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  • Gregory the Great: Ascetic, Pastor, and First Man of Rome by George E. Demacopoulos
  • Arthur Holder (bio)
Gregory the Great: Ascetic, Pastor, and First Man of Rome. By George E. Demacopoulos. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2015. 240pp. $28.00.

Gregory the Great (540–604) was a complex figure whose life and writings present scholars with an abundance of apparent paradoxes. He was a patrician secular leader in late ancient Rome who became a monk, and then later the first monk to become pope. (The second transformation was at that time more unusual than the first.) He was a forceful administrator who commended humility as the principal Christian virtue. In his biblical commentaries he displayed keen insight into human psychology, while the hagiographical stories in his Dialogues are filled with miracle stories presented with unquestioning credulity. Thoroughly at home in the city of Rome by virtue of his birth, ancestry, and outlook, he spent six years as the papal representative to the imperial court in Constantinople and is one of the few Westerners to be commemorated as a saint in the Christian East. Perhaps most significantly for the historical development of Christian spirituality, Gregory was both a contemplative theologian and a major architect of the medieval papacy with its extensive political, economic, juridical, and ecclesial authority.

In this concise and engaging study, George Demacopoulos argues that the “problem of the two Gregorys” is a false dichotomy that can be resolved once we understand that Gregory’s ascetic and pastoral theology was the very foundation for his work as administrator, politician, and enthusiastic proponent of popular devotions such as the cult of relics. Surveying recent scholarship in a brief introductory chapter, the author notes that modern biographers have tended to focus either on Gregory the theologian as seen in his exegesis and hagiography or on the practical man of action as revealed in his letters. Demacopoulos has aimed to investigate the full range of Gregory’s writings in order to present a stereoscopic vision of the man and his work. The clearly stated thesis of the book is that “Gregory’s ascetic and pastoral theology both informed and structured his administration of the Roman Church” (11).

The book is divided into three parts, with each part dealing with one of the aspects of Gregory highlighted in the subtitle: ascetic, pastor, and first man (praefectus) of Rome. Part I explains how the ascetical theology that Gregory had derived from his patristic sources stressed the necessity for Christians to renounce fine food, sexual gratification, bodily comfort, and worldly fame. Like John Cassian, Gregory Nazianzen, and Basil of Caesarea before him, Gregory also urged Christian leaders to forego the delights of contemplation for the sake of serving others. But Demacopoulos claims that the first monastic pope went a step further in that he actually redefined the “mixed life” as the highest form of perfection. Part II carries the implications of this “asceticism for others” forward by considering Gregory as a pastoral theologian. Connecting the teaching in his famous Pastoral Rule with parallel passages in the commentaries, the letters, and the Dialogues, Demacopoulos shows how Gregory’s emphasis on servant leadership fueled his efforts on behalf of moral reform, especially through the recruitment of ascetically-minded candidates for the episcopate and other high-ranking positions in the vast lands under the influence of Roman ecclesiastical authority. Part III moves from the realm of thought to that of action as Demacopoulos considers Gregory’s role as negotiator with barbarian princes and the emperor in Constantinople, as sponsor [End Page 280] of missionary activities in Gaul and England, and as the steward of the tomb and relics of his putative predecessor St. Peter the Apostle.

As Demacopoulos acknowledges throughout his study, his interpretation of Gregory does not represent a dramatic departure from previous scholarship. In many cases, what he is doing is nuancing an established view, or stressing a particular point that he finds underdeveloped elsewhere. For example, he commends Robert Markus’s 1997 biography for its appreciation of Gregory’s ascetic idealism and pastoral motivation, but criticizes Markus for presenting him as a synthesizer of Augustine and John Cassian rather than...

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