Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity and the Knowledge of God: In Your Light We Shall See Light (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology)

415 Pages·2008·2.72 MB·English

by  Christopher A. Beeley

Gregory of Nazianzus
on the Trinity and the
Knowledge of God
OXFORD STUDIES IN HISTORICAL THEOLOGY
Series Editor
David C. Steinmetz, Duke University
Editorial Board
Irena Backus, Universite´ de Gene`ve
Robert C. Gregg, Stanford University
George M. Marsden, University of Notre Dame
Wayne A. Meeks, Yale University
Gerhard Sauter, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universita¨t Bonn
Susan E. Schreiner, University of Chicago
John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame
Geoffrey Wainwright, Duke University
Robert L. Wilken, University of Virginia
THE PLEASURE OF THE POVERTY OF RICHES
DISCERNMENT St. Francis of Assisi Reconsidered
Marguerite de Navarre as Kenneth Baxter Wolf
Theologian
Carol Thysell REFORMING MARY
Changing Images of the Virgin Mary
REFORMATION READINGS OF in Lutheran Sermons of the Sixteenth
THE APOCALYPSE Century
Geneva, Zurich, and Wittenberg Beth Kreitzer
Irena Backus
TEACHING THE REFORMATION
WRITING THE WRONGS Ministers and Their Message in Basel,
Women of the Old Testament among 1529–1629
Biblical Commentators from Philo Amy Nelson Burnett
through the Reformation
John L. Thompson THE PASSIONS OF CHRIST IN
HIGH-MEDIEVAL THOUGHT
THE HUNGRY ARE DYING An Essay on Christological
Beggars and Bishops in Roman Development
Cappadocia Kevin Madigan
Susan R. Holman
GOD’S IRISHMEN
RESCUE FOR THE DEAD Theological Debates in Cromwellian
The Posthumous Salvation of Ireland
Non-Christians in Early Christianity Crawford Gribben
Jeffrey A. Trumbower
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS ON
AFTER CALVIN THE TRINITY AND THE
Studies in the Development of a KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
Theological Tradition In Your Light We Shall See Light
Richard A. Muller Christopher A. Beeley
Gregory of Nazianzus
on the Trinity and the
Knowledge of God
In Your Light We Shall See Light
Christopher A. Beeley
1
2008
1
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Copyright # 2008 by Christopher A. Beeley
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beeley, Christopher A.
Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity and the knowledge of God:
in your light we shall see light / Christopher A. Beeley.
p. cm.—(Oxford studies in historical theology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-531397-0
1. Gregory, of Nazianzus, Saint. 2. Trinity. 3. God
(Christianity)—Knowableness. I. Title
BR65.G66B44 2007
231'.044092—dc 22 2006030313
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Shannon
PÀntoB db kayÀryZte kad kayaÝresye, —B oŽdend tosoÞton waÝrei
YeeB ´son ¼nyræpou dioryæsei kad sotZrÝÆÖ , –pbr oy lo´goB –paB
kad –pan mustÜrion ·na gÛnZsye —B jostƒreB ½n ko´smöÿ .
Above all, be purified and you shall be pure; for God rejoices in
nothing so much as the correction and salvation of human beings,
which is the purpose of every doctrine and every mystery. In this way
you will become ‘‘like lights to the world’’ (Phil 2.15).
—St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 39
[^H TrÝaB] mn dc mo´nZn eŽsÛbeian ½gö‘ kalþ kad do´xan sotÜrion.
I consider the Trinity the only true devotion and saving doctrine.
—Oration 43
Preface
This book is a study of the greatest theologian of the Christian fourth
century and the subject he held most dear: St. Gregory of Nazianzus
on the Holy Trinity. A man of exceptional learning and intellectual
talent, Gregory Nazianzen (329–390) pioneered several new forms
of Greek literature; he preserved numerous lines of classical poetry
and composed thousands of his own; and he later became the chief
model of Byzantine homiletical and prose style. Yet his greatest de-
votion in all of life was the doctrine and the worship of the Trinity.
It was Gregory, more than anyone before him, who made the Trinity
the centerpiece and the cardinal doctrine of orthodox Christianity.
In recognition of his magisterial achievement, the Council of Chal-
cedon in 451 deemed him ‘‘the Theologian,’’ a title that he shares
only with St. John the Divine and the Byzantine monk St. Simeon the
New Theologian, who was being compared to Gregory. In due time,
Gregory the Theologian came to be regarded as one of the three
‘‘universal teachers’’ of Eastern Orthodoxy, together with St. Basil
the Great, who was renowned for his monastic legislation, and the
golden-mouthed preacher St. John Chrysostom. Gregory’s immense
impact on Christian tradition can be seen from the fact that his work
is the most widely published in the Greek manuscript tradition, sec-
1
ond only to the Bible.
1. Noret, ‘‘Gre´goire de Nazianze, l’auteur le plus cite´ apre`s la Bible.’’
viii preface
Since the late-nineteenth century Gregory of Nazianzus has been some-
what artificially grouped together with Basil and Gregory of Nyssa as the three
2
‘‘Cappadocian fathers,’’ a designation that has tended to overstate their sim-
ilarities and to obscure the sometimes painful differences that arose among
them. One of the great lacunae of recent patristic scholarship has been the
relative neglect of Gregory’s work in comparison with the other two Cappa-
docians’; Basil’s ecclesiastical labors and Gregory of Nyssa’s philosophical
mysticism seem to have appealed more to twentieth-century minds than
3
