Gregory of Nazianzus Five Theological Orations Translated with an introduction and notes by Stephen Reynolds ©Estate of Stephen Reynolds 2011 The Rev'd Dr. Stephen Reynolds 1951-2011 ii This translation was produced for students in the well-known course “Three Personed-God”, which Stephen Reynolds taught in the Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College six times between 2001 and 2009. David Neelands, Dean of Divinity, Trinity College iii Table of Contents Introduction v The First Theological Oration, Preliminary Discourse 1 The Second Theological Oration, On Theology 13 The Third Theological Oration, On the Son, 1 45 The Fourth Theological Oration, On the Son, 2 71 The Fifth Theological Oration, On the Holy Spirit 97 iv Introduction REGORY of Nazianzus (330 – 389) has been treated as one of the brightest stars in the G firmament of the Christian tradition. The Orthodox name him “The Theologian”1 – a title they accord only one other, St John the Apostle and Evangelist – and honour him with two feast- days, January 25th and January 30th. The western Catholic tradition has ranked him among “the Four Doctors of the Eastern Church”2 and honoured him on May 9th. (When the Roman Catholic church revised its Calendar in 1969, Gregory was joined with Basil the Great in a single memorial on January 2nd.3) In spite of these accolades, Gregory has not received anything like the attention that western scholars have devoted to other ancient writers. This is especially true in the English-speaking world. Until recently, the only major modern study of Gregory in English is Rosemary Radford Ruether’s Gregory of Nazianzus: Rhetor and Philosopher (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969). Ms Ruether has since moved on to other issues. This work is still well worth consulting, but it has now been supplanted by a full-scale, even magisterial study: John McGuckin’s Saint Gregory of Nazianzus. An Intellectual Biography (Crestwood, N.Y.: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001). The standard English translation of Gregory’s Five Theological Orations has been the one produced by Charles Gordon Browne and James Edward Swallow for the Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, volume 7 (1893). I have used this translation in the past, but with mounting misgivings. So, for this course*, I went back to the Greek text and began to revise Browne and Swallow’s version. It turned out to be a major undertaking. Browne and Swallow produced a truly awful translation – it is so literal as to be incomprehensible as English, and at many others points it is not only inaccurate but downright wrong. In my revision, I have used The Five Theological Orations of Gregory of Nazianzus, ed. Arthur James Mason (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1899); and besides the Greek text there established, it will be clear that I have been heavily indebted to Mason’s notes on the text. I have also consulted the French translation 1 The title is meant in the strictest possible sense: Gregory defended the divinity (theo-) of the Word (logos) who became flesh (cf. John 1.1-14). 2 The other three are Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, and Cyril of Alexandria. “The Four Doctors of the Western Church” are Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, and Gregory the Great. Doctor, of course, is the Latin word for “teacher” – as in the BAS designation, “Teacher of the Faith”. 3 In the Calendar of the Anglican Church of Canada’s Book of Common Prayer (1962), Gregory is to be commemorated on the traditional western date, May 9th. The Calendar of the church’s Book of Alternative Services (1985) adopted the new Roman usage and appoints Gregory’s memorial, with Basil the Great, on January 2nd. Basil died on January 1st in 379; the Orthodox continue to honour him, alone, on that date. In the Roman Calendar of 1969, however, January 1st is now the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God; the BAS Calendar made the same date the festival of the Baptism of the Lord. Since feasts of our Lord (and, in the mentalité of Roman Catholicism, any feast of our Lady is tantamount to a feast of our Lord) take precedence over all other festivals, the memorial of Basil and Gregory had to be postponed by one day. v produced by Paul Gallay in the Sources chrétiennes series, No. 250 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1978). Again, Gallay’s annotations, though less detailed than Mason’s, have been very helpful. vi The First Theological Oration (Oration 27) Preliminary Discourse against the Disciples of Eunomius Y argument is addressed to those who take pride in their own eloquence M – so, to begin with a text of Scripture: I am against you, O arrogant one,1 not only in your system of teaching, but also in the way you hear things, and in your cast of mind. For the ears and tongues of certain persons – and not only their ears and tongues but also (I now see) even their hands – are eager to scratch at our words.2 They are people who delight in profane chatter, and in paradoxes of pseudo-knowledge, and in wranglings over words, which tend to no profit.3 For thus does Paul, the preacher and establisher of the Word cut short,4 the disciple and teacher of the fishermen,5 1 Jeremiah 50.31. 2 Cf. 2 Timothy 4.3-4: “For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.” 3 Cf. 2 Timothy 2.14b, 16: “Warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening…. Avoid profane chatter, for it will lead people into more and more impiety.” 4 Cf. Romans 9.28: “For the Lord will finish his work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make the sentence shortened on the earth.” 5 In Gregory’s view, Paul was the “disciple” of Simon Peter and John (“the fishermen”) in the sense that he followed or came after them. Paul was also “the teacher” (or “master”) of “the fishermen” not only in the sense that he trained Timothy and Titus, who as his companions and fellow- workers fulfilled the apostolic mission of “fishing for people” (cf. Mark 1.17), but in the sense that he rebuked Peter for not being “straightforward about the truth of the gospel” (Galatians 2.11-14). 1 Gregory of Nazianzus call all that is excessive or superfluous in discourse. But as to those to whom we refer, would that they, whose tongue is so voluble and clever in applying itself to noble and approved language, would likewise pay some attention to actions. For then perhaps in a little while they would become less sophistical, and less strange and astonishing as word-tumblers, if I may use a ridiculous expression about ridiculous behaviour.6 § 2. But since they neglect every path of righteousness, and look only to this one point, namely, which of the propositions submitted to them they shall bind or loose, (like those persons who in the theatres perform wrestling matches in public, but not that kind of wrestling in which the victory is won according to the rules of the sport, but a kind to deceive the eyes of those who are ignorant in such matters, and to catch applause), and every marketplace must buzz with their talking; and every dinner party be made tedious with silly talk and mind-numbing conversation; and every festival be made unfestive and full of dejection, and every occasion of mourning be consoled by a greater calamity – their questions – and all the women’s apartments accustomed to simplicity be thrown into confusion and be robbed of its flower of modesty by the torrent of their words. This being the case, the evil is intolerable and not to be borne, and our Great Mystery is in danger of being made a thing of little moment. Well then, let these spies bear with us, moved as we are with parental compassion, and as holy Jeremiah says, torn in our hearts;7 let them bear with us so far as not to give a savage reception to our discourse upon this subject; and let them, if indeed they can, restrain their tongues for a short while and lend us their ears. However that may be, you shall at any rate suffer no loss. For either we shall have spoken in the ears of those that will hear,8 and our words will bear some fruit, namely an advantage to you (since the Sower sows the Word upon every kind of mind;9 and the good and fertile bears fruit), or else you will depart despising this discourse of ours as you have despised others, and having drawn from it further material for gainsaying and railing at us, upon which to feast yourselves yet more. And you must not be astonished if I speak a language which is strange to you and contrary to your custom, who profess to know everything and to 6 Gregory is comparing the Eunomians with the kind of cir-cus-performers who “tumble,” i.e. do gymnastic tricks – but with words and concepts. 7 Cf. Jeremiah 4.19. 8 Cf. Mark 4.9, 23: “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” 9 Mark 4.14. 2 Theological Orations 1 teach everything in too audacious and high-flying a manner – not to irk you by saying ignorant and rash.