Gregory of Nyssa’s Shifting Scenes of Instruction

Gregory of Nyssa’s emphasis on constantly stretching (epektasis) desire into an ever-deepening darkness is one of the best-known aspects of his thought. And yet, scholars continue to struggle to understand how this stretching theorizes Christian perfection or how it orients growth in virtue. This article turns to one of Gregory’s earlier texts, The Treatise on the Inscriptions of the Psalms, which patterns much of Gregory’s later works. It argues that Gregory’s literary practice of writing what Mark Jordan calls “scenes of instruction” sheds light on what expanding desire might look like. Gregory frames the journey through a series of accommodated, shifting scenes in order to orient and entice Christians to continue onward in perfection.