Gregory Nazianzen’s more properly theological achievement. In the last forty
years Gregory has been the subject of an increasing number of studies on
4
biographical, literary, ascetical, and theological topics. Thanks in large part
to the critical editing of his orations and poems, which began in the late
5
1970s and continues still, a new phase of Gregorian research emerged in the
1990s that included an extensive new biography and a full commentary on
6
the Theological Orations. Meanwhile, the central focus of Gregory’s theo-
logical endeavors—the doctrine of the Trinity—has yet to be thoroughly ex-
7
amined.
For Gregory Nazianzen, the doctrine of the Trinity is not a quasi-
mathematical problem about how three things can be one, nor the abstract
logic of the Christian God, as it is often imagined in modern theology and
popular culture. Rather, it represents the fundamental origin and goal of the
8
Christian life, and it involves a whole nexus of concerns that range from
biblical interpretation and epistemology to the practicalities of Christian wor-
ship, asceticism, and pastoral ministry. Gregory’s doctrine is what a modern
might call both theological and spiritual at the same time, integrating in a
seamless fabric what have more recently been distinguished as dogmatic and
ascetical theology. In other words, Gregory’s doctrine of the Trinity is at every
point soteriological; it represents and seeks to promote salvation and life in
2. Particularly in Weiss, Die grossen Kappadocier (1872); Bo¨hringer, Drei Kappadozier (1875); and Holl,
Amphilochius von Ikonium in seinem Verh¨altnis zu den grossen Kappadoziern (1904).
3. See Louth, ‘‘The Cappadocians,’’ p. 297.
4. For example, Bernardi, La pre´dication; Spidl´ık, Gre´goire de Nazianze; Ruether, Gregory of Nazianzus;
Norris, ‘‘Gregory Nazianzen’s Doctrine of Jesus Christ’’; Althaus, Die Heilslehre; Gregg, Consolation Philosophy;
Winslow, Dynamics of Salvation; and Ellverson, Dual Nature of Man.
5. The letters were edited by Gallay in the 1960s.
6. McGuckin, St. Gregory; Norris, Faith Gives Fullness. See also Moreschini, Filosofia e letteratura; Tri-
soglio, Gregorio di Nazianzo; and the articles in the bibliography by Elm, Harrison, McGuckin, McLynn, and
Norris.
7. As noted recently by Markschies, ‘‘Gibt es eine einheitliche ‘kappadozische Trinita¨tstheologie’?’’ p.
210n60; see also Ayres, Nicaea, p. 244n2.
8. A point made years ago by Rowan Greer in his study of Irenaeus, Gregory of Nyssa, and Augustine,
Broken Lights and Mended Lives: Theology and Common Life in the Early Church.
preface ix
Christ. Accordingly, this book offers a comprehensive analysis of Gregory’s
Trinitarian doctrine as it is situated within his theological and practical vision
of the Christian life. Beginning with the spiritual dialectic of purification and
illumination, it examines Gregory’s doctrine of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the
Trinity, and pastoral ministry as part of a unified vision of Christian existence.
One of the most distinctive aspects of Gregory’s work is its highly rhe-
torical and contextualized literary form. We will therefore give special attention
to the historical situation and rhetorical stance of his texts, beginning with an
introductory overview of his life, contexts, and theological endeavors. The main
chapters of the book will then seek to expose Gregory’s doctrine as clearly as
possible in its fine detail and synthetic interconnections, and to correct several
points of misinterpretation in current scholarship. In the course of the argu-
ment selective references are made to other theologians in order to highlight
particular aspects of Gregory’s work: above all to his great teacher, Origen. The
conclusion will then offer a detailed account of Gregory’s relationship to his
predecessors and contemporaries and his seminal role in subsequent Christian
tradition.
Unique amongmodern studies, this book interprets Gregory’s doctrine on
the basis of his entire corpus of orations, poems, and letters, rather than
focusing primarily on the famous Theological Orations and Christological
epistles, which have too easily been misunderstood when read in isolation
from other texts. Gregory is a highly poetic writer who delights in expressing
sophisticated theological ideas in terse, pithy phrases. It will therefore be im-
portant to make extensive direct quotations from his texts. Not only will this
afford us the opportunity to hear from Gregory himself, but it will provide a
chance to offer fresh translations of certain passages, which in several cases
affect their interpretation significantly.
At this point a brief disclaimer on certain words and phrases is in order,
to prevent the reader from being misled by the unique biases of recent
scholarly debate. The adjective ‘‘Trinitarian’’—as in ‘‘Trinitarian doctrine’’ or
‘‘Trinitarian theology’’—is not meant to indicate any particular model, theory,
or structure of the Trinity. It simply means something that pertains to the
Trinity. The terms ‘‘Nicene’’ and ‘‘pro-Nicene’’ are used mainly to refer to
figures and doctrines that are associated with the Creed and Council of Nicaea,
rather than in a technical, doctrinal sense, in which case the term ‘‘Trinitarian’’
9
is normally used instead. Finally, the term ‘‘experience’’ refers to the lived
quality or the existential dimension of a thing—something that happens to one
9. A detailed explanation of this choice is given at p. 10n27.