Mind-Body Unity: Gregory of Nyssa and a Surprising Fourth-Century CE Perspective

Can we really reduce the mind to the functioning of the brain, as we do so often in the United States? One can imagine the ancients, who believed that the liver was the seat of the soul, scratching their right sides when perplexed by such a question, just as we scratch our heads when in a conundrum. Are questions of mind-body even relevant any more? Certainly they are, for we in the West define death as whole-brain death. Technologically advanced Japan performs few transplants, because the Japanese notion of mind-body does not fit into the neat package of the Western paradigm: they cannot bring themselves to define "death" as brain death [1, p. 578].

Like many ancient philosophers, Gregory of Nyssa, a fourth-century CE bishop in the recently legitimated Christian church, thought and wrote on questions of mind-body unity that still plague us today. What is the interaction of the mind and body? Where does the mind reside? What influence does the body have over the soul? Gregory was very much a man of his era. However, he did not shrink from asking and attempting to answer some of the most pertinent questions about mind and body. While Gregory's anthropology may limit our appreciation of his answers, his questions remind us that we are not nearly so advanced as we think. In fact, his philosophical anthropology challenges us to reexamine both the modernist and postmodernist interpretation of mind-body interaction. Where the modern person wants to divide things into ever smaller and smaller components, Gregory, in On the Making of Man, attempts a philosophical inquiry that preserves the whole. His unique conclusion insists on a unity of mind-body that does not appear to be present in many of his contemporaries or his predecessors.

Influences on Gregory

One of the primary influences on Gregory was the third-century Christian thinker, Origen, one of the first and greatest Christian intellectuals. Extensively trained in Platonic philosophy, Origen interpreted Christian and Jewish Scripture from a Platonic framework. In his system, the God of Jews and Christians became the Good as discussed by Plato. The body, because it was material, was sinful and worthless, while the soul--the immaterial--was the highest element of human existence [2]. Concurrent with Origen was a group of thinkers known as the Neoplatonists. This philosophical school was influenced by Plotinus and Porphyry [3]. The Neoplatonists shared Origen's disdain for the body, preferring the ideal immateriality of the soul or the mind.

However, the greatest influence on Gregory was his brother, Basil of Caesarea, also a bishop. Gregory states from the outset of On the Making of Man that his goal was to complete the work of Basil as delivered in the Hexameron. In these homilies, Basil attempts an explanation of the six days of creation, but he ends without an in-depth analysis of the creation of the human. Although Basil was trained in philosophy in Athens, his attitude toward Greek philosophy in general and natural philosophy in particular differs greatly from that of Gregory, who was never formally trained in philosophy. While it is indisputable that Basil's world view is largely Greek, and therefore very much dependent on Greek philosophy, E. A. de Mendieta points out that the official position of Basil as a bishop of the church is somewhat more antagonistic to the use of philosophy.

De Mendieta argues that the official position of Basil as shepherd of his church is one of disdain for Greek philosophy and natural philosophy. Basil uses several arguments to show that nothing is necessary outside scripture. De Mendieta rather convincingly shows that Basil views the Greek philosophers as contradictory of each other, as well as foolish, sinfully vain, useless, and futile [4]. This dislike for philosophy contrasts with Basil's view of the simplicity of Holy...