David Bentley Hart in conversation with Tony Golsby-Smith - Part 2, on Gregory & his Sister Macrina

Welcome to the second conversation between David and Tony on Gregory of Nyssa.
‘Gregory and his Sister on the Resurrection of all Humanity’
How a woman’s mind framed the gospel around the resurrection. In a sense that is the topic of David and Tony’s second conversation on Gregory of Nyssa. In this chat they discuss Gregory’s epic “On the Soul and the Resurrection’ which is structured as a dialogue between Gregory and his influential sister Macrina. In this dialogue Macrina is the teacher and Gregory is the dull and doubting learner. The context is poignant and personal as it is set in the immediate shadows of the death of their brother Basil, and in the imminent death of Macrina herself. Gregory is despondent in the face of this shadow of death. But Macrina leads him on a grand sweep from the beginning of all things in the mind of God to the end of all things in the ‘feast of the tabernacles’ when all mankind will be welcomed into the holy of holies. David explains why this is his favourite work on Gregory’s and how it builds an eschatological framework around the gospel unlike any others have since achieved.

[@alvinkimel7277]

Tony (if I may be so bold to address you by your first name), I wish to complement you on this excellent interview of David. As in the first interview, you have a way of bringing forth from him both his brilliance and erudition but also his attractive personal qualities, which are often obscured in his debates with "infernalists," who in turn complain incessantly wabout his pugilistic rhetoric, thereby reducing this remarkable and deep thinker to a caricature they have invented in order to deflect the power and truth of the universalist vision. David's great love and admiration of St Gregory is made vividly and compellingly apparent in both interviews. I hope that viewers will be encouraged to read St Gregory through David's eyes and heart. Thank you. I eagerly look forward to the third interview.

[@bayreuth79]

I could not agree more with Fr Al Kimel.

[@jasonegeland1446]

Enjoyed it. Look forward to part three! Thanks for sharing with us!

[@gfujigo]

The Cappadocians were lit 🔥

[@davidgreenwood5602]

A wonderful dialogue!

[@benbrown9020]

What a tremendous conversation. Thank you. A theological feast.

[@jasonb4321]

Amazing interview. Loved it.

[@TheHumbuckerboy]

I am looking forward to the next discussion in which St Augustine will be the subject.

[@OrigenisAdamantios]

St Makrina, intercede in our behalf

[@joshthrelkeld]

From what book is the DBH quote you used? “In the end of all things is the beginning…” Thanks for the talk!

[@christopherconey732]

This or something like it is in a T S Eliot poem, but I'd guess that Eliot borrowed it from another.

[@joshthrelkeld]

@@christopherconey732 yes The Four Quartets has a similar line. I was curious if DBH did as well because the passage around it would be interesting. I could listen to one o these a week. So good.

[@justchilling704]

I disagree with Heart’s views of Jesus’s teachings and wealth. Jesus never taught that owning things or having wealth is wrong or even bad, he taught us to not be greedy and to not idolize wealth. We should each give from what we have, and in proportion to what we have. The more you have the more you give. Socialism and Communism are you working and the state taking what you earned and giving it to someone else that’s unjust.

[@insearchofaneweden7340]

"blessed are the poor but woe to the rich" - Jesus Christ

[@RootinrPootine]

To be a follower of the Way was to renounce every claim to private property and to consent to communal ownership of everything (Acts 4:32). Explicit communism. “Money is a root of all evils”. All who are rich are oppressors of workers and lovers of luxury. Profit is theft (4:13-14). The New Testament does not distinguish between good wealth and bad, and definitely Jesus doesn’t. How is this hard to understand? Maybe because it’s inconvenient?

[@l21n18]

That last part isn’t even true but I don’t think those are relevant either to the issue.

[@l21n18]

@@RootinrPootine communism is anachronistic in terms of the ideology being read back into that, but a sense of communal ownership does exist 😊