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1 results

  • 7 - The Devil in Gregory of Nyssa’s Homilies On the Song of Songs

  • Gabrielle Thomas, Yale University
  • Book:
    The Problem of the Devil in Cappadocian Thought
    Published online:
    20 May 2026
    Print publication:
    25 June 2026, pp 189-213

  • Summary

    Chapter 7 closes the study by focusing on a single source: Gregory of Nyssa’s homilies On the Song of Songs. Through them, he weaves his most comprehensive and sustained account of the history, ontology, and activity of the devil and his army of demons. Only Christ is victorious over this army of hostile powers in the proper sense. Christians participate in Christ’s victory by journeying with Gregory through On the Song of Songs. The way of victory begins with baptism and continues with prayer, pure thoughts, and self-knowing. Like those sources examined in the previous chapters, the homilies undertake a journey toward victory, bringing to the fore the eschatological nature of spiritual warfare. This chapter, along with the previous ones, demonstrates that in addition to his other accolades, Gregory of Nyssa was an erudite homilist and skilled teacher on spiritual warfare.