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St Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual Biography
St Gregory of Nazianzus (ca. 390-391) is one of the most important theologians of the early Christian Church and was without question one of the most learned men of his generation. This present study is the first critical analysis of the man, his writings and inner life in the English language. It offers definitive insight into the mind of one of the greatest protagonists of Nicene theology, and through his extraordinary personality, opens a window onto the world of late antiquity and the place of the Christian Church in it.
Alongside Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus is known as one of the Cappadocian Fathers. He worked to bring unity to a church deeply divided by the Arian crisis, and to demonstrate the perennial significance of the Nicene faith. He was the chief architect of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity of co-equal persons in God and an important Christological writer whose works were definitive for the Council of Chalcedon. The fathers of Chalcedon acclaimed him as "Gregory the Theologian," the title by which he has subsequently been known in the Eastern Church. In his dream of a world-culture renewed by the spirit of the Gospel he stands as the veritable founding father of the Byzantine religious synthesis, and his own conception of he vision of God as light made him and important authority for Byzantine spiritual writers.
John McGuckin is Professor of Early Church History at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
- GenresChurch HistoryBiography
437 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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About the author
John Anthony McGuckin
42 books34 followersJohn Anthony McGuckin is the Nielsen Emeritus Professor of Byzantine Christian Studies at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University, and currently professor of early Christianity in the Theological Faculty of Oxford University. An archpriest of the Romanian Orthodox Church and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he has written more than thirty scholarly books. He lives in the UK.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 30, 2024
Wonderful.
"Gregory's last years were plagued by the worries of a man who had searched so deeply into his soul that he knew the paths and byways so intimately he could no longer mask himself from the eyes of God. His last years were spent in external peace and solitude, but the ascesis of the terrible insight into the soul, something he had dedicated all his writing to elucidate, made him, to the very end, a searcher and a struggler." (398)
"Gregory's last years were plagued by the worries of a man who had searched so deeply into his soul that he knew the paths and byways so intimately he could no longer mask himself from the eyes of God. His last years were spent in external peace and solitude, but the ascesis of the terrible insight into the soul, something he had dedicated all his writing to elucidate, made him, to the very end, a searcher and a struggler." (398)
November 8, 2023
Excellent. McGuckin has so many necessary skills for understanding Gregory, his pension for subtext being foremost among them. He has brought to life and man who might otherwise be difficult to decipher solely through his writings.
August 9, 2018
Thirty years ago I probably would have this a great book. But for me today, the biography was far more detailed than I was interested in reading. McGucken is a great scholar and he mines the existing literature by and on St. Gregory for everything its worth, and then he gleans from the already harvested text every thought he can. It is eye opening to see how much of even the great Fathers lives and thoughts were shaped by their social status, the politics of the day, personal relationships (good and bad) and their times. Basically we see how very human these great lions of the church are.
March 31, 2019
One of my favourite historians details the life of my favourite theologian. Read this to learn about one of most brilliant thinkers in church history. Note: this is not an easy read. But it will inform and delight those who persevere to the end.
September 27, 2015
Flow and Highlights
I will capture the flow of Gregory’s life along with crucial highlights. McGuckin’s thesis suggests something along the lines that Gregory “midwifed” a new Christian vision into the old imperium.
Gregory’s Post-Hellenic Vision
Gregory opted for something like a Christian Hellenism, or rather the New Byzantine vision (I understand this language is somewhat anachronistic, since Gregory would have seen himself as a Roman). This method and vision allowed him to bring order to a then inchoate biblical theology. It was a bridge between the Hellenic and Semitic worlds. He was able to hold apparent opposites in creative tensions, and he refused to collapse mystery and symbol into logical deduction (McGuckin10). In fact, in Gregory’s hands Christology is never allowed to escape its proper context of reflection: “the dynamic mystery of the economy of God’s salvation of humankind” (390).
In order to counteract Julian, Christians had to offer an inspiration for a new imperium and society (117ff). Both Gregory and Julian agreed that “a culture cannot be divorced from its religious inspiration without being fatally compromised.” In this battle Gregory forges a keen anti-Hellenic apologetics. Much of it is similar to Augustine, albeit with the promise that Christianity is able to synthesize old and new (121).
