Gregory of Nazianzus
I am currently at the Oregon Garden in Silverton for our Diocesan Clergy Conference. This message is a repeat from 2012.
Today is the feast day of Gregory of Nazianzus, bishop and theologian, who died on May 9, A.D. 389.
Gregory is rightly seen as one of the fathers of the developed doctrine of the Holy Trinity, a point that should be of interest to those of us who attend Trinity Ashland.
Traditionally, there are eight great Doctors (Teachers) of the ancient Church, four who wrote in Latin (St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Augustine of Hippo, St, Jerome the translator of the Vulgate Bible, and Pope Gregory the Great) and four who wrote in Greek (St. Athanasius of Alexandria, St. John Chrysostom of Syrian Antioch and Constantinople, St. Basil the Great, and St. Gregory of Nazianzus in Asia Minor). 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 mountainous region in what is now Central Turkey.
The arguments in the early Church about the nature of Christ make our modern Anglican arguments about acceptance of Gay and lesbian Christians seem like a calm amiable afternoon tea. Arius and his supporters, pointing to plenty of Old and New Testament passages, argued that Christ was subordinate to God the Father, a created being who had been “begotten” son of God and raised to the role of second person in the Godhead. Athanasius and his followers argued that Christ has always been Son of God, was co-equal with the Father, and was “eternally begotten” of the Father, that is, outside of time and space, because “there had never been a time when he was not Son of God.” The argument had broken into riots, mutual excommunications, murders, and petty wars. The newly Christian Roman Emperor wanted peace and unity in his realm, and so convened the Church bishops in Council at Nicea in A.D. 325. They upheld the position of Athanasius, putting it into a Creed that sought to be acceptable also to Arians. The fight continued, with the Arians now quoting the Creed with their own Arian interpretation. For several decades, the Arians were in the majority, and controlled the Imperial Army. In addition, the division seemed to split the Church along national and ethnic lines.
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.
Within a year, Gregory was consecrated bishop of Constantinople. And when the Emperor called a new Council in 381 to try to resolve the split in the Church, Gregory presided. The Council of Constantinople confirmed in 381 the Athanasian position of the earlier Council of Nicea in 325 and edited the creed so that it was less patient of an Arian reading. The “Nicene Creed” we recite in Church to this day is a translation of the Council of Constantinople’s updated version of the Creed from Nicea.
Further work by the Cappadocian fathers, mainly philosophical and mystical treatises and sermons reflecting on the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, gradually made the Arian argument about the role of Christ increasingly irrelevant and unattractive. Trinitarianism had won the day, though much remained to be resolved about the relationship of Christ's two natures, divine and human.
Almighty God, you have revealed to your Church your eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like your bishop Gregory of Nazianzus, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for you live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
--Fr. Tony+
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