07 — Macrina the Philosopher
“Philosophy,” for Gregory, is not the work of the schools but the disciplined, ascetic, contemplative life ordered wholly toward God — and Macrina is its supreme exemplar, “the philosopher” and “the Teacher” who instructs a bishop. This section sets out that “new philosophy” and the theology of virginity and the angelic life that Macrina, the unlettered virgin of Pontus, lived out.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Church Father / Mother)
In Gregory’s writings the figure of Macrina enacts a claim about the sources of theological knowledge: wisdom is the fruit of a purified life and not the property of the learned or of men, so that it may rest more fully in an unlettered virgin than in a rhetor of Athens or a bishop of the Church. Anna Silvas’s title — Philosopher of God — captures the claim. The second file treats Gregory’s theology of virginity as participation in the incorruptible, angelic life, and the irony that the married theorist of On Virginity describes what his virgin sister embodies.
Files in this Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The New Philosophy | Macrina as the embodiment of “the philosophy” — the ascetic-contemplative life as the true philosophy; the woman as teacher of bishops; wisdom as the fruit of a purified life; the gender inversion as theology. |
| Virginity and the Angelic Life | Gregory’s theology of virginity as participation in the incorruptible, angelic life and restoration of the divine likeness; Macrina as its lived embodiment; the isangelos bios; the married theorist and the virgin saint. |
See Also
- Forming Basil — Macrina the philosopher recalling Basil to the philosophic life
- The Christian Phaedo — Macrina as Socrates and Diotima in the dialogue
- Gender and Authority — the significance of a woman as doctrinal authority
- Theosis — the deification toward which the angelic life tends
- Women in Orthodoxy — women’s spiritual authority in the tradition
References
- Gregory of Nyssa. The Life of Saint Macrina. PG 46:959–1000; GNO VIII/1, ed. V. Woods Callahan. Leiden: Brill, 1952.
- Gregory of Nyssa. On Virginity (De virginitate). PG 46:317–416. Trans. NPNF II/5; also Virginia Woods Callahan, FOTC 58.
- Silvas, Anna M. Macrina the Younger, Philosopher of God. Turnhout: Brepols, 2008.