19 Reading Gregory of Nyssa on Language, Theology, and the Language of Theology

Abstract This chapter argues that the bringing together of readings of Gregory by Scot Douglass, John Milbank, and Sarah Coakley raises the question of the influence of modern and postmodern philosophies, for they are clearly influenced by postmodernism in rather different ways. Scot Douglass is particularly interested in the interface between theology, literature, and philosophy, and this can be seen not only in the kind of recent philosophy he engages with, but also in the conclusions he draws from Gregory's theology. John Milbank is reacting against what he sees as various errors of modernity. Sarah Coakley's reading of Gregory bears some similarities to Milbank's in its relatively sympathetic interest in Gregory's Platonism, and her hope that Gregory's theology provides a model for breaking down some of the givens of ‘modernism’.