It is the second Person of the Trinity who is the most interesting because it provides Gregory with the conceptual apparatus to explain God’s operation in history, for the point at which the second Person enters the world becomes the point in time in which God is more intimately present to the world than before. To perfect one’s outward behavior is one thing; to purify one’s own heart is quite another. GREGORY OF NYSSA (c. 330 – c. 394). But the provision of bodies brings in its wake the tragic reality of death and sin, the overcoming of which was the purpose of the incarnation of Christ (Great Catechism 8 [33]). Early on, Christian theology developed a distinctive way of conceptualizing God. For it means that because there is a part of the human person that is literally not of this world, human beings are possessed of an intrinsic worth which is unique in creation. However, what Gregory has in mind seems to be something more specific. One is reminded of Kant’s theory of the transcendental unity of apperception (Critique of Pure Reason, Transcendental Deduction). Now the intelligible world was by Gregory’s day pictured as a pleroma of Platonic forms existing as ideas in the mind of God; for ever since the advent of Middle Platonism in the first century BCE, the Platonic forms had been transmuted from self-subsistent entities (as Plato conceived them) to ideas in the divine mind. . On Virginity and other treatises on the ascetic life are crowned by the mystical Life of Moses, which treats the 13th-century-bce journey of the Hebrews from Egypt to Mount Sinai as a pattern of the progress of the soul through the temptations of the world to a vision of God. This critical edition of Gregory’s works is rapidly replacing the much older Migne edition. Not only is the earlier model of the Trinity more consistent with Gregory’s view of God as a transcendent nature whose energies are projected into the world; it also adds to it a dynamic and historical dimension that the bare nature-energies distinction fails to capture on its own. Gregory indeed addresses this problem and argues, strangely, that each particle of the body is stamped with one’s personal identity, and so it will be possible for the nous to eventually recognize and reassemble them all (Making of Man 26 – 27 [224 – 229], Soul and Resurrection [73 – 80]). St. Gregory of Nyssa was born in the 4th century, about the year 335 in the region of Cappadocia (modern day Turkey). The account unfolds via an allegorical reflection on the first chapter of Genesis, and closely follows the much earlier work of Philo of Alexandria. Duties of right tend to deal with externals and, as “thou shalt nots,” can be completely fulfilled. St. Gregory of Nyssa (c 335 – after 394) was a Christian bishop and saint. The treatise is simply talking about the salvation of Christians— not universalism. The second creation, in which God “formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” (Gen. 2:7) is of the energies of the soul coupled with the body in which they are present (Making of Man 16 – 17 [177 – 189], 22 [204 – 205]; Soul and Resurrection [157 – 160]). In the tradition of Philo (Creation of the World 1.1 – 2.12) and Origen (First Principles I Pref., IV 1.1 – 3.5), he produces several arguments in favor of the allegorization of Scripture: (1) it is practiced by Christ, (2) it is recommended by Paul, (3) it makes passages edifying that would otherwise be immoral, and (4) it makes sense of passages that would otherwise be unintelligible or impossible (Song of Songs Preface [756 – 764]). St Gregory of Nyssa Resources Online and in Print. It was observed above that Gregory’s concept of the divine energies is very similar to the Western concept of grace, except that for Gregory, as for Eastern thinkers in general, grace is due to the actual presence of God and not some action at a distance. He is venerated as a saint in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335/40–395) is often regarded as the most speculative and mystical thinker of the Greek Fathers. That period was launched by the publication of his Against Eunomius, Gregory’s four-book refutation of that last phase of the Arian heresy. Gregory’s family is significant, for two of the most influential people on his thought are two of his elder siblings–his sister Macrina (c.327—379) and Basil (c.330—379), the oldest boy in the family. This is perhaps the most far-reaching theme of Christian ethics. Of aristocratic birth and consummate culture, all three were drawn to the monastic ideal, and Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus achieved literary distinction of the highest order. 12). But God’s energies are always a force for good. He received a good education and taught rhetoric at one point. His significance has long been recognized in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Catholic and Roman Catholic branches of Christianity. Gregory counters Eunomius, not by simply staking out the opposite position and defending it with Scriptural artillery, as most of his fellow Nicenes had done, but, more interestingly, by repudiating the central presupposition of Eunomian theology–that one can derive by a process of analysis concepts that are essentially predicated of God. So Gregory’s attitude toward philosophy is somewhat ambiguous. He was the most philosophically adept of the three so-called Cappadocians, who included brother Basil the Great and friend Gregory of Nazianzus. He was a younger brother of Basil the Great and a good friend of Gregory Nazianzus. Saint