Saint Gregory of Nyssa

Saint Gregory of Nyssa  was a 4th century bishop and theologian, as well as the younger brother of St Basil the Great. As one of the "Cappadocian Fathers", Saint Gregory was among the most important theologians in Christian history, and his work continues to be influential today especially for Eastern Orthodox Christians.  He was an eloquent defender of Christian truth against heresy, and a participant of the Second Ecunemical Council, which formulated the Nicene Creed as we know it today. In this episode, we read from a few of his works, such as  Against Eunomius, On Perfection, and The Life of Moses.

The Christian Saints Podcast is a joint production of Generative sounds & Paradosis Pavilion with oversight from Fr Symeon Kees

Paradosis Pavilion - https://youtube.com/@paradosispavilion9555

https://www.instagram.com/christiansaintspodcast
https://twitter.com/podcast_saints
https://www.facebook.com/christiansaintspodcast
https://www.threads.net/@christiansaintspodcast

Iconographic images used by kind permission of Nicholas Papas, who controls distribution rights of these images

Prints of all of Nick’s work can be found at Saint Demetrius Press - http://www.saintdemetriuspress.com

All music in these episodes is a production of Generative Sounds
https://generativesoundsjjm.bandcamp.com
Distribution rights of this episode & all music contained in it are controlled by Generative Sounds
Copyright 2021 - 2023

Transcript

God is glorious in his saints!
 
 Welcome to the Christian Saints Podcast. My name is Darren Ong, recording from Sepang in Malaysia. In this podcast, we explore the lives of the Christian saints, from the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. Today, we will discuss St Gregory of Nyssa, 4th century bishop and theologian. He came from an illustrious Christian family. He is the younger brother of Saint Basil the great, one of the most important theologians of the early church. Three more saints, Saint Peter of Sebaste, Saint Macrina, and Saint Naucratius count among their siblings. Their parents, Basil the Elder and Emmelia of Caesarea were also recognized as saints. He is one of the “Cappdocian Fathers”, together with his brother Saint Basil and his friend Gregory of Nazianzus. 
 
The fourth century was an interesting time for the Christian faith in the Roman empire. Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of Rome died in 363, and from this time on the Roman empire would be ruled by Christians. However, the Christian church also struggled greatly with heresy in this era. There were several heretical schools of thought that flourished in this time, most prominently the Arian heresy.While Arianism was condemned in the first council of Nicaea in 325, it was still very influential when the Cappadocian fathers were around. Arianism was a heresy that insisted that Jesus Christ, the Son of God was a created being, and therefore a lesser divinity, subordinate to God the father. Gregory and the other Cappodocian fathers argued against these heresies, and so formulated the Orthodox doctrine of the Holy Trinity that Christians believe today, clarifying that Jesus Christ, God the Son had the same essence with God the Father.

 In the year 372 Gregory was made the Bishop of Nyssa. His brother, Basil the great was the one who consecrated him. He was however deposed twice by the machinations of the Arians. After the death of the Roman Emperor Valens, who supported the Arians, Gregory finally had his bishopric restored to him for good. He worked tirelessly combating Arianism and other heresies, and was a driving force behind the second ecunemical council in Constantinople, from which the version of the Nicene creed we use today emerged. This creed reflected the theological efforts of Gregory and the other Cappadocian fathers, in illuminating the truth of the Christian faith.
 
 I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father through Whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; And He rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father; And He will come again with glory to judge the living and dead. His kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Creator of life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke through the prophets.

In one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.

Amen.

***
 
 Gregory of Nyssa’s zeal in defending true Christian doctrine is evident in this letter that he received from his brother Saint Peter of Sebaste, which discusses the 300-page treatise Gregory wrote against Eunomius, an Arian thinker of their time.
 
 To his most pious brother Gregory. Peter greeting in the Lord.

Having met with the writings of your holiness and having perceived in your tract against this

heresy your zeal both for the truth and for our sainted father in God, I judge that this work was not

due simply to your own ability, but was that of one who studied that the Truth should speak, even

in the publication of his own views. To the Holy Spirit of truth I would refer this plea for the truth;

just as to the father of lies, and not to Eunomius, should be referred this animosity against sound

faith. Indeed, that murderer from the beginning who speaks in Eunomius has carefully whetted the

sword against himself; for if he had not been so bold against the truth, no one would have roused

you to undertake the cause of our religion. But to the end that the rottenness and flimsiness of their

doctrines may be exposed, He who “taketh the wise in their own craftiness” hath allowed them

both to be headstrong against the truth, and to have laboured vainly on this vain speech.

