Help
Sign In
divine
August 2007 
Infinite Divine and the finite human mind: Christian Mystics pt 2
Posted on Jan 1st, 2007
by 
Gray Raven
Gray Raven
Source: The Essential Writngs of Christian Mysticism edited by Bernard Mc Ginn, 2006.
From “The Life of Moses” by Gregory of Nyssa (circa 335 – 395) Christian Mystic.
From The Third Theophany: Face to Face Vision (Ex 33:7-23)
For, he declares, ‘My face you shall not see, for no one shall see my face and live’ (Ex 33:20)
Scripture makes it plain that it is not the vision {of God} that is the cause of death. For how should the face of life be the cause of death to those who draw near to it? But since the Divine is naturally life giving and, further, that it is the special character of the divine nature to lie above all definitions, whoever supposes that God is one of the things he knows, is himself without life, having turned aside from The Really Real to what is supposed to be grasped by a concept. For The Really Real is the true life and is inaccessible to our understanding. If, then, the life giving lies beyond our knowledge, what we have grasped cannot be the life. And what is itself not life is powerless of itself to communicate it. Moses’ desire, therefore, is satisfied precisely in so far as his desire remains unsatisfied.
Moses is instructed through what has been said that the Divine is of itself infinite, circumscribed by no limit. For if the Divine could be thought of as in some way limited, it would be absolutely necessary to consider what comes after it along with it. Whatever has limit has a boundary…
From “The Life of Moses” by Gregory of Nyssa (circa 335 – 395) Christian Mystic.
From The Third Theophany: Face to Face Vision (Ex 33:7-23)
For, he declares, ‘My face you shall not see, for no one shall see my face and live’ (Ex 33:20)
Scripture makes it plain that it is not the vision {of God} that is the cause of death. For how should the face of life be the cause of death to those who draw near to it? But since the Divine is naturally life giving and, further, that it is the special character of the divine nature to lie above all definitions, whoever supposes that God is one of the things he knows, is himself without life, having turned aside from The Really Real to what is supposed to be grasped by a concept. For The Really Real is the true life and is inaccessible to our understanding. If, then, the life giving lies beyond our knowledge, what we have grasped cannot be the life. And what is itself not life is powerless of itself to communicate it. Moses’ desire, therefore, is satisfied precisely in so far as his desire remains unsatisfied.
Moses is instructed through what has been said that the Divine is of itself infinite, circumscribed by no limit. For if the Divine could be thought of as in some way limited, it would be absolutely necessary to consider what comes after it along with it. Whatever has limit has a boundary…
Access: Public
