On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius Charles M. Stang Gregory of Nazianzus On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius Translated by Frederick Williams and Lionel WickhamPopular Patristic SeriesCrestwood: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2002 Pp. 176. $12.95. These translations of Gregory of Nazianzus' Five Theological Orations were made by Frederick Williams and Lionel Wickham in the 1970s (Williams is responsible for the first oration, Wickham the rest). This edition, however, is not [End Page 249] their first appearance in print. Frederick Norris used these translations as the basis for his excellent commentary, Faith Gives Fullness to Reasoning (Leiden: Brill, 1991). For this popular and affordable edition, Wickham has added a translation of two of Gregory's letters to his deputy Cledonius as well as his own introduction and notes. Such an edition has been long overdue, and, as in so many other instances, we have the Popular Patristic Series of St. Vladimir's Seminary Press to thank for its delivery. While Wickham's brief introduction is successful enough, readers wanting a fuller introduction and more detailed notes would do well to look to Norris' study. Tradition has it that Gregory delivered these five orations in the Church of the Resurrection in Constantinople, where he had been called in early 379 to serve a pro-Nicene community besieged by the Arian party that then dominated the city. He had been called from the convent of St. Thekla, a monastic retreat near Seleucia, where he had enjoyed four years of quiet contemplation, free from theological and ecclesiastical controversy. The community had been wise to call a well rested churchman, for Gregory was soon plunged into a religious and political maelstrom that involved the ascension of the new emperor Theodosius, whose theological commitments were unclear. Gregory is thought to have delivered his five orations between two auspicious events. The first, in February 380, was Theodosius' edict that established the Nicene Creed as the official teaching of the Empire. The second, in November of that same year, was Theodosius' ultimatum that the Arian bishop of Constantinople either accept the Creed of Nicaea or suffer exile. The bishop chose exile, and so the city was delivered to the pro-Nicenes and the bishopric to Gregory. In 381 Gregory served as the president of the Council of Constantinople, whose creed confirmed and expanded on that of Nicaea. It is largely on the basis of these five orations that Gregory was honored with the title "Theologian." They take up such enormous issues as the balance struck between God's transcendence and immanence, the incomprehensible nature of the Godhead, the unity of the three consubstantial persons in the Trinity, the dual natures of the Incarnate Word, and the full divinity of the Holy Spirit. Gregory is like Janus looking backward and forward, poised between the controversies of the fourth and fifth centuries, recalling Nicaea and anticipating Chalcedon. His adversaries in these orations are many, but one demands his special attention: the Eunomians (also called the Aetians, Anomeans, and Neo-Arians). The Eunomians held that the title "unbegotten" designated the nature or the essence of the Father. Likewise they defined the nature of the Son as "begotten." It follows that the Son was not consubstantial with the Father. But since the Eunomians held that certain "authentic" names designate essence, they contended that we might in this life comprehend the nature of the divine through these titles. Gregory argues not only that "unbegotten" is unscriptural (a criticism which the Eunomians bring to bear on the Nicene treatment of the Son and the Spirit), but that there is nothing to suggest that any of the titles of God, scriptural or not, circumscribe his nature. Instead he asserts, "our starting-point must be the fact that God cannot be named." Arius himself believed in the incomprehensible nature of the Father, which is [End Page 250] why he drove a wedge between his incomprehensible Father, on the one side, and the Son and Spirit, on the other. It is ironic, then, that the Eunomians have been termed "Neo-Arians," for while their motivation may be consistent with...