Gregory, the younger brother of Basil the Great, illustrious in speech and a zealot for the Orthodox Faith, was born in 331. Gregory’s ecclesiastical career was less successful than those of Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus, but his work as scholar and writer was creative, and in the 20th century it was rescued from undeserved neglect. At some point we must go beyond being satisfied with moderation and strive for a life which, in its breadth, is one of complete, not partial, virtue (Beatitudes IV [1241]), and, in its depth, is a matter of continual, unceasing perfection (Beatitudes IV [1244 – 1245]). After all, in the Beatitudes Christ promises, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt. A younger son of a distinguished family, Gregory was educated in his native province but was more deeply influenced by his philosophical training than by the other two Cappadocian Fathers of the Church, his brother St. Omissions? As a Christian Platonist, Gregory followed the great Alexandrian theologian Origen, though not slavishly. Many of these will be discussed below. The Biographical Works of Gregory of Nyssa, Proceedings of the Fifth International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa, Mainz, 6-10 September, 1982. In a traditional vein, Gregory takes light to be a symbol of knowledge. As the eldest boy, Basil was the only one of Gregory’s siblings to receive a formal education. Of the same ilk is Gregory’s hermeneutical principle of distinguishing between the literal narrative (historia) of a Biblical passage and the spiritual contemplation (theoria) of it. For that there are laws of nature is nothing surprising: to have anything at all, from cosmos to quark, is to have order. Like Philo (Creation of the World 3.13), Gregory does not take literally the temporal sequence depicted therein; rather, he envisions creation as having taken place all at once (Work of the Six Days [69 – 72, 76]). Diogenes Laertius, Lives VII 125); but the latter is entirely his own. THE LORD'S PRAYER - Gregory of Nyssa SERMON I The Divine Word teaches us the science of prayer. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The traditional view of Gregory is that he was an orthodox Trinitarian theologian, who was influenced by the neoplatonism of Plotinus and believed in universal salvation following Origen. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Before entering the monastery of his brother, Basil the Great, Gregory was a rhetorician. What is also of great historical interest is Gregory’s pivotal role in the development of Western consciousness. So the first stage of Moses’ progress is the acquisition of purely intellectual knowledge of God. While their joint accomplishments in doctrinal definition were…. St. In 372, his brother Basil ordained him the bishopof Nyssa in Cappa… How can they ever be reassembled? Gregory, in what is considered “the most scathing critique of slaveholding in all of antiquity,” attacked the institution as incompatible with humanity’s creation in the image of God [the previous post explains why I see image here synonymous with universal family]. Nothing more is heard from him after about 395 CE. So God directs Moses to the cleft of a rock and walks by, placing a hand over the cleft to obscure Moses’ sight; only after God has passed is the hand removed, but by now all Moses can see is God’s back. Given his apophatic approach to theology (described above), Gregory suggests that the religious life must eventually transcend intellectual knowing and ground itself faithful praxis. Similarly, the relevant auditory metaphor is silence, not speech (Ecclesiastes VII [732]). in Cappadocia (in present-day Turkey). of Nyssa," in Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century, (ed.) Given all that, and given Gregory’s relative absence from most standard treatments of Western thought, I think may be fair to say that Gregory of Nyssa is one of the most under-appreciated figures in Western intellectual history. Rather than a simple monotheism, Christianity held that God, though unitary, could be understood as also existing as a Trinity of three Persons–a Father, the font of the Godhead; a Son, the Word (John 1:1-5) and Wisdom (Prov. Up to this point intellectual development is characterized by the rigorous application of the rational criterion of consistency. However, it is not all that difficult to abstract the general point from Gregory’s particular examples and to bring his argument up-to-date by replacing motion and rest, heaviness and lightness, and so forth with modern examples of phenomena that cannot be explained by any known law of physics (the “lumpiness” of the universe, for example). Pope Benedict XVI. Moreover, because, as Gregory of Nazianzus put it, “what was not assumed was not healed” (Letters 101.5), Christ had to touch all aspects of human existence from birth to death (Great Catechism 27 [69 – 72], 32 [77 – 80]). One who becomes aware of God’s complete mysteriousness has, paradoxically, learned more about God than the most articulate theologian. The latter work is especially notable for developing systematically the place of the sacraments in the Christian view of restoration of the image of God in human nature—lost through sin in the fall of Adam. 2, a. But philosophy in his day was almost wholly associated with paganism. To others we owe mercy (Beatitudes V [1252 – 1253]) and the Christian virtue of agape (Beatitudes VII [1284]). Gregory’s philosophy of history begins with the fall of Adam from