merely applied Christian names to Plato’s doctrine and called it Christian theology” (The Platonism of Gregory of Nyssa: 62). Now, I make bold to add a It was followed by many more works, the most significant being On the Work of the Six Days, Gregory’s account of the creation of the world; On the Making of Man, his account of the creation of humankind; The Great Catechism, the most systematic statement of Gregory’s philosophy of history; On the Soul and the Resurrection, a dialogue with Macrina detailing Gregory’s eschatology; Biblical commentaries on the life of Moses, the inscriptions of the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, the Beatitudes, and the Lord’s Prayer; theological works on Trinitarian and Christological doctrine; and shorter ascetic and moral treatises. Earlier he had requested to know God’s name; now he asks to behold God’s glory. Does all of this have any sort of rational basis? But Gregory’s true position seems to lie between these two extremes: philosophy is useful if properly “circumcised,” that is, culled of any “foreskin” alien to the spirit of Christianity (Life of Moses II 39 – 40 [337]). 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]). 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]). Aristotle himself had addressed this problem by postulating the existence of a common sense (On the Soul III 1 – 2). In saying this, Gregory anticipates the negative theology of the Pseudo-Dionysius and much medieval thought. Others, such as Gregory’s attacks on usury and on the postponement of baptism, deal with ethical problems of the church in his time. A notable emphasis of Gregory’s teaching is the principle that the spiritual life is not one of static perfection but of constant progress. 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). This does not mean, however, that God does not have a transcendent nature. Thus when it comes to a more profound understanding of God, the relevant visual metaphor is darkness, not light. And just as Gregory bases his indirect argument for the existence of God’s energies on the unexpected order of natural phenomena, so here he argues that because the components of a living body are observed to behave in a manner “contrary to [their] nature”–air being harnessed to produce sound, water impelled to move upward, and so forth–we may infer the existence of a nous imposing its will upon recalcitrant matter through its energies (Soul and Resurrection [33 – 40]). GREGORY OF NYSSA (c. 330 – c. 394). He is venerated as a saint in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism. Author of. There are two further characteristics of the human nous according to Gregory. This intellectual dynamic is paralleled by a moral one, which will be sketched in what follows. Gregory answers these questions by distinguishing between God’s nature (phusis) and God’s “energies” (energeiai)–the projection of the divine nature into the world, initially creating it and ultimately guiding it to its appointed destination (Beatitudes VI [1269]). St. Gregory … This idea obviously imposes certain obligations on us in relation to both ourselves and others. Gregory stands at a crossroads in the theological development of the Christian East: he sums up many of the ideas of his great predecessors, such as the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c.20 B.C.E.—c.54 C.E.) But for Gregory the next two theophanies go far beyond the veneer of wisdom that mere logical consistency provides. St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church 500 De Haro Street San Francisco, CA 94107. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 – c. 395), also known as "Gregory Nyssen", was bishop of Nyssa from 372 to 376 and from 378 until his death. Along with Basil and fellow-Cappadocian and friend Gregory of Nazianzus (c.… In the 360s he turned to religious studies and Christian devotion, perhaps even to the monastic life, under Basil’s inspiration and guidance. The direct method whereby God’s energies are known is by examining our own moral purification. Gregory is thoroughly at home with the philosophers that were in vogue in his day: Plato (427—347 B.C.E. Pope Benedict XVI. Gregory’s Christology is the story of the entry of the second Person of the Trinity into the world. And in fact that is precisely what Gregory argues concerning the human nous (a word that is traditionally translated “mind” but which by the fourth century CE had submerged its intellectual connotations into the religious idea of its separateness from the physical world). Works about Gregory "St Gregory of Nyssa" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed. Or even more to the point, why can’t things exist on their own? St Gregory of Nyssa Resources Online and in Print. Given what we know about motion and rest, heaviness and lightness, and the rest, Gregory argues, we would expect to find them excluding, rather than complementing, each other. Initially we must pursue the Stoic ideal of apatheia (passionlessness; cf. But God’s existence is derived from our knowledge of God’s energies, and those energies are in turn known both indirectly and directly. 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. “Cappadocian Thought as a Coherent System.”, Stramara, Daniel F. “Gregory of Nyssa: An Ardent Abolitionist?”