Diogenes Laertius, Lives VII 117), but in moderation (Beatitudes II [1216]). 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. But God’s existence is derived from our knowledge of God’s energies, and those energies are in turn known both indirectly and directly. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Thus Moses finally realizes that the longing for utter intimacy with God can never be satisfied–faith will never be transformed into understanding (cf. Indeed, Gregory deploys, once again, his characteristic insistence on the unexpected unity of opposites, this time in the Church’s sacraments–life through death, justification through sin, blessing through curse, glory through disgrace, strength through weakness, and so forth–to argue for Christ’s continued, miraculous presence in his Church (Song of Songs VIII [948 – 949], XIII [1045 – 1052]). The classic problem with this view, going as far back as Plato himself, was to explain how these forms become instantiated in the material world. So the first stage of Moses’ progress is the acquisition of purely intellectual knowledge of God. If … Nevertheless, it remains that God’s nature is infinitely removed from ours. 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.) Diogenes Laertius, Lives VII 125); but the latter is entirely his own. But such an interpretation will not do for two reasons. 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. In the former case, the presence of Christ “transforms what is born with a corruptible nature into a state of incorruption” (Great Catechism 33 [84], cf. Metaphysical Principles of Virtue I 22). 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]). Gregory is thoroughly at home with the philosophers that were in vogue in his day: Plato (427—347 B.C.E. in Cappadocia (in present-day Turkey). Gregory goes so far as to assert that apart from its energies a nature not only cannot be known, but does not even exist. 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]). Nevertheless, if that were the whole story–if we were left with God’s utter incomprehensibility and nothing more–then Gregory’s theology would be a very much stunted exposition of Christianity. Now, I make bold to add a His significance has long been recognized in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Roman Catholic branches of Christianity. Yet our hypothetical objector still has a point, as is particularly obvious to us who are examining the thought of a fourth century figure seventeen centuries later. 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. So we directly experience the divine energies in the only thing in the universe that we can view from within–ourselves. Gregory of Nyssa was a Christian bishop and saint. 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. This treatise is popularly cited as the evidence that Gregory of Nyssa was a universalist and proponent of apokatastasis. 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. As a Christian Platonist, Gregory followed the great Alexandrian theologian Origen, though not slavishly. The fundamental fact about human nature according to Gregory of Nyssa is that humans were created in the image of God. [1581] Since, my friend, you ask me a question in your letter, I think that it is incumbent upon me to answer you in their proper order upon all the points connected with it. Arianism arose out of the need to make sense of the apparently conflicting Biblical depictions of Christ. Author of. Basil's training was an antidote to the lessons of the pagan schools, wherein, as we know from a letter of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa spent some time, very probably in his early youth, for it is certain that while still a youth Gregory exercised the ecclesiastical office of rector. All we really know of substances are their attributes, which constitute their nominal essences (Essay II xxxi 6 – 10, III iii 15 – 19). Yet the first is clearly more congenial to his distinctive nature-energies understanding of God than the second. Callahan, J. F. “Greek Philosophy and the Cappadocian Cosmology.”, Heine, Ronald E. “Gregory of Nyssa’s Apology for Allegory.”, Keenan, Mary Emily. Answer: Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335–c. . During waking life the energies of the nous are present throughout the body. In 381 he took part in the General (second ecumenical) Council at Constantinople and was recognized by the emperor Theodosius as one of the leaders of the orthodox communion in Cappadocia, along with Basil’s successor at Caesarea. Like Gregory, Kant distinguishes four kinds of duty–perfect and imperfect duties to ourselves and to others (Metaphysical Principles of Virtue Introduction). Now there are several things to notice about this argument. Though he frequently appeals to Scripture to support his claims, Gregory does in fact argue for the existence of God. Gregory of Nazianzus was a brilliant orator, best known for his five “theological orations,” which succinctly summarized the Cappadocian consensus. Both slavery and poverty sully the dignity of human beings by degrading them to a station below the purple to which they were rightfully born; and although we may congratulate ourselves on having outlawed slavery, it is important to remember that for Gregory poverty is no different. In the first place it is an analogical one: just as a work of art leads us to infer the existence of an artist, so the artistry displayed in the order of nature suggests the existence of a Creator. Gregory recasts this problem in theological terms: how could God, who is immaterial, have created the material world? What is also of great historical interest is Gregory’s pivotal role in the development of Western consciousness. Gregory’s concept of God is born out of the Arian controversy. 