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Popular Patristics Series #23
On God and Christ, The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius: St. Gregory of Nazianzus
Gregory of Nazianzus, "The Theologian," was recognized among the Cappadocian Fathers as a peculiarly vivid and quotable exponent of the doctrine of God in Trinity. A brilliant orator and accomplished poet, he placed before the Church his interpretation of the sublime mystery of the God revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These five sermons, probably delivered as a series at the small chapel of the Resurrection in Constantinople, where Gregory was the bishop in charge of loyal "Nicenes," contain Gregory's profound teaching. The English translation aims to capture for the present-day reader something of the atmosphere of intellectual excitement and spiritual exhilaration experienced by his first listeners. In addition, this work contains a new translation of Gregory's letters to Cledonius, which contain more focused reflections on the person of Jesus Christ, laying the groundwork for later Christology.
175 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 379
About the author
Gregory of Nazianzus
288 books42 followersGregory of Nazianzus (Greek: Γρηγόριος ὁ Ναζιανζηνός Grēgorios ho Nazianzēnos; c. 329–25 January 390), also known as Gregory the Theologian or Gregory Nazianzen, was a 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople, and theologian. He is widely considered the most accomplished rhetorical stylist of the patristic age. As a classically trained orator and philosopher he infused Hellenism into the early church, establishing the paradigm of Byzantine theologians and church officials.
Gregory made a significant impact on the shape of Trinitarian theology among both Greek- and Latin-speaking theologians, and he is remembered as the "Trinitarian Theologian". Much of his theological work continues to influence modern theologians, especially in regard to the relationship among the three Persons of the Trinity. Along with the brothers Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, he is known as one of the Cappadocian Fathers.
Gregory is a saint in both Eastern and Western Christianity. In the Roman Catholic Church he is numbered among the Doctors of the Church; in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches he is revered as one of the Three Holy Hierarchs, along with Basil the Great and John Chrysostom.
He is also one of only three men in the life of the Orthodox Church who have been officially designated "Theologian" by epithet, the other two being St. John the Theologian (the Evangelist), and St. Symeon the New Theologian.
Gregory made a significant impact on the shape of Trinitarian theology among both Greek- and Latin-speaking theologians, and he is remembered as the "Trinitarian Theologian". Much of his theological work continues to influence modern theologians, especially in regard to the relationship among the three Persons of the Trinity. Along with the brothers Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, he is known as one of the Cappadocian Fathers.
Gregory is a saint in both Eastern and Western Christianity. In the Roman Catholic Church he is numbered among the Doctors of the Church; in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches he is revered as one of the Three Holy Hierarchs, along with Basil the Great and John Chrysostom.
He is also one of only three men in the life of the Orthodox Church who have been officially designated "Theologian" by epithet, the other two being St. John the Theologian (the Evangelist), and St. Symeon the New Theologian.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 170 reviews
February 5, 2025
Bro: on God bro?
Gregory: bro on God AND Christ bro
Gregory: bro on God AND Christ bro
October 1, 2020
Greg is the verifiable man.
Rarely does Trinitarian theology crack me up, but my boy Greg kills the absolute game.
In all seriousness, this is a work of satirical, rhetorical art.
Rarely does Trinitarian theology crack me up, but my boy Greg kills the absolute game.
In all seriousness, this is a work of satirical, rhetorical art.
January 10, 2018
I don’t think I was prepared for the humor in this book; St. Gregory is hilariously sarcastic in these orations. I also don’t think I was prepared for the clarity and sophistication of his thought. I cannot comprehend why the works of the patristics are not discussed and explored more often. I get the fact that they are men, who are thus mixed bags (e.g., I read Gregory, and I totally get why Eastern Christianity went down the theosis path), but our historic creeds didn’t come out of a vacuum, and the church fathers who labored at them did serious, conservative, reverent theological work to arrive where they did. The reverence of “On God and Christ” for today is shocking.
June 30, 2014
Gregory was worth the hype. These sermons are theologically rich but still understandable. These works are all centered on the Trinity and the Divine/human nature of Christ. He defends both doctrines from heresy with some of the best and clear explanations I’ve ever heard. He even manages to work in some jokes. What a gift to still be able to read these sermons.
March 5, 2024
St Gregory’s discussion of who should discuss theology (and when and how) is just... wow
April 8, 2026
These five orations were very theological. Specifically, they were theology about Cledonius, which I think is a Greek word about something to do with theology, orations, God or Christ.
