9
May 389 A.D. Gregory
of Nazianzus on the calendar of remembrance.
There
is a traditional list of eight great Doctors (Teachers, Theologians) of the
ancient Church. It lists four Western (Latin) Doctors -- Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome of Strido, and
Gregory the Great (Pope Gregory I) --
and four Eastern (Greek) Doctors -- Athanasius of Alexandria, John Chrysostom of Antioch and
Constantinople, Basil the Great, and Gregory of
Nazianzus (also called Gregory Nazianzen). Incidentally, this list is
constantly referred to, but I have no idea when or where or by whom it was
drawn up. Does it get any respect from Eastern Christians? Information, please.
Gregory
of Nazianzus, his friend Basil the Great, and Basil's brother Gregory of Nyssa, are jointly known as
the Cappadocian Fathers (Cappadocia is a region in what is now Central Turkey).
Gregory
lived in a turbulent time. In 312, Constantine, having won a battle that made
him Emperor of the West, issued a decree that made it no longer a crime to be a
Christian. In 325 he summoned a council of Bishops at Nicea, across the straits
from Byzantium (Constantinople, Istanbul), to settle the dispute between those
(led by Athanasius) who taught that the
Logos (the "Word" of John 1:1, who "was made flesh and dwelt
among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth) was completely God, in the same
sense in which the Father is God, and those (led by Arius) who taught that the
Logos is a being created by God the Father. The bishops assembled at Nicea
declared that the view of Athanasius was that which they
had received from their predecessors as the true Faith handed down from the
Apostles. (The Athanasian view is held today by Roman Catholics, East Orthodox,
Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterian and Reformed, Methodists, Baptists,
Congregationalists, and most other Protestant groups. The Arian view is held by
the Watchtower Society, also called J------'s Witnesses, and by a few other
groups, including some conservative Unitarians.)
The
Arians did not accept defeat quietly. They created a sufficient disturbance so
that Constantine, at first inclined to support the decision of the Council,
decided that peace could best be obtained by adopting a Creed which simply
evaded the issue. After his death in 336, he was succeeded by various of his
relatives, some of whom sided with the Athanasians and some with the Arians,
and one of whom (Julian the Apostate, Emperor 361-363) attempted to restore
paganism as the religion of the Empire. The situation was complicated by the
fact that missionaries to the Goths were first sent out in large numbers during
the reign of an Arian Emperor, with the result that the Goths were converted to
Arian Christianity. Since the professional Army was composed chiefly of Goth
mercenaries, and the Army held the balance of power, this was a real problem.
Gregory
of Nazianzus was born about 330. He went to school in Athens with his friend
Basil, and with the aforesaid Julian. He and Basil compiled an anthology,
called the Philokalia, of the works of the great (but somewhat erratic)
Alexandrian theologian, philosopher, and scholar of the previous century,
Origen. Later, he went home to assist his father, a bishop, in his struggles
against Arianism. Meanwhile, his friend Basil had become Archbishop of
(Cappadocian) Caesarea. Faced with a rival Arian bishop at Tyana, he undertook
to consolidate his position by maneuvering Gregory into the position of Bishop
of Sasima, an unhealthy settlement on the border between the two jurisdictions.
Gregory called Sasima "a detestable little place without water or grass or
any mark of civilization." He felt "like a bone flung to dogs."
He refused to reside at Sasima. Basil accused him of shirking his duty. He
accused Basil of making him a pawn in ecclesiastical politics. Their friendship
suffered a severe breach, which took some time to heal. Gregory suffered a
breakdown and retired to recuperate.
In
379, after the death of the Arian Emperor Valens, Gregory was asked to go to
Constantinople to preach there. For thirty years, the city had been controlled
by Arians or pagans, and the orthodox did not even have a church there. Gregory
went. He converted his own house there into a church and held services in it.
There he preached the Five Theological Orations for which he is best
known, a series of five sermons on the Trinity and in defense of the deity of
Christ. People flocked to hear him preach, and the city was largely won over to
the Athanasian (Trinitarian, catholic, orthodox) position by his powers of
persuasion. The following year, he was consecrated bishop of Constantinople. He
presided at the Council of Constantinple in 381, which confirmed the Athanasian
position of the earlier Council of Nicea in 325. Having accomplished what he
believed to be his mission at Constantinople, and heartily sick of
ecclesiastical politics, Gregory resigned and retired to his home town of
Nazianzus, where he died in 389.
His
Five Theological Orations are available in several series of works of
the Ancient Fathers. The best-known recent biography of him is Gregory of
Nazianzus, Rhetor and Philosopher (Oxford U Press, 1969), by Rosemary
Radford Reuther. I was in her Sunday School class back when she was writing it,
until I was kicked out for asking too many awkward questions. She writes well,
nonetheless.
PRAYER (traditional language)
Almighty God, who hast
revealed to thy Church thine eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love
as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like thy bishop Gregory
of Nazianzus, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and
constant in our worship of thee, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who livest and
reignest for ever and ever.
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