The Metaphor of the Mirror in Platonic Tradition and Gregory’s Homilies on the Song of Songs
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15260%2F18%3A73590920" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15260/18:73590920 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004382046_013" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004382046_013</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004382046_013" target="_blank" >10.1163/9789004382046_013</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
The Metaphor of the Mirror in Platonic Tradition and Gregory’s Homilies on the Song of Songs
Original language description
The chapter outlines ‘the philosophy of the Song of Songs’ as contained in Gregory’s homilies, and highlights the main Platonic motifs. It goes on to deal in more detail with the metaphor of the mirror, as used by Plato, Plotinus and Gregory. The main inspiration for Gregory appears to have been the Platonic image which speaks about the reflection of the pupil of the eye in the eye of another (from Alcibiades I, 132d-133). Although Gregory wove his metaphor together from the motifs of Platonic tradition (esp. Plotinus), he nonetheless presents it in a new light. (1) Through this metaphor, Gregory is clearly seeking to express a kind of ontological dependence. (2) What is also fundamental for Gregory is the continuing distance between the mirror and what is reflected. (3) A further aspect of the metaphor relates to the incomprehensibility of the divine: God, who is beyond human understanding, can, according to Gregory, become known in the mirror of a soul or of the church, that is, in a medium that translates divine beauty into a form that is accessible to created beings. (4) Finally, what appears crucial is the possibility of turning the mirror, which allows for the reflecting of various models, of which Gregory, wishing to emphasise the choice made by the soul as to which model it decides to reflect, makes extensive use.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
C - Chapter in a specialist book
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
60303 - Theology
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/GBP401%2F12%2FG168" target="_blank" >GBP401/12/G168: History and Interpretation of the Bible</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)
Others
Publication year
2018
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Book/collection name
Gregory of Nyssa: In Canticum Canticorum: Analytical and Supporting studies. Proceedings of the 13th International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa (Rome, 17-20 September 2014)
ISBN
978-90-04-38144-5
Number of pages of the result
23
Pages from-to
265-287
Number of pages of the book
594
Publisher name
Brill Academic Publishers
Place of publication
Leiden
UT code for WoS chapter
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