The Threatened Series - 8
Gregory of Nyssa (330-395), Bishop of Nyssa, was the younger brother of
Basil. Biography from the ODCC:
"Though early destined for an ecclesiastical career he temporarily
became a rhetorician, but returned to his first vocation and entered a
monastery founded by his brother. He was consecrated Bp. of Nyssa,
c.371. A supporter of the faith of Nicæa, he was deposed by the Arians
in 376 and remained in exile until the death of the Emp. Valens in 378,
when he regained his see. In 379 he attended the Council of Antioch,
and in the next year he was elected Bp. of Sebaste, but protested and
was soon replaced by his brother Peter. After the Council of
Constantinople in 381, the Emp. Theodosius I charged him to promote
orthodoxy in the civil diocese of Pontus. In his later life he was
much in demand as a preacher. In 394 he took part in the Council of
constantinople convoked by the Patr. Nectarius; he seems to have died
soon afterwards."
Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 5, is devoted to the
works of Gregory of Nyssa, as follows:
I. Dogmatic treatises:
1. Against Eunomius. This Eunomius was an Arian bishop, specifically
an Anomoean (i.e. the most extreme party of the Arians: see 'The
Threatened Series - 6'). He had set out his views in an 'Apology'
which was answered by Basil; Eunomius then wrote a 'Second Apology'.
ODCC comments, 'His chief importance for the history of theology lies
in the reaction his theses provoked, esp. from the Cappadocian Fathers,
whose doctrine of God and of human knowledge of God largely took shape
as a critique of Eunomius.
2. Answer to Eunomius' Second Book.
3. On the Holy Spirit against Macedonius. Macedonius (d. 362) was
Bishop of Constantinople and a supporter of the 'Semi-Arian' cause (see
'The Threatened Series - 6'). He was believed to be (though this may
not be correct) the founder of the 'Pneumatomachi', those who 'fought
against' the Holy Spirit by denying his full divinity. Gregory affirms
his divinity:
"We confess that, save His being contemplated with peculiar attributes
in regard of Person, the Holy Spirit is indeed from God, and of the
Christ, according to Scripture; but that, while not to be confounded
with the Father in being never originated, nor with the Son in being
the Only-begotten, and while to be regarded separately in certain
distinctive properties, He has in all else, as I have just said, an
exact identity with them." p. 315.
"If then, the Holy spirit is truly, and not in name only, called Divine
both by Scripture and by our Fathers, what ground is left for those who
oppose the glory of the Spirit? He is Divine, and absolutely good, and
Omnipotent, and wise, and glorious, and eternal . . ." p. 316.
You can't say fairer than that.
4. On the Holy Trinity.
5. On "Not Three Gods" to a certain Ablabius. Against 'Tritheism',
the teaching that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct Gods.
6. On the Faith.
II - VI The volume also contains Ascetical and Moral, Philosophical,
Apologetic and Oratorical treatises, together with the letters of
Gregory; which are of less concern to us in this context.
ODCC again:
"He was an ardent defender of the Nicene dogma of the Trinity, and
distinguished carefully between the generation of the Son and the
procession of the Holy Spirit. the Second Person of the Trinity was
incarnate in the womb of Mary, who therefore is truly Theotokos [Mother
of God, or more literally 'God-bearer'], for Christ is one Person in
two natures."
The Supple Doctor.
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