Spiritual Exegesis as an Ascetic Performance in Gregory of Nyssa

This essay is an exploration of the ascetic functions and possibilities of “spiritual exegesis.” By applying interdisciplinary performance theory to the writings of a key late ancient ascetic theorist, Gregory of Nyssa, it develops an understanding of spiritual exegesis as a textual performance enacting the ascetical agenda of transformation of the self. I argue that an act of interpretive engagement with Scripture in Gregory’s writings does more than offer a conceptual context for and a mythopoetic authentication of the ascetic praxis. It also encourages a reorientation of the reader’s habitual perceptions, of the text that one encounters and of oneself. By staging a process of an imaginative layering and stripping of identities and pulling the audience into the construction of a shared symbolic reality, this exegetical performance induces an experience of alternative realities and selves.