November 8, 2025
St. Basil's contemporary Gregory, also of the 300s AD, historically. Refreshing to get a glimpse into some of the oldest documented Christian, extra-biblical writings. One of the biggest encouragements is that these doctrines (trinity, divinity of Jesus incarnate...etc.) were clearly set forth from the earliest Christian witness. Just a couple generations down and we have codified, theological discussions between established Biblical scholars.
Similar to reading Gregory's contemporary St. Basil a few weeks ago, Gregory here also refuses to pull any punches. His bold and direct approach is possible due to his complete confidence in the Scriptures and the truth within. One of my favorites, from the Oration 29 as he calls out those who consider Jesus entirely separate from the Father:
"Make your choice of the alternative blasphemies, you empty-headed theologian, since you are fully intent on blaspheming."
Similar to reading Gregory's contemporary St. Basil a few weeks ago, Gregory here also refuses to pull any punches. His bold and direct approach is possible due to his complete confidence in the Scriptures and the truth within. One of my favorites, from the Oration 29 as he calls out those who consider Jesus entirely separate from the Father:
"Make your choice of the alternative blasphemies, you empty-headed theologian, since you are fully intent on blaspheming."
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November 22, 2024gotta love Greg
January 23, 2024
While I was reading through Nick Needham's volume 1 of 2000 Years of Christ's Power, this work by Gregory of Nazianzus was recommended for reading concerning the trinity. In this short book, Nazianzus addresses God's eternal nature, the personhood of each person of the divine trinity, and several heresies already in circulation (ie Sabellianism; the belief that God is one person, who appears as three different modes of the one person, the Father, Son, and Spirit). Nazianzus distinguishes between the persons of the godhead by using terms "unbegotten", "only-begotten", and "what proceeds from the Father and the Son" to describe God the Father (unbegotten), the Son (the only-begotten), and the Spirit (what proceeds from the Father and the Son). The language that orthodox Christians use today for the Divine Trinity clearly come from Nazianzus' thoughts and works.
September 23, 2023
Gregory is savage and hilarious in his attack against the Eunomian heretics. He argues with precision and beauty. He's purposefully long-winded at times (he tells us this was the rhetorical style of his day), but he always ties it back into the main argument. Gregory's Theological Orations are splendid reflections on the powers and limitations of human reason, the necessity of faith, and the proper use of Scripture.
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October 2, 2023One of my favorite books I've read this year. If I could recommend one church father to read it would be my boy Gregory. His style is akin to Martin Luther. Gives some great illustrations and thoughts on the covenants in Scripture.
July 28, 2025
Dense. Challenging. Rewarding. Gregory says more in a paragraph than most contemporary writers can say in a chapter or even an entire book. Paragraphs 19–20 in Oration 29 are reason enough to read the whole thing.
September 6, 2024
A fascinating read, he was definitely a fiery priest.
September 30, 2024
Gregory was a savage
March 8, 2024
St. Gregory is the most rambunctious of the Church Father’s I’ve read so far, which made this a surprisingly fun and invigorating read.
October 13, 2021
Taking the time to sit under St Gregory’s teaching on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit cultivates a heart of worship and love of a Triune God.
The second oration included brought me to tears as it relentlessly described the majesty, grandeur, and beauty of the Father. Humorous in the way that Gregory refutes those who are against his views, it is often laughable the way he deals with the heretics and impious theologians of his time.
The first oration included in this book should be prerequisite reading for all seminary students; for the conversation of theology should have a time and a place and not become the forefront of all word and speech.
The second oration included brought me to tears as it relentlessly described the majesty, grandeur, and beauty of the Father. Humorous in the way that Gregory refutes those who are against his views, it is often laughable the way he deals with the heretics and impious theologians of his time.
The first oration included in this book should be prerequisite reading for all seminary students; for the conversation of theology should have a time and a place and not become the forefront of all word and speech.
March 2, 2024
Just finished up my second read through this classic and foundational patristic text--this time for doctoral seminars. It is a work so full of rich insights about Trinitarian theology and Christology, that one read is simply not enough to take it all in. This is definitely a top favorite patristic work of mine, and I will certainly be rereading it in the future!
“The unassumed is the unhealed.”
“The unassumed is the unhealed.”
