Beyond the Image: Themes of "Disability" in De Pauperibus Amandis
Kirsty Jones, PhD student, Georgetown University
Gregory of Nyssa writes that people who have become sick are “transformed into monsters,” repelling those around them. He acknowledges the fear that his community experience upon seeing disabled people, but challenges them to move beyond it. In a time when value lay in potential rather than ontological value, Nyssa’s view that value and identity relied on being made imago dei were radical. In a time when people who looked and acted different were stigmatized and feared, cast as leaching or terrifying people, Nyssa maintained that fear was not an excuse for negligence. In a time when homogeneity was prized, Nyssa insisted that human difference mirrored Christ’s mutability. The contemporary Western concept of “disability” may have been absent from the Ancient world, but the attitudes towards people whose bodies and brains deviate from a “norm” were widespread in Nyssen’s day.
Confusing conceptions of sickness and health, building communities of mutual assistance, reminding Christians of their rights and responsibilities as imago dei; Gregory of Nyssa’s work dynamically captures New Testament tenets and releases them in his Byzantine context. Distinctive, and of enduring import, is his combination of theological anthropology, philanthropy and richly embodied soteriology.
In this paper, I consider how Gregory of Nyssa’s treatises on Baptism and the Eucharist present the human body in relation to the divine reality, and how this impacts his theological anthropology. Then, I present selections of Nyssen’s writings to elucidate topical issues for disability theology: contagion and contact; otherness and human nature; exclusion; touchability; community and particularly the diversity and wonder of mutability. I show that, for Gregory, care of the sick is sacred, not only because it meant imitating Christ, but more than this; it is also the embodiment of the incarnational truths so sacred to the Christianity of his time. To close, I evaluate Gregory of Nyssa’s thoughts in relation to contemporary theology and practice. Throughout, I draw upon the excellent work of Susan Holman and her translation of De Pauperibus Amandis.
Confusing conceptions of sickness and health, building communities of mutual assistance, reminding Christians of their rights and responsibilities as imago dei; Gregory of Nyssa’s work dynamically captures New Testament tenets and releases them in his Byzantine context. Distinctive, and of enduring import, is his combination of theological anthropology, philanthropy and richly embodied soteriology.
In this paper, I consider how Gregory of Nyssa’s treatises on Baptism and the Eucharist present the human body in relation to the divine reality, and how this impacts his theological anthropology. Then, I present selections of Nyssen’s writings to elucidate topical issues for disability theology: contagion and contact; otherness and human nature; exclusion; touchability; community and particularly the diversity and wonder of mutability. I show that, for Gregory, care of the sick is sacred, not only because it meant imitating Christ, but more than this; it is also the embodiment of the incarnational truths so sacred to the Christianity of his time. To close, I evaluate Gregory of Nyssa’s thoughts in relation to contemporary theology and practice. Throughout, I draw upon the excellent work of Susan Holman and her translation of De Pauperibus Amandis.