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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 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright # 2008 by Christopher A. Beeley Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. 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 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For Shannon PÀntoB db kayÀryZte kad kayaÝresye, B odend tosoÞtonwaÝrei YeeB ´son ¼nyræpoudioryæsei kad sotZrÆÖ , pbr oy lo´goB –paB kad–pan mustÜrionÁ ·na gÛnZsye B jostreB ½nko´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] mndc mo´nZn esÛbeian 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- ond only to the Bible.1 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 ‘‘Cappadocian fathers,’’2 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 Gregory Nazianzen’s more properly theological achievement.3 In the last forty years Gregory has been the subject of an increasing number of studies on biographical, literary, ascetical, and theological topics.4 Thanks in large part to the critical editing of his orations and poems, which began in the late 1970s and continues still,5 a new phase of Gregorian research emerged in the 1990s that included an extensive new biography and a full commentary on the Theological Orations.6 Meanwhile, the central focus of Gregory’s theo- logical endeavors—the doctrine of the Trinity—has yet to be thoroughly ex- amined.7 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 Christian life,8 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 Verha¨ltnis zu den grossen Kappadoziern (1904). 3. See Louth, ‘‘The Cappadocians,’’ p. 297. 4. For example, Bernardi, La pre´dication; Spidlı´k, 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 among modern 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.

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