October 31, 2026
“No one has yet discovered or ever shall discover what God is in his nature and essence. As for a discovery some time in the future, let those who have a mind to it research and speculate. The discovery will take place, so my reason tells me, when this God-like, divine thing, I mean our mind and reason, mingles with its kin, when the copy returns to the pattern it now longs after. This seems to me to be the meaning of the great dictum that we shall, in time to come, ‘know even as we are known.'" (49-50).
I am simultaneously impressed and humbled by the way the Cappadocian Fathers understand theology as both a necessary defense of the practice/life of the faith and a creative "grasping" of a revealed Being that transcends language. The church and her theologians today would do well to learn from their posture...
I am simultaneously impressed and humbled by the way the Cappadocian Fathers understand theology as both a necessary defense of the practice/life of the faith and a creative "grasping" of a revealed Being that transcends language. The church and her theologians today would do well to learn from their posture...
May 21, 2026
Read orations 3-5. Oration 3 being all about ways to approach theology, 4 being about Christ and his many names and attributes and distinctions from God the Father, and oration 5 all about the Holy Spirit. I probably enjoyed oration the most! This is a helpful work to better understand the Trinity and worth revisiting later! Also has some funny jabs at ancient opponents of orthodox Trinitarian formulations
October 18, 2025
This work is so important. Gregory’s sermons are incredibly rich, including a careful exposition of the truth that eternal relations of origin within the Trinity do not necessitate subordination. On my most recent read, I am especially thankful for Gregory’s instruction regarding the appropriate context for theological discussion and the necessity for personal holiness in those with the desire to pursue theological study.
October 4, 2021
Probably my favorite after Athanasius On the Incarnation. Memorable, punchy, and refreshing.
September 21, 2023
So many riches to be taken from this work!
April 8, 2026
Gets one star off for the fact that I had to read it for school lol.
December 23, 2025
An excellent classic!
August 18, 2023
Simply incredible!
September 4, 2020
Written in a Q&A format. Very clear....and he has some really fun zingers that keep you moving along. That said, the 4th Century patristics on the Trinity is what we need today. They are worth plowing through, despite their difficulty. You'll need to read with a pair of patristic lenses in order to understand how they exegete and why they ask the questions they ask of the text. (1) Read the Nicene Creed 2 or 3 times before reading and you'll understand their questions better. (2) They are concerned with, very rightly, the creator/creature distinction. IOW, God is not like us! which pushes us to ask the hard questions act the divinity of the Son and the Spirit. Either he is or he isn't divine and that is all the difference. There is an infinite distance between the creator and the created or creation. This gives us a hermeneutical key for which to read the whole of Scripture.
October 2, 2020
Great theology (though a bit too neo-platonic at times), impressive prose, but a bit of an obnoxious author.
On my second read-through (which was sort of an accident) I'm less concerned about the neo-Platonism, since I see better now how he modifies it through Scripture. I'm also struck now (likely because this was assigned for a "classics of personal devotion" course) by how, well, devotional the orations are. The primary aim in all the arguing and theologizing is awe of God's glory, shock at his incarnation, and gratefulness for his gospel.
On my second read-through (which was sort of an accident) I'm less concerned about the neo-Platonism, since I see better now how he modifies it through Scripture. I'm also struck now (likely because this was assigned for a "classics of personal devotion" course) by how, well, devotional the orations are. The primary aim in all the arguing and theologizing is awe of God's glory, shock at his incarnation, and gratefulness for his gospel.
October 31, 2020
The five theological orations of Gregory are among the best writings I have read in my seminary education and my Christian life. I will forever be in this man's debt for my understanding of the work of theology and the doctrine of God. For deeper engagement with this work, see my essay "Old Doctrine in New Clothes" on aaronvday.wordpress.com
June 17, 2016
Doing a little digging into the Cappadocian Fathers. A great piece of theology, with some excellent words toward frivolous theologians at the beginning of the First Theological Oration!
October 21, 2026
“You see how we become dizzy with the theme and can get no further than the stage of being aware of angels and archangels, thrones, dominions, princedoms, powers, of glowing lights, ascents, intellectual powers or minds, beings of nature pure and unalloyed Fixed, almost incapable of changing for the worse, they encircle God, the First Cause, in their dance.”