. Gregory was a highly original thinker, drawing inspiration from the pagan Greek philosophical schools, as well as from the Jewish and Eastern Christian traditions, and formulating an original synthesis that was to influence later Byzantine, and possibly even modern European, thought. It is but a short step to the conclusion that a physical object is nothing more than the convergence of its qualities. Email: dlr33@georgetown.edu 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]). He came from a large Christian family of ten children–five boys and five girls. Only the human nous has a transcendent nature in addition to its energies. In 379 he attended a council at Antioch and was sent on a special mission to the churches of Arabia (i.e., Transjordan); his visit to Jerusalem on this occasion left him with a dislike for the increasingly fashionable pilgrimages, an opinion he expressed vigorously in one of his letters. If … we know not what” (Essay II xxiii 3). The created nature of Christ could be derived by an analysis of the very concept of God, Eunomius argued; for it is God’s essential nature to be unbegotten, whereas Christ is confessed to be “begotten of the Father.” If this sort of argument were allowed to stand, what was to become the orthodox faith–the faith enunciated at Nicaea in 325 CE that Christ was literally “of the same substance” with the Father–would be radically transformed. Similarly, the logical consequence of Christ’s deification is the apokatastasis–the restoration of humanity to its unfallen state. Now one could object at this point that these phenomena are by no means surprising; they are surprising to Gregory only because the scientific knowledge of the fourth century is not as advanced as that of the twenty-first. Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on the Song of Songs (Writings from the Greco-roman World) Thus with respect to ourselves we must strive for intellectual and moral perfection (Beatitudes III [1225 – 1228], V [1253 – 1260). Wherefore also, of the elements of this world we know only so much by our senses as to enable us to receive what they severally supply for our living. Such an argument, however, is not very convincing. Otherwise they are only slaves to their body or to “the world,” over which, originally and by God’s command, he was…, … of Caesarea, his younger brother Gregory of Nyssa, and his lifelong friend Gregory of Nazianzus. Duties of virtue, on the other hand, tend to deal with the will and, as “thou shalts,” can never be completely fulfilled. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, the brother of Saint Basil and the son of Saints Basil and Emmilia, was a married man when he began studying for the priesthood. The treatise is simply talking about the salvation of Christians— not universalism. As Gregory of Nyssa teaches, all that we give is in gratitude for God’s gifts to us. 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]). But if Gregory’s argument is nothing more than a generalized appeal to the harmony of the universe, it is not a very persuasive basis for proving the existence of God. This means that there is no such thing as eternal damnation. During waking life the energies of the nous are present throughout the body. Gregory of Nyssa (4th century) and St. Maximus the Confessor (7th century), humans are truly free only when they are in communion with God. 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. And although he concedes that God’s inner nature will always remain a mystery to us, Gregory holds that we can attain some knowledge of God’s energies. 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]). 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. Under the unlearned Nectarius, the successor of Gregory of Nazianzus at Constantinople, Gregory of Nyssa was the leading orthodox theologian of the church in Asia Minor in the struggle against the Arians. Consequently, it is sufficient if we use Christ’s life as a model for our own (On Perfection [264 – 265, 269]). In the above citations I have placed page references to the Migne edition (which is still the only complete edition of Gregory’s works) in brackets. Gregory of Nyssa St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 330-c. 395) was a younger sibling in a family that gave the church many years of service and at least five saints. This procedure is obviously predicated on the imperative of integrating Scripture into the entire matrix of worldly knowledge. A central idea in Gregory’s writing is the distinction between the transcendent nature and immanent energies of God, and much of his thought is a working out of the implications of that idea in other areas–notably, the world, humanity, history, knowledge, and virtue. The answer lies in the life of Christ, whose purpose was to demonstrate what God is like–an idea Gregory also borrows from Origen (First Principles I 2.8). 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. Taken together, Gregory of Nyssa’s XV Homilies In Canticum Canticorum are at the same time – as if in unison – a work of spiritual, exegetical, and theological doctrine. Against Eunomius II [941])–but nevertheless “what Moses yearned for is satisfied by the very things which leave his desire unsatisfied” (Life of Moses II 235 [404]). The first theophany is the burning bush (Life of Moses II 1 – 116 [297 – 360]). in a union never to be broken” (Great Catechism 16 [52], cf. Early on, Christian theology developed a distinctive way of conceptualizing God. Against the former Gregory marshals three arguments (Ecclesiastes IV [665]): (1) Only God has the right to enslave humans, and God does not choose to do so; indeed, it was God who gave human beings their free wills. Nothing more is heard from him after about 395 CE. Gregory of Nyssa was born about 335 