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The Cappadocians
After the Emperor Constantine made the Church's faith legal in 313, there was a tremendous flowering of Christian culture and a creative and turbulent encounter between the Christian community and the classical heritage of late antiquity. In the final third of the fourth century the three great Cappadocian Fathers were at the centre of this exciting encounter. Their leader was St Basil, an ecclesiastical statesman, social reformer and monastic founder as well as a theologian. His friend St Gregory of Nazianzus was a brilliant preacher and sensitive poet who gave classic expression to the theology and spirituality of the Holy Trinity in luminous prose and verse. Basil's brother St Gregory of Nyssa was renowned for the depth of his speculative theology and mystical spirituality. Though they collaborated and shared many common perspectives, each had a unique gift and personality.
This book is the first general treatment in English to bring together the three Cappadocians. It introduces the reader to their fascinating lives and writings and shows their connections with the Greco-Roman culture of their age.
This book is the first general treatment in English to bring together the three Cappadocians. It introduces the reader to their fascinating lives and writings and shows their connections with the Greco-Roman culture of their age.
129 pages, Paperback
First published September 14, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 1, 2019
A good, succinct intro to Cappadocian theology. Anthony Meredith spends most of the book on Gregory of Nyssa. While Cappadocian studies have come far since he has written, he handles the primary texts well and points the student in the right direction.
While Gregory Thaumaturgos (“The Wonderworker,” A.D. 275) was not the first great Cappadocian Christians, he was the most important before the “Three.” He was a disciple of Origen.
The Roots of Cappadocian Theology
The Cappadocians received Platonism mediated through Origen (Meredith 10). We participate in the Good through askesis, or training.
Basil of Caesarea
While monasticism had been going strong since the days of St Anthony, with Basil it became a full-powered social force (at least outside of Egypt). Anchoring Basil’s monachism is his theology of the Spirit, so Meredith argues (24). One of the ways the Christian tradition broke with Hellenism, especially in Basil, was the emphasis on and goodness of hard work, manual labor.
For Basil becoming like God and knowing God are strongly connected (like is known by like). He highlights two roles of the Holy Spirit: Perfecting and life-giving. He primarily perfects rational agents by forming virtue in them (30).
Gregory of Nazianzus
“Light” is the most characteristic term Gregory uses for God (43). This structures Gregory’s soteriology as one of enlightenment. Meredith suggests you can trace the argument from Plato’s Republic 7 and Origen’s Peri Archon 2.11 through Orations 9.2 and 27.3.
Gregory’s reliance on Origen’s view that the human soul of Christ is where the union of the divine and human natures take place is seen in Letter 101.
Gregory of Nyssa
Akoulouthia: an underlying coherent pattern.
Eros: With Gregory it becomes the human craving for God.
Unlike Arius, who didn’t want to define the divine nature, the Eunomians defined it as ingeneracy. Different names of God = different natures.
In answering Eunomius, Gregory outlines a brilliant metaphysics. Among other things, the Good cannot be defined by its opposite (CE 1.68). From here Gregory concludes to God’s infinity.
Shoring up their achievements
The Trinity is the divine life. The divine nature does not have an independent reality apart from the persons (105). Meredith explains: “In the Basilian scheme each person of the Trinity can be thought of as a union of the general divine nature and an individual characteristic, sometimes referred to as a tropos hyparxeos or way of existing. So the Father is as it were a compound of divinity + Fatherhood, and so on for the Son and Spirit” (105).
For Gregory of Nazianzus the monarchia is the key term. Yet, it is a flexible term as he seems to mean both the Father and the unity of the Godhead (contrast Oration 42.15 with 5th Theological Oration.14). Which is right? Probably the first. It makes more sense of Gregory’s larger project that the monarchia is the source of order and being (Meredith 107). The only difficulty is that if pressed too hard, it would have the Father as the source of his own being!
Gregory of Nyssa: We infer the unity of being with the unity of action (109). Interestingly, Meredith acknowledges that Gregory does not teach the filioque (110), since Gregory’s Trinity is asymmetrical.
While Gregory Thaumaturgos (“The Wonderworker,” A.D. 275) was not the first great Cappadocian Christians, he was the most important before the “Three.” He was a disciple of Origen.
The Roots of Cappadocian Theology
The Cappadocians received Platonism mediated through Origen (Meredith 10). We participate in the Good through askesis, or training.
Basil of Caesarea
While monasticism had been going strong since the days of St Anthony, with Basil it became a full-powered social force (at least outside of Egypt). Anchoring Basil’s monachism is his theology of the Spirit, so Meredith argues (24). One of the ways the Christian tradition broke with Hellenism, especially in Basil, was the emphasis on and goodness of hard work, manual labor.
For Basil becoming like God and knowing God are strongly connected (like is known by like). He highlights two roles of the Holy Spirit: Perfecting and life-giving. He primarily perfects rational agents by forming virtue in them (30).
Gregory of Nazianzus
“Light” is the most characteristic term Gregory uses for God (43). This structures Gregory’s soteriology as one of enlightenment. Meredith suggests you can trace the argument from Plato’s Republic 7 and Origen’s Peri Archon 2.11 through Orations 9.2 and 27.3.
Gregory’s reliance on Origen’s view that the human soul of Christ is where the union of the divine and human natures take place is seen in Letter 101.
Gregory of Nyssa
Akoulouthia: an underlying coherent pattern.
Eros: With Gregory it becomes the human craving for God.
Unlike Arius, who didn’t want to define the divine nature, the Eunomians defined it as ingeneracy. Different names of God = different natures.
In answering Eunomius, Gregory outlines a brilliant metaphysics. Among other things, the Good cannot be defined by its opposite (CE 1.68). From here Gregory concludes to God’s infinity.
Shoring up their achievements
The Trinity is the divine life. The divine nature does not have an independent reality apart from the persons (105). Meredith explains: “In the Basilian scheme each person of the Trinity can be thought of as a union of the general divine nature and an individual characteristic, sometimes referred to as a tropos hyparxeos or way of existing. So the Father is as it were a compound of divinity + Fatherhood, and so on for the Son and Spirit” (105).
For Gregory of Nazianzus the monarchia is the key term. Yet, it is a flexible term as he seems to mean both the Father and the unity of the Godhead (contrast Oration 42.15 with 5th Theological Oration.14). Which is right? Probably the first. It makes more sense of Gregory’s larger project that the monarchia is the source of order and being (Meredith 107). The only difficulty is that if pressed too hard, it would have the Father as the source of his own being!
Gregory of Nyssa: We infer the unity of being with the unity of action (109). Interestingly, Meredith acknowledges that Gregory does not teach the filioque (110), since Gregory’s Trinity is asymmetrical.
August 13, 2009
Great introduction to the Cappadocian fathers - Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa. Showed how they both assimilated contemporary Greek philosophy and rejected it. These three fathers of the fourth century were extrememely influential, especially in heretic controversies and in framing the Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed. It was very helpful to put them into their cultural and historical context.
July 10, 2019
A good introduction. Now I need to read them all.
February 8, 2025
Great short itroduction to the Cappadocians life and thought, with a more prolonged focus on Gregory of Nyssa (no complaints here)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews