Imitations of Infinity: Gregory of Nyssa and the Transformation of Mimesis

"In this book, Michael Motia places Gregory of Nyssa at the center of a study of the many ways in which late ancient life was governed by notions of imitation. Questions both intimate and immense, of education, childcare, or cosmology, all found form in a relationship of archetype and image. It is no wonder that these debates demanded the attentions of people at every level of the Empire, including the Christians looking to form new social habits and norms. Whatever else the late ancient transformation of the Roman Empire or Platonic philosophy affected, it changed the names, spaces, and characters that filled the imagination and common sense of its citizens, and it changed how they thought of their imitations"--