Eros and Distance: Transformation of Desire in St Gregory of Nyssa*

Abstract

The paper aims to analyze the relation between the notion of love or desire (eros) for God, and the notion of distance (diastema) between God and the created beings in the works of St Gregory of Nyssa. These two notions are interrelated on different levels, because distance that separates God from the created beings is traversed out of desire for God of the latter. First, the distance as temporal interval will be investigated, which separates the present day from the Second Coming of Christ, which is elaborated by Gregory in his early work On Virginity. The focus will then be shifted to the distance between good and evil, that Gregory explicates in the works of his middle period such as On the making of man, Against Eunomius III and The Great Catechetical Oration. Finally, the distance as an inherent characteristic of created nature that never disappears will be analyzed by focusing on Gregory’s later works, such as Homilies on the Song of Songs, On perfection and The Life of Moses.