But since he that hath begun a good work will finish it, faint not in furthering the Spirit’s power,

nor leave half-won the victory over the assailants of Christ’s glory; but imitate thy true father who,

like the zealot Phineas, pierced with one stroke of his Answer both master and pupil. Plunge with

thy intellectual arm the sword of the Spirit through both these heretical pamphlets, lest, though

broken on the head, the serpent affright the simpler sort by still quivering in the tail. When the first

arguments have been answered, should the last remain unnoticed, the many will suspect that they

still retain some strength against the truth.

The feeling shewn in your treatise will be grateful, as salt, to the palate of the soul. As bread

cannot be eaten, according to Job, without salt, so the discourse which is not savoured with the

inmost sentiments of God’s word will never wake, and never move, desire.

Be strong, then, in the thought that thou art a beautiful example to succeeding times of the way

in which good-hearted children should act towards their virtuous fathers.
 
These questions about the nature of who Jesus is in relation to God the father sometimes seem abstract, esoteric and irrelevant to modern ears. But for Gregory and the other theologians and church leaders in the fourth century who combated these heresies, the question of who exactly is Jesus was fundamental. For instance, the true nature of Jesus played an important role in how Gregory viewed Christian salvation. It was important that Jesus was fully human, so he would truly share a nature with us human beings. But it was also important that Christ was fully divine, of the same essensce with the father, because it is through this divinity that the sin and brokeness of humanity is restored. Gregory speaks of his theology of salvation in his treatise titled “On Perfection”, and both the human and divine natures of Christ play an important role.
 
 The mediator between the Father and those who have lost their inheritance (Jas 4.4) speaks these words; he reconciled through his own person God's enemies to the true, sole divinity. According to the prophetic word (Ps 57.4) men were alienated through sin from the life-giving womb and wandered from this womb [J.206] in which they have been formed; they now speak lies instead of the truth. Because Christ received the first fruits of our common nature through his soul and body, he made it holy and kept it in himself as unmixed and uncontaminated with any evil; by offering [the first fruits of our common nature] through incorruptibility to the Father of incorruptibility, he might draw all those of the same kin and race (Eph 1.5) and adopt the disinherited and God's enemies to share his divinity. Just as purity and detachment united the dough's first fruit with the true Father and God, we, the mass of dough, should cling to the Father of incorruptibility by imitating the mediator's detachment and immutability as far as possible. We will be the crown of the Only-Begotten God made from precious stones, having became his honor and glory through our lives. Paul says "You have made him a little less than the angels" (Heb 2.7-9) through death's sufferings. After having transformed those of a thorny nature which resulted from sin, Christ fashioned a crown for himself through the dispensation of his death; he changed the thorn into honor and glory by his suffering.

Another well-known metaphor that Saint Gregory uses to describe the process of Christian salvation is as apprentices following a master painter, a wonderful analogy that describes how by imitating Christ we eventually express the image of the divine in our lives. Gregory emphasizes that this transformative process is gradual, and requires a great deal of patience. I love this analogy, because it strikes against this mistaken perception that people have about Christian practice, that by obeying Christ you are giving up your freedom, and missing out in living life to its fullnest. On the contrary, this analogy emphasizes that by insisting on following our own way, we only create ugliness in our life. But when we imitate Christ, the master painter, only then can we express ourselves properly, and only then will true beauty emerge in our lives. In this way Christian obedience is liberating, rather than restrictive.

Again, from his treatise “on perfection”.

If we learn the art of painting, our teacher gives us a certain beautiful form on a tablet: each person's painting must imitate that form's beauty so that all our tablets might share the model [J.196] of beauty set before us. If each picture is one's own life while the choice of this work is the artist's and the colors are virtues which express the image, there is a danger that the archetypal beauty's imitation can be remodelled into an ugly, deformed face; instead of the Lord's form we shadow it over with the marks of evil by means of unattractive colors. But it is possible for the virtues' pure colors skillfully combined with each other to imitate beauty that we might be an image of the Image, expressing through our works the prototype's beauty by imitation, as it were, as Paul has done who had become an imitator of Christ by a virtuous life (1Cor 4.16)? If we must distinguish the colors in scripture which present an imitation of the image, one is humility: "Learn from me because I am meek and humble of heart" (Mt 11.29). Another color is patience: How is it manifested in the image of the invisible God?: swords and cudgels, chains and whips, blows [J.197] on the cheeks, face spat upon, a wounded shoulder, a wicked judgment, harsh decree, soldiers enjoying their hostile remarks with mockery, sarcasm and blows from a reed; they offer him nails, gall, vinegar and unimaginable horror, especially in exchange for his innumerable benefits. What defense do we have? "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Lk 23.34). Was it impossible to rend heaven against them, to destroy their violence by splitting the earth open, to cast upon them a rain of fire as upon Sodom and to bring grievous afflictions against them? But Christ bore these afflictions with meekness and patience and gave you an example of patience for your life. By considering all the other aspects pertaining to the archetypal image of God and by adorning oneself according to its splendid form, patience expresses the invisible God's image.
 