He doesn’t like when people focus so much on the cosmic aspect of Christianity and I agree. I cringe when people talk about armies of darkness as if they see or know what their actions are and if they do…what can we do about it because only God can do smth
“But, it may be said, "he begat" and "he has been begotten" can and must bring in the idea of a beginning of this process of generation. Why not say then instead, "he has existed as begotten from the beginning," and so avoid your labored objections with their penchant for time? Will you accuse us of falsifying a Scriptural truth?”
As Jesus is an eternal being and tf exists beyond time as does God, he is eternally begotten as there isn’t a time when the son was not.
“He was begotten yet he was already begotten of a woman. And yet she was a virgin. That it was from a woman makes it human, that she was a virgin makes it divine. On earth he has no father, but in heaven no mother. All this is part of his Godhead.”
New thing for me that I didn’t consider.
“I have failed to find anything in this world with which I might compare the divine nature. If a faint resemblance comes my way, the more significant aspect escapes me, leaving me and my illustration here in this world. I had the idea, indeed others have had it too, of a source, a spring, and a river…I pondered over was that of Sun, beam, and light…best to say "goodbye" to images and shadows, deceptive and utterly inadequate as they are to express the reality.”
I too may give up with analogies to the trinity.
Disregarding his teachings which I barely fit any in here because I’m lazy and decided to quote a few, he’s really funny.
Funny quotes:
“Make your choice of the alternative blasphemies, you empty headed theologian, since you are fully intent on blaspheming”
“I only wish they would display comparable energy in their actions: then they might be something more than mere verbal tricksters, grotesque and preposterous word-gamesters.“
“So much for that objection! This next one of theirs is like it in being outrageously provocative…They then bind us round with what they think are strong cords, but really are feeble ones.”
“Here again we have crude, bodily ideas, from crude, bodily people.”
“If you want to take the joke further you could say, as the trashy myths of old did, that God coupled with his own will and fathered the Son.”
Crazy statement that I had to reread to make sure he was saying what I think he was saying
“If the fact that the Biblical text does not very clearly or very often call him “God"…is the cause of your blasphemy, your inordinately verbose irreligion, we shall release you from this mischief by a brief disquisition on things and names, with special reference to Biblical usage.”
He doesn’t like when people focus so much on the cosmic aspect of Christianity and I agree. I cringe when people talk about armies of darkness as if they see or know what their actions are and if they do…what can we do about it because only God can do smth
“But, it may be said, "he begat" and "he has been begotten" can and must bring in the idea of a beginning of this process of generation. Why not say then instead, "he has existed as begotten from the beginning," and so avoid your labored objections with their penchant for time? Will you accuse us of falsifying a Scriptural truth?”
As Jesus is an eternal being and tf exists beyond time as does God, he is eternally begotten as there isn’t a time when the son was not.
“He was begotten yet he was already begotten of a woman. And yet she was a virgin. That it was from a woman makes it human, that she was a virgin makes it divine. On earth he has no father, but in heaven no mother. All this is part of his Godhead.”
New thing for me that I didn’t consider.
“I have failed to find anything in this world with which I might compare the divine nature. If a faint resemblance comes my way, the more significant aspect escapes me, leaving me and my illustration here in this world. I had the idea, indeed others have had it too, of a source, a spring, and a river…I pondered over was that of Sun, beam, and light…best to say "goodbye" to images and shadows, deceptive and utterly inadequate as they are to express the reality.”
I too may give up with analogies to the trinity.
Disregarding his teachings which I barely fit any in here because I’m lazy and decided to quote a few, he’s really funny.
Funny quotes:
“Make your choice of the alternative blasphemies, you empty headed theologian, since you are fully intent on blaspheming”
“I only wish they would display comparable energy in their actions: then they might be something more than mere verbal tricksters, grotesque and preposterous word-gamesters.“
“So much for that objection! This next one of theirs is like it in being outrageously provocative…They then bind us round with what they think are strong cords, but really are feeble ones.”
“Here again we have crude, bodily ideas, from crude, bodily people.”
“If you want to take the joke further you could say, as the trashy myths of old did, that God coupled with his own will and fathered the Son.”
Crazy statement that I had to reread to make sure he was saying what I think he was saying
“If the fact that the Biblical text does not very clearly or very often call him “God"…is the cause of your blasphemy, your inordinately verbose irreligion, we shall release you from this mischief by a brief disquisition on things and names, with special reference to Biblical usage.”
Displaying 1 - 30 of 170 reviews