning of seeing God: never to have this desire
satised.[17]
The darkness is the Being of God, and its eect upon man is renewed
longing and desire for his Creator. The ascent into darkness begins a
continual development in which the human person constantly evolves
into a deep awareness of God, and is ever evolved toward what is
better, being transformed from glory to glory.[18]
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Commentary & Study:

Balthasar, Hans Urs von. Prsence et pens essai sur la philosophie
religieuse de Grgoire de Nysse. London: Ignatius Press, 1995. (Also
English translation).
Danilou, J. Platonisme et thologie mystique essai sur la doctrine
spirituelle de saint Grgoire de Nysse. Paris: Editions Montaigne,
1953.
Danilou, J. & Musurillo, H. From Glory to Glory: Texts from Gregory of
Nyssas Mystical Writings. London: John Murray, 1962.
Meredith, Anthony. Gregory of Nyssa. London: Routledge, 1999.
Texts:
Editions du Serf: La vie de Mose ou trait de la perfection en
matire de vertu (text in French and Greek). Paris, 1968.
Malherbe, A.J. & Ferguson, E. The Life of Moses, from The Classics of
Western Spirituality (series). New York: Paulist Press, 1978.
Wace, Henry & Scha, Philip (Ed.). Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic
Treatises, Etc, from A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
(series). Oxford: Parker and Co., MDCCCXCIII.
NOTES:
[1] Life of Moses, 152.
[2] Danilou, Introduction to From Glory to Glory, p.23.
[3] Life of Moses, 158.
[4] Life of Moses, 22.
[5] Danilou, p.23.
[6] Danilou, pp.23-4.
[7] Life of Moses, 156.
[8] Life of Moses, 157.
[9] Life of Moses, 157.
[10] Life of Moses, 163.
[11] Life of Moses, 162.
[12] Life of Moses, 163.

[13] Life of Moses, 164.

[14] This poetic phrase belongs to Danilou, p.37.
[15] Danilou, p.32.
[16] Life of Moses, 227.
[17] Life of Moses, P.G. 44.404(A-D).
[18] On Perfection, P.G. 46.285(B-C).

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