Ἐμφιλοσοφεῖν τῷ πάθει la raison d’être de la souffrance du corps dans l’épistolographie de Saint Grégoire de Nazianze

Pataki, Elvira (2016) Ἐμφιλοσοφεῖν τῷ πάθει la raison d’être de la souffrance du corps dans l’épistolographie de Saint Grégoire de Nazianze. Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 56 (2). pp. 245-271. ISSN 0044-5975

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Abstract

The paper will consider the notion of body and pain in the rich epistolary work of Gregory of Nazianzus. The idea of a suffering body plays a decisive role not only in his anthropology but as well as in his ethics: being ill is seen as a particular predisposition to contemplation and making philosophy. The concept of body and pain seems to be influenced by the personality of the addressee and by the experiences of physical pathos (corporal deficiency and weakness) of Gregory himself, who wants to develop a strategy for acquiring virtue by suffering. The lecture will analyse why the body can be considered at the same time as the tool and the obstacle of the philosophical lifestyle, how does it function in the making of philia and in the works of askesis. Finally it will be argued how a certain philanthropic attitude seems to make a counterpoint to the excessive annihilation of the body never practised or approved by Gregory.

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