Indeed, the birth of Byzantium is the new public confession of the Spirit as homoousion. Gregory’s confession of the Spirit is the positive triumph of what was best in Origen: it is the present spiritualization of the current order and the ascent to divine vision (309). Gregory is able to do what his master could not: correlate the eschatological vision with historical unfolding. Gregory’s social program is connected with his anthropology (151). Image and archetype are reconciled in the hominisation of God as a poor man. The human condition is mixis between clay and divine image.
Theological Method
This is not merely an attack on Eunomios. It is a vision for theology (263). He attacks two theological positions: a) that the Son and Spirit are without cause (agenetos); and b) they are caused by the Father as something other (hetera) to him.
principle of causality: it is something other than what is meant by God’s causing the created order. It indicates the manner in which the Father relates his being to the other two persons.
Feasting in the Spirit
The doctrine of the Spirit is the mean between Jewish monism and Hellenic polytheism (273). Jews celebrate feasts by the letter, Greeks in the body. Christians feast in the Spirit. As McGuckin notes, this fits in with Gregory’s “matrix of liturgical discourse.”
It is through the Spirit that the Father is known and the Son glorified. The idiomata do not define the essence, but are themselves defined in relation to the essence. The three stages of revelation are progressively perfected.
Conclusion:
This is a hard read. And it is not quite the same "kind" of work as McGuckin's masterpiece on Cyril. The latter is a theological commentary; this, as the subtitle makes clear, is an intellectual biography. Still, McGuckin's scholarship is world-class and this is easily the best biography on Gregory.
I will capture the flow of Gregory’s life along with crucial highlights. McGuckin’s thesis suggests something along the lines that Gregory “midwifed” a new Christian vision into the old imperium.
Gregory’s Post-Hellenic Vision
Gregory opted for something like a Christian Hellenism, or rather the New Byzantine vision (I understand this language is somewhat anachronistic, since Gregory would have seen himself as a Roman). This method and vision allowed him to bring order to a then inchoate biblical theology. It was a bridge between the Hellenic and Semitic worlds. He was able to hold apparent opposites in creative tensions, and he refused to collapse mystery and symbol into logical deduction (McGuckin10). In fact, in Gregory’s hands Christology is never allowed to escape its proper context of reflection: “the dynamic mystery of the economy of God’s salvation of humankind” (390).
In order to counteract Julian, Christians had to offer an inspiration for a new imperium and society (117ff). Both Gregory and Julian agreed that “a culture cannot be divorced from its religious inspiration without being fatally compromised.” In this battle Gregory forges a keen anti-Hellenic apologetics. Much of it is similar to Augustine, albeit with the promise that Christianity is able to synthesize old and new (121).
Indeed, the birth of Byzantium is the new public confession of the Spirit as homoousion. Gregory’s confession of the Spirit is the positive triumph of what was best in Origen: it is the present spiritualization of the current order and the ascent to divine vision (309). Gregory is able to do what his master could not: correlate the eschatological vision with historical unfolding. Gregory’s social program is connected with his anthropology (151). Image and archetype are reconciled in the hominisation of God as a poor man. The human condition is mixis between clay and divine image.
Theological Method
This is not merely an attack on Eunomios. It is a vision for theology (263). He attacks two theological positions: a) that the Son and Spirit are without cause (agenetos); and b) they are caused by the Father as something other (hetera) to him.
principle of causality: it is something other than what is meant by God’s causing the created order. It indicates the manner in which the Father relates his being to the other two persons.
Feasting in the Spirit
The doctrine of the Spirit is the mean between Jewish monism and Hellenic polytheism (273). Jews celebrate feasts by the letter, Greeks in the body. Christians feast in the Spirit. As McGuckin notes, this fits in with Gregory’s “matrix of liturgical discourse.”
It is through the Spirit that the Father is known and the Son glorified. The idiomata do not define the essence, but are themselves defined in relation to the essence. The three stages of revelation are progressively perfected.
Conclusion:
This is a hard read. And it is not quite the same "kind" of work as McGuckin's masterpiece on Cyril. The latter is a theological commentary; this, as the subtitle makes clear, is an intellectual biography. Still, McGuckin's scholarship is world-class and this is easily the best biography on Gregory.
July 9, 2012
Amazing source. Presents Naziazus in an historically focused, detailed way. Has great footnotes and summaries. Great resource to own!
May 21, 2022
A bit of a slog to the halfway mark but we’ll worth reading. Particularly interesting in terms of theology proper and the formation of ideas therein. Could’ve been shorter.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews