St Gregory of Nazianzus
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Gregory Nazianzen. He was born at Nazianzus in Cappadocia in Asia Minor in the fourth century. He is one of the three Cappadocian Fathers, the other two being St. Basil of Caesarea and St. Gregory of Nyssa. St. Gregory Nazianzus was educated at Athens along with St. Basil and the two became lifelong friends. He later returned to his native Cappadocia and through the influence of St. Basil was consecrated a bishop. This was part of St. Basil’s attempt to restore orthodoxy in the Church after the decades when the Arian heresy had been dominant. St. Gregory was subsequently appointed Patriarch of Constantinople and played an important role in at the Council of Constantinople in 381, which finally reasserted the orthodox faith after the decades when Arianism had seemed triumphant. Despite his crucial role in championing orthodoxy his time as Patriarch of Constantinople was short and unsuccessful. He was not a natural leader and proved out of his depth in attempting to exercise the role of Patriarch. He was therefore persuaded to resign as Patriarch and returned to his native Cappadocia where he lived a life of monastic seclusion until his death in 389.
It is appropriate that we are keeping his feast today after keeping the feast of St. Athanasius last week. Whereas St. Athanasius was the great champion of orthodoxy in the first part of the fourth century, the Cappadocian fathers were the great champions of orthodoxy in the last part of the fourth century. As we saw last week St. Athanasius had insisted against Arianism on the formula homoousios (of one substance) in order to safeguard the full divinity of the Son, and had said that the only difference between the Father and the Son was that the Father was Father and not Son. The problem that St. Athanasius had encountered had been that he had never devised a satisfactory terminology for describing both the unity of the Three Persons of the Trinity as well as their distinction as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This achievement would be the work of the Cappadocian Fathers. They used the term ousia (substance or essence) to describe the unity of the Triune God and hypostasis (person) to describe the distinctiveness of the Three Persons of the Trinity. They were therefore able to assert orthodoxy against both Modalism (which denied the distinctiveness of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) and Arianism (which denied that the full divinity of the Son). They spoke of the Father as the source of the Godhead, the Son as eternally begotten of the Father and the Spirit as proceeding from the Father. They had therefore successfully formulated a satisfactory terminology for defending the Orthodox faith that St. Athanasius had championed at the Council of Nicea in 325. It was this faith that was upheld at the Council of Constantinople in 381 (which was subsequently recognised as the Second of the Seven great Ecumenical Councils which defined the Orthodox faith).
The other great achievement of St. Gregory Nazianzus was to defend not only the full divinity of the Son, but also his full humanity. This had been denied by Apollinarius of Laodicea. Apollinarius had been a friend and strong supporter of St. Athanasius against Arius. Unfortunately, as is often the case, he went so far in opposition to one error that he fell into the opposite error. He believed that the best way to combat Arianism and assert the full divinity of the Son was to deny his full humanity by stating that in contrast to other human beings, the Son in his incarnation had no human mind, but only a divine mind. St. Gregory of Nazianzus rightly saw that this was as fatal an error as Arianism because it denied that the only begotten Son of the Father had truly become man. If the Son in his incarnate life on earth had no human mind, but only a divine mind he would not have been truly human and there would have been no true incarnation. St. Gregory combated this heresy by stating that “the unassumed is unhealed”. If the Son of God had not truly become man with a human mind as well as a human body then he would not be truly the Saviour and Redeemer of men because he was not himself true man. Whereas Arianism had undermined the Gospel of salvation because it proclaimed a redeemer who was not the creator (because it denied the full divinity of the Son), Apollinarianism undermined the Gospel because it proclaimed a redeemer who did not become truly man and so could not be the Saviour of our fallen race. For only one who had truly assumed human nature could heal it.
The importance of St. Gregory of Nazianzen in defending the orthodox doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation is therefore not simply a matter of abstract theological speculation, but essential to the defence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as true God and true man. While the Orthodox faith is meaningless if it is not given any practical application (for the tree is known by the fruits that it produces), if we are not orthodox in doctrine it will undermine the practical application of the faith. Without a clear theological basis underpinning our action we will be in danger of being carried about by every wind of changing opinion. This is what had happened during the period of the Arian crisis in the middle decades of the fourth century. It required much serious thought and prayer to reassert orthodoxy and produce a satisfactory terminology for defending the faith against error. The case of St. Gregory of Nazianzus is especially interesting in that it shows what can still be achieved by someone who was not a natural leader nor especially successful as a bishop. He had the necessary humility to recognise that he was not the right person to be Patriarch of Constantinople and to return to a life of prayer and study. It was through his writings that he would subsequently be remembered. Indeed, he has subsequently been accorded the title of Gregory the Theologian on the strength of his writings.
Let us pray that we will be given grace to follow the example of St. Gregory Nazianzen and be witnesses to the orthodox faith in our own time and place.
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