Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewMichael Motia has convincingly proved that the transformative mimesis in Gregory is open-ended...Motia’s book can captivate readers across all humanities disciplines, in which mimesis—especially under the influence of continental philosophy and critical theory—stands among the key concepts. * Journal of Ancient Christianity *
This beautifully written, theoretically sophisticated, and wonderfully convincing book marries a lucid analysis of the usually inaccessible ontological mimesis of philosophy to the more intimate transformation of names, spaces, and characters that governed Christian imitation. The casual reader should not be intimidated; in revealing how mimetic relationships structure the world and stretch the Christian toward new possibilities, Michael Motia makes the transcendent approachable, the familiar divine, and Gregory of Nyssa profoundly relevant. * Candida Moss, University of Birmingham *
Michael A. Motia shows how Gregory of Nyssa joined the aesthetic and ontological approaches to mimesis in order to convey the paradox of a finite being imitating what is inimitable and infinite. One comes away from this book with the satisfaction of having learned something new about Gregory, but also with gratitude for being furnished with the tools to perceive the relevance of Motia's arguments regarding mimesis across a range of other texts from classical and late antiquity (and beyond). * Alexis Torrance, University of Notre Dame *
Table of ContentsIntroduction. The Mimetic Life
Chapter 1. Two Tracks of Mimesis
Chapter 2. Crossing Tracks: Mimesis in Neoplatonism
Chapter 3. Early Christian Mimesis
Chapter 4. Mimetic Names
Chapter 5. Mimetic Spaces
Chapter 6. Mimetic Characters
Conclusion. Mimesis and Mystery
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