C.E. Now God is of supreme worth. . By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. The indirect route relies on the order apparent in the cosmos. After all, in the Beatitudes Christ promises, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt. As part of Basil’s struggle with Bishop Anthimus of Tyana—whose city became the metropolis (civil and therefore ecclesiastical capital) of western Cappadocia in 372—Gregory was consecrated as bishop of Nyssa, a small city in the new province of Cappadocia Secunda, which Basil wished to retain in his ecclesiastical jurisdiction. In 372, his brother Basil ordained him the bishopof Nyssa in Cappa… Energies, Gregory contends, are the “powers” and “movements” by which substances are “manifested”; the energy of each thing is its “distinguishing property” (idioma)–a technical Stoic term for a specific, as opposed to a generic, quality. Along with Basil and fellow-Cappadocian and friend Gregory of Nazianzus (c.329—c.391), Gregory of Nyssa forms the third of a trio of Christian thinkers, collectively known as the Cappadocians, who established the main lines of orthodoxy in the Christian East. Callahan, J. F. “Greek Philosophy and the Cappadocian Cosmology.”, Heine, Ronald E. “Gregory of Nyssa’s Apology for Allegory.”, Keenan, Mary Emily. How can they ever be reassembled? Gregory of Nazianzus was a brilliant orator, best known for his five “theological orations,” which succinctly summarized the Cappadocian consensus. The most important consequence of this extension is its application to the capstone of the cosmic order–human nature. But the New Law deals, not with works, but with the psychological springs from which works originate. But Gregory moves beyond Aristotle’s psychological explanation. In the latter, Christ “disseminates himself in every believer through that flesh, whose substance comes from bread and wine, blending himself with the bodies of believers, to secure that, by this union with the immortal, man, too, may be a sharer in incorruption”–a process Gregory calls metastoicheiosis, “transelementation” (Great Catechism 37 [97]). As will be seen below, there is a pronounced linear view of history in Gregory’s thought, which can only be of Hebrew provenance. Because he was committed to the idea that humans have a unique value that demands respect, Gregory was an early and vocal opponent of slavery and also of poverty. Moreover, the reader will discover an originality in Gregory that anticipates not only his Byzantine successors, but also such moderns as John Locke (1632 – 1704) and Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804). Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Because God is an infinite being, the desire to know God is an infinite process; but in Gregory’s eyes this really makes it much more satisfying than some static Beatific Vision. Gregory’s epistemological views are nicely brought out in his reflections on the life of Moses. Participation in Christ’s resurrection guarantees the resurrection of the body on the part of humanity. The emphasis here is not on order in general, but on unexpected order. He became Bishop of Nyssa and fought Arianism and was a prominent figure at the Council of Constantinople. in Cappadocia (in present-day Turkey). Thus Moses finally realizes that the longing for utter intimacy with God can never be satisfied–faith will never be transformed into understanding (cf. So Basil in all probability became the teacher of his younger brother. Gregory takes numerous ideas from the Judaeo-Christian, particularly Philonian-Origenist, tradition and from the pagan Middle Platonist and Neoplatonist schools, digests them into a very original synthesis and in expounding that synthesis develops ideas that anticipate later Byzantine thinkers such as the Pseudo-Dionysius and Gregory Palamas. When reflecting on Gregory’s theory of knowledge as developed in The Life of Moses, one is struck by his commitment to rationalism–this despite his ambivalence on the value of pagan wisdom. This idea forms the core of Gregory’s epistemology and ethics, which will be summarized below. Similarly, the relevant auditory metaphor is silence, not speech (Ecclesiastes VII [732]). Gregory of Nyssa, the Christian theologian and Father of the Eastern church, was born in Cappadocia. Within this atemporal framework, the key “event” was the creation of the firmament on the second day (Work of the Six Days [80 – 85]), for it is the firmament that divides the intelligible world, created on the first day (Work of the Six Days [68 – 85]), from the sensible world, created on days three through six (Work of the Six Days [85 – 124])–again, broadly similar to Philo (Creation of the World 7.29 – 10.36, 44.129 – 44.130). Furthermore, the nous may at different times be more or less present to the body. Cambridge: Philadelphia Patristic Foundation, 1984. Moses, as Gregory interprets him, is one of those who crave ever more intimate communion with God. these things be in you,” Gregory concludes, “God is indeed in you” (Beatitudes VI [1272]). However, when he … 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. All we really know of substances are their attributes, which constitute their nominal essences (Essay II xxxi 6 – 10, III iii 15 – 19). In noting this, Gregory is relying on an argument that had been around since the early Stoics–the argument from design (cf. 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? Besides, the ultimate good, which is God, is infinitely attractive. 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