J. Warren Smith, professor of historical theology, is interested in the history of theology broadly conceived from the apostles to the present, but his primary focus is upon patristic theology. His book Passion and Paradise: Human and Divine Emotion in the Thought of Gregory of Nyssa (Crossroad, 2004) is a study of Nyssen’s ascetic theology as the intersection of his anthropology, soteriology, and eschatology. Central to this project is Nyssen’s view of the sublimation and transformation of human emotions and their role in his theory of epectacy, i.e. the soul’s eternal movement into God’s infinite and eternal being. The impetus behind the book was Dr. Smith’s concern for the question of realized eschatology: how can we in the present age live into the eschatological reality inaugurated by Christ’s resurrection?
His book Christian Grace and Pagan Virtue: The Theological Foundation of Ambrose's Ethics (Oxford, 2010) examines how Ambrose's interpretation of Paul and his understanding of sin's corruption of human nature and of baptismal regeneration provides the condition for the Christian's cultivation of virtue. The larger thesis is that Christian ethics can never stand apart from theology, specifically the soteriological role of grace in healing human nature and equipping the Christian for the life of virtue.
Having examined Ambrose's theological foundation for the possibility of the virtuous life, Dr. Smith turns to the question of how this theology transforms pagan conceptions of the highest level of virtue. Ambrose, Augustine, and the Pursuit of Greatness (Cambridge, 2020) traces the Christian critique, appropriation, and adaptation of the Aristotelian ideal of the Great-Souled or Magnanimous Man. Since Aristotle, the concept of the magnanimous or Great-Souled man was employed by Classical and Hellenistic philosophers to describe individuals who attained the highest degree of virtue. So naturally when early Christians drew on the language of Classical and Hellenistic virtue theory to speak of the Christian moral life, they also used the language of magnanimity. Yet the pagan language of virtue and magnanimity could not be appropriated whole cloth; the ideal of the magnanimous man had to be baptized so as to conform with the Christian theological understanding of righteousness. Pursuit of Greatness is a work in the history of Christian theological ethics that examines how Ambrose's and Augustine's theological commitments influenced their different critiques, appropriations, and modifications of the language of magnanimity.
He is currently working on a volume for Eerdman’s Publishing that traces the development of theology from the Apostolic era with Ignatius of Antioch to the high-water mark of Byzantine thought with Maximos the Confessor, entitled Early Christian Theology: A History.
Beyond that Dr. Smith is turning to a project, tentatively entitled Plato and Christ: Platonism in Early Christian Theology, that will examine the significance of the tradition called "Christian Platonism" for Christianity in a post-modern age.
He lives in Durham with his wife, Kimberly Doughty, who is an EC resource teacher, and their children, Katherine and Thomas. His interests include playing with his English bulldog, walking in the Western NC mountains, painting military miniatures, reading Victorian literature, watching history and science documentaries, and studying U.S. and British diplomatic and political history.
Links
In October 2003, Crossroad Publishing Co. released, Passion and Paradise: A Study of Theological Anthropology in Gregory of Nyssa, by J. Warren Smith. Visit Amazon.com to purchase Smith's book.
North American Patristic Society
Recommendations
- Elizabeth Clark, The Origenist Controversy The Cultural Construction of an Early Christian Debate.
- Brian Daley, The Hope of the Early Church: a Handbook of Patristic Eschatology.
- Rowan A. Greer, Christian Hope and Christian Life Raids on the Inarticulate
- Johannes Zachhuber, Human Nature in Gregory of Nyssa Philosophical Background and Theological Significance
- Lewis Ayres, Nicaea and Its Legacy
- Michel Barnes, The Power of God: Dynamis in Gregory of Nyssa’s Trinitarian Theology
- John Behr, The Nicene Faith
- David Dawson, Christian Figural Reading and the Formation of Identity
- Paul L. Gavrilyuk, The Suffering of The Impassible God: The Dialectics of Patristic Thought
- Martin Laird, Gregory of Nyssa and the Grasp of Faith: Union, Knowledge, and Divine Presence
- Margaret M. Mitchell, The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation
- Robert Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought
- Frances M. Young, Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of the Christian Culture
Recommended Reading on Ambrose:
- Marcia Colish, Ambrose’s Patriarchs Ethics for the Common Man
- John Moorhead, Ambrose Church and Society in the Late Roman World
- Craig Satterlee, Ambrose of Milan’s Method of Mystagogical Preaching
- Daniel Williams, Ambrose and the End of the Nicene-Arian Conflict