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. Gregory of Nyssa provides a concise and accessible introduction to the thought of this early church father with new translations of key selections of his writings. (3) As humans who were created in the divine image, all people are radically equal; therefore, it is hubristic for some to arrogate to themselves absolute authority over others. Instead, the vision of God is mediated by the so-called “spiritual senses,” an idea Gregory’s inherits from his theological mentor Origen (Song of Songs I 4, II 9 – 11, III 5). Yet it would be a mistake to say, as Cherniss famously does, that “Gregory . He became Bishop of Nyssa and fought Arianism and was a prominent figure at the Council of Constantinople. of Nyssa," in Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century, (ed.) 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]). Summa Theologiae I q. Thus began the most productive period of one of the most brilliant of Christian thinkers–far too little known and appreciated in the West. Consequently human beings have an inherent “dignity of royalty” just by virtue of being human (Making of Man 2 – 4 [132 – 136]). It doesn’t seem that the cosmological argument rules out either of these two possibilities. The emphasis here is not on order in general, but on unexpected order. Similarly, the relevant auditory metaphor is silence, not speech (Ecclesiastes VII [732]). Thus matter as such doesn’t really exist; bodies are really just “holograms” formed by this convergence of qualities. merely applied Christian names to Plato’s doctrine and called it Christian theology” (The Platonism of Gregory of Nyssa: 62). Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335/40–395) is often regarded as the most speculative and mystical thinker of the Greek Fathers. these things be in you,” Gregory concludes, “God is indeed in you” (Beatitudes VI [1272]). Gregory of Nyssa was born about 335 C.E. But we possess no knowledge of their substance . Together, the Cappadocians are credited with defining Christian orthodoxy in the Eastern Roman Empire, as Augustine (354—430 C.E.) But the New Law deals, not with works, but with the psychological springs from which works originate. 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. If so, he certainly did an excellent job, for in this case the pupil went on to outshine the teacher. 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. This leads him to expand the nature-energies distinction into a general cosmological principle, to apply it particularly to human nature, which he conceives as having been created in God’s image, and to rear a theory of unending intellectual and moral perfectibility on the premise that the purpose of human life is literally to become like the infinite nature of God. . MUNI bus lines 10, 19, 22 and 55 stop within one block. Gregory was the younger brother of Basil of Caesarea and Macrina the Younger. Early on, Christian theology developed a distinctive way of conceptualizing God. In this vein it is significant that, when discussing the spiritual senses, Gregory most often appeals, not to the “higher” senses of sight and hearing, but to the more intimate senses of smell, taste, and touch as metaphors by which to describe them (cf. This means that because in God a transcendent nature exists which projects energies out into the world, we would expect the same structural relation to exist among human beings vis-a-vis their bodies. His significance has long been recognized in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Catholic and Roman Catholic branches of Christianity. His Life of Macrina blends biography with instruction in the monastic life. )—especially as “updated” and systematized by Plotinus (204 – 270 CE)–Aristotle (384 – 322 BCE), and the Stoics. Given his apophatic approach to theology (described above), Gregory suggests that the religious life must eventually transcend intellectual knowing and ground itself faithful praxis. He began his adult life as a teacher of rhetoric and may have been married, although several references that suggest this are capable of a different interpretation, and the strictures on marriage in his treatise On Virginity seem to imply the contrary. Saint Gregory, the younger brother of Basil the Great, illustrious in speech and a zealot for the Orthodox Faith, was born in 331. Cambridge: Philadelphia Patristic Foundation, 1984. But this unity of consciousness is entirely mysterious and so is much like the mysterious nature of the Godhead (Making of Man 11 [153 – 156]). St. Gregory of Nyssa was born in the 4th century, about the year 335 in the region of Cappadocia (modern day Turkey). 35 [89]) and “recalled [our] diseased nature by repentance to the grace of its original state” (Great Catechism 8 [37]). In other words, for Gregory as for his intellectual ancestor Origen, everyone–even Satan himself (Great Catechism 26 [68 – 69])–will eventually be saved. general audience august 29, 2007. 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. When we are speaking of God’s inner nature, all that we can say is what that nature is not (Against Eunomius II [953 – 960, 1101 – 1108], IV 11 [524]). But philosophy in his day was almost wholly associated with paganism. In all these situations opposites not only fail to annihilate each other, but they even contribute to an overall harmony. God is only the most striking instance of this. Centuries after his death, the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787) rendered Nyssen as the “father of fathers,” named alongside Basil of Caesarea and John Chrysostom. 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. 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. St. Gregory of Nyssa (c 335 – after 394) was a Christian bishop and saint. Gregory was deposed in 376 by a synod of bishops and banished, but on Valens’s death in 378 Gregory’s congregation welcomed him back enthusiastically. Georgetown University, This is the source for an important fragment discussing Gregory’s concept of “energies.”. For it means that there is an aspect of the human person that is not of this world. This does not mean, however, that God does not have a transcendent nature. 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]). Pope Benedict XVI offered his reflections on St. Gregory of Nyssa during his general audience on Aug. 29. How does this happen? 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