Gregory of Nyssa was known to be a very incisive and original thinker, and as a result his writings became very influential in the Christian church, especially in the East. Quite a few distinctive features of Eastern Orthodox thought and theology emerge from Saint Gregory’s writing. Gregory placed a lot of emphasis on the “infinite” nature of God, and how human minds are not capable of fully grasping the concept of God. From his treatise against the heretic Eunomius:
 
Now if any one should ask for some interpretation, and description, and explanation of the

Divine essence, we are not going to deny that in this kind of wisdom we are unlearned,

acknowledging only so much as this, that it is not possible that that which is by nature infinite

should be comprehended in any conception expressed by words. The fact that the Divine greatness

has no limit is proclaimed by prophecy, which declares expressly that of His splendour, His glory,

His holiness, “there is no end :” and if His surroundings have no limit, much more is He Himself

in His essence, whatever it may be, comprehended by no limitation in any way. If then interpretation

by way of words and names implies by its meaning some sort of comprehension of the subject, and

if, on the other hand, that which is unlimited cannot be comprehended, no one could reasonably

blame us for ignorance, if we are not bold in respect of what none should venture upon. For by

what name can I describe the incomprehensible? by what speech can I declare the unspeakable?

Accordingly, since the Deity is too excellent and lofty to be expressed in words, we have learnt to

honour in silence what transcends speech and thought:
 
 As a consequence from this emphasis on the infinitude of God, Gregory develops the via negativa, also known as apophatic theology.
 The via negativa is theological principle that says we should only describe what God is not, since we are not capable of fully grasping what God is. By following this principle, we avoid being presumptious in thinking we understand the deep things of God more than we are capable, and in humility we acknowledge our human limitations. We then become more comfortable with the concept of “mystery” in theology, and don’t expect to be able to explain every facet of Christianity using human logic. From Saint Gregory’s “Life of Moses”:
 
 ***
In my view the definition of truth is this: not to have a mistaken apprehension of being. So whoever applies himself in quietness to higher philosophical matters over a long period of time will barely apprehend what true Being is, that is, what possesses existence in its own nature, and what nonbeing is, that is, what is existence only in appearance with no self-subsisting nature.
 
 The divine word at the beginning forbids that the Divine be likened to any of the things known bymen, since every concept which come from some comprehensible image by an approximate understanding and by guessing at the divine nature constitutes and idol of God and does not proclaim God.,
 
 ***
 
Gregory of Nyssa is also known as the first of the Christian thinkers who condemned the practice of slavery. While there are many verses in the Bible that urge Christians to treat slaves well (for example, St Paul’s epistle to Philemon) Saint Gregory was the first to explicitly condemn the institution of slavery, in his commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes. Here, he discusses Ecclesiastes Chapter 2:7.

I got me slaves and slave-girls, he says, and homebred slaves were born for me.

Do you notice the enormity of the boast? This kind of language is raised up as a challenge to God. For we hear from prophecy that all things are the slaves of the power that transcends all (Ps 119/118,91). So, when someone [p335] turns the property of God into his own property and arrogates dominion to his own kind, so as to think himself the owner of men and women, what is he doing but overstepping his own nature through pride, regarding himself as something different from his subordinates?

335,5. I got me slaves and slave-girls. What do you mean? You condemn man to slavery, when his nature is free and possesses free will, and you legislate in competition with God, overturning his law for the human species. The one made on the specific terms that he should be the owner of the earth, and appointed to government by the Creator – him you bring under the yoke of slavery, as though defying and fighting against the divine decree.

***
 
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Christian saints podcast. I hope you enjoyed learning about Saint Gregory of Nyssa as much as I did. Look for the Christian Saints podcast page on Facebook or Instagram, or look for us on Twitter at podcast_saints. All music in this episode was composed by my good friend, James John Marks of Generative sounds. Please check out his music at https://generativesoundsjjm.bandcamp.com/
To end this episode, let us contemplate a liturgical hymn, the kontakion, that Eastern Orthodox Christian sing to celebrate Saint Gregory of Nyssa’s feast day on January the 10th:

 
You kept watch with the eyes of your soul, holy bishop, / revealing yourself as a watchful pastor for the world. / With the staff of your wisdom and your fervent intercession, / you drove away all heretics like wolves. / You preserved your flock free from harm, most wise Gregory!