A Sacred Ambition: Mosaic Symbolism of Spiritual Ascent in Gregory of Nyssa and Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola

Abstract

This study offers a comparative analysis of the symbolism of the soul’s ascent in Gregory of Nyssa’s De vita Moysis and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Oratio. Rather than attempting to establish a linear or exclusive dependence, it focuses on a series of Mosaic themes that articulate a dynamic conception of perfection in both authors. Beginning with Moses as a paradigm of virtuous life, the paper examines the shared anthropology of desire underlying Nyssen’s notion of unending progress and Pico’s sacra ambitio. It then traces the ordered sequence of symbols as it develops in Gregory’s treatise: light and darkness, the mountain of the knowledge of God, Jacob’s ladder, the tabernacle, the eagle, death as consummation, and divine friendship. Through the interplay of these symbols both thinkers configure spiritual growth as an ever-deepening participation in divine unity and truth. Particular attention is given to integration of the classical disciplines of the ancient philosophical curriculum within the Mosaic itinerary, as well as to the conception of truth as gradually apprehensible but ultimately inexhaustible. The paper concludes by pondering the results of the comparative study and reflecting on Pico’s way of assimilating the wide variety of sources in his project of philosophical concord.