Desire for the Beautiful and Inextinguishability of Relationship in 'In Canticum Canticorum' by Gregory of Nyssa

Abstract

Desire is often identified with passions, something to tap into, to curb, according to the Neoplatonic and Stoic conception of emotions. On the contrary, desire is one of the essential anthropological features which is not only a property of the appetitive power but also of the intellect as it would not know the objects if it was not attracted by them. This article studies the conception of desire according to Gregory of Nyssa, related to other important topics such as freedom, relationship, difference between uncreated Being and created reality, showing the very importance of desire which becomes an integral part of the relationship between God and the human being in this life and in the heavenly one.