perfection. The answer lies in the Aristotelian distinction between the category of substance and the other categories–relation, quality, quantity, place, time, action, passion (Categories 1 – 9)–which Gregory designates with the Stoic term “qualities” (poiotetes). Gregory of Nyssa was a Christian bishop and saint. Resisting the invitation of his brother, Basil the Great, to join his monastic community at Annesis, Gregory married and became a teacher of rhetoric. Gregory of Nyssa is revealed by Balthasar as both an outstanding theologian and philosopher, who applies Greek metaphysical ideas of Being and Infinity to the God of Christian belief. Indeed the body resembles a machine; and because the latter is governed by nous, it is probable that the former is also. Thus the former had to wait until the disease of human sinfulness had fully manifested itself (Great Catechism 29 [73 – 76]). For God, being dependent on nothing, governs the universe through the free exercise of will; and the nous is created in God’s image (Making of Man 4 [136]). Besides controversial replies to heretics, particularly the Arians—in which he formulated the doctrine of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) that emerged as a clear and cogent answer to Arian questioning—he completed Basil’s Hexaëmeron (“Six Days”), sermons on the days of the Creation, with The Creation of Man, and he produced a classic outline of orthodox theology in his Great Catechesis (or Address on Religious Instruction). The fact that the universe is orderly indicates that it is governed according to some rational plan, which implies the existence of a divine Planner (Against Eunomius II [984 – 985, 1009, 1069]; Great Catechism Prologue [12], 12 [44]; Work of the Six Days [73]; Life of Moses II 168 [377 – 380]; Ecclesiastes I [624], II [644 – 645]; Song of Songs I [781 – 784], XI [1009 – 1013], XIII [1049 – 1052]; Beatitudes VI [1268]). Thus began the most productive period of one of the most brilliant of Christian thinkers–far too little known and appreciated in the West. He appointed his younger brother to the see by which he is now known, and rightly predicted that Gregory would confer more distinction on the obscure town of Nyssa than he would receive from it. The reason for the second creation was that God foresaw that humans would sin and so be unable to reproduce in a disembodied, angelic way; thus, they required bodies to allow them to propagate (Making of Man 16 – 17 [177 – 189], 22 [204 – 205]; Soul and Resurrection [157 – 160]). . Consequently there is no problem of how an immaterial God could have created a material world, for the world isn’t material at all (Against Eunomius II [949]; Work of the Six Days [69]; Making of Man 24 [212 – 213]; Soul and Resurrection [124]). For his return from death becomes to our mortal race the commencement of our return to immortal life. Yet beginning with the Church councils, the Trinity gradually came to be understood differently, as three distinctions to be made within God’s inner nature itself. For one thing, as was noted earlier, Gregory holds that the nous is never completely separated from the body anyway, so in a sense there is no paradox in its revivification, But aren’t the bodily components scattered to the four winds after the decay of the corpse in the grave? In Gregory’s account of creation, the nature-energies distinction, developed to counter Eunomius’ defense of the Arian heresy, becomes extended into a general cosmological principle. Basil's younger brother teaches us that purifying our hearts and growing in holiness draws us to God and satisfies the longings of the human heart On Wednesday, 29 August [2007], the Holy Father arrived at the Vatican by helicopter from his Summer Residence at Castel Gandolfo for the General Audience. Thus, Gregory endorses Origen’s (First Principles I 6.3, II 10.4 – 10.8, III 6.5 – 6.6) much-maligned theories of remedial punishment and universal salvation (Great Catechism 8 [36 – 37], 26 [69], 35 [92]; Making of Man 21 – 22 [201 – 205]; Soul and Resurrection [97 – 105, 152, 157 – 160]). The central feature of Gregory’s very sensitive analysis is the sequence of three theophanies that punctuate Moses’ life (Song of Songs XII [1025 – 1028]). In certain passages Gregory suggests that it is not order in general but the blending of opposites into a harmonious whole that would have never happened spontaneously, but only through the power of a Creator. Nevertheless, it remains that God’s nature is infinitely removed from ours. Second, the nous is free. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. But during sleep the presence of nous to body is much more tenuous, and at death is even more so (though not absolutely nonexistent) (Great Catechism 8 [33]; Making of Man 12 – 15 [160 – 177]; Soul and Resurrection [45 – 48]). Moral progress is defined by two phases. And by submitting to the latter, Christ offered himself in bondage to Satan in exchange for the whole of humanity, whom Satan then had under his tyranny (Great Catechism 22 – 24 [60 – 65]). More generally, if God is simply some remote, unknowable entity, what possible relation to the world could God ever have? Though Basil had considered him unsuited for ecclesiastical diplomacy, after Gregory’s return to his diocese, he was active in the settlement of church affairs in the years that followed. Aristotle himself had addressed this problem by postulating the existence of a common sense (On the Soul III 1 – 2). 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