Gregory of Nyssa and the Concept of Divine Persons

Gregory of Nyssa and the Concept of Divine Persons

Author: Lucian Turcescu

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2005-02-17

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 0195174259

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Turcescu offers an in-depth analysis of Gregory's writings about the divine persons. Turcescu's work not only contributes to our knowledge of the history of Trinitarian theology but can be helpful to theologians who are dealing with issues in contemporary ethics.


Gregory of Nyssa Against Eunomius

Gregory of Nyssa Against Eunomius

Author: Saint Gregory of Nyssa

Publisher: Aeterna Press

Published:

Total Pages: 491

ISBN-13:

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It seems that the wish to benefit all, and to lavish indiscriminately upon the first comer one’s own gifts, was not a thing altogether commendable, or even free from reproach in the eyes of the many; seeing that the gratuitous waste of many prepared drugs on the incurably-diseased produces no result worth caring about, either in the way of gain to the recipient, or reputation to the would-be benefactor. Rather such an attempt becomes in many cases the occasion of a change for the worse. The hopelessly-diseased and now dying patient receives only a speedier end from the more active medicines; the fierce unreasonable temper is only made worse by the kindness of the lavished pearls, as the Gospel tells us. I think it best, therefore, in accordance with the Divine command, for any one to separate the valuable from the worthless when either have to be given away, and to avoid the pain which a generous giver must receive from one who treads upon his pearl,’ and insults him by his utter want of feeling for its beauty.


Gregory of Nyssa and the Concept of Divine Persons

Gregory of Nyssa and the Concept of Divine Persons

Author: Lucian Turcescu

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2005-02-17

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 0198038836

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The concept of personhood is central to a wide range of contemporary issues, ranging from reproductive rights to the death penalty and euthanasia. We may think that the concept of person is a modern development. In fact, however, this idea does not originate with our discovery of human rights, consciousness, and individuality. In this study Lucian Turcescu shows that the fourth-century theologian Gregory of Nyssa developed a very sophisticated concept of the person in the context of his attempts to clarify the paradox of the Trinity-a single God comprising three distinct persons. Turcescu offers the first in-depth analysis of Gregory's writings about the divine persons. He shows that Gregory understood personhood as characterized by uniqueness, relationality, and freedom. He reasoned that the three persons of the Trinity have distinctive properties that make them individuals, that is, capable of being enumerated and circumscribed. But this idea of individuation, inherited from the neo-Platonists, falls short of expressing a clear notion of personal uniqueness. By itself it would suggest that a person is merely a collection of properties. Gregory's great contribution was to perceive the importance of relationality to personhood. The three divine persons know and love each other, are in communion with each other, and freely act together in their common will. This understanding, argues Turcescu, adds up to a concept of personal uniqueness much like our modern one. Turcescu's work not only contributes to our knowledge of the history of Trinitarian theology but can be helpful to theologians who are dealing with issues in contemporary ethics.


Passion and Paradise

Passion and Paradise

Author: J. Warren Smith

Publisher: Herder & Herder

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13:

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Does God suffer, and can we be close to God when we suffer? Gregory of Nyssa, on the the three most influential theologians of the early Church, offers a vision of suffering as part of our progess to final union with God.


Gregory of Nyssa, Ancient and (Post)modern

Gregory of Nyssa, Ancient and (Post)modern

Author: Morwenna Ludlow

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2007-09-20

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 0199280762

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The fourth-century Christian thinker, Gregory of Nyssa, has been the subject of a huge variety of interpretations over the past fifty years. Morwenna Ludlow analyses these recent readings, and asks: What do they reveal about modern and postmodern interpretations of the Christian past? What do they say about the nature of Gregory's writing?


Gregory of Nyssa

Gregory of Nyssa

Author: Anthony Meredith

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-10-12

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 1134815115

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Gregory of Nyssa provides a concise and accessible introduction to the thought of this early church father with new translations of key selections of his writings. Anthony Meredith presents a diverse range of Gregory's writings: his contribution to the debates of the period about the nature of God in argument with a form of extreme Arianism his discussion of the nature and work of the Holy Ghost, against the so-called 'Spirit fighters' his defence of the humanity of Christ against those who denied it (notably Apollinarius) the nature of fate and other philosophical issues.


Gregory of Nyssa and the Grasp of Faith

Gregory of Nyssa and the Grasp of Faith

Author: Martin S. Laird

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 0199267995

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Scholars of Gregory of Nyssa have long acknowledged the centrality of faith in his theory of divine union. To date, however, there has been no sustained examination of this key topic. The present study fills this gap and elucidates important auxiliary themes that accrue to Gregory's notion of faith as a faculty of apophatic union with God. The result adjusts how we understand the Cappadocian's apophaticism in general and his so-called mysticism of darkness in particular. After a general discussion of the increasing value of faith in late Neoplatonism and an overview of important work done on Gregorian faith, this study moves on to sketch a portrait of the mind and its dynamic, varying cognitive states and how these respond to the divine pedagogy of scripture, baptism, and the presence of God. With this portrait of the mind as a backdrop we see how Gregory values faith for its ability to unite with God, who remains beyond the comprehending grasp of mind. A close examination of the relationship between faith and mind shows Gregory bestowing on faith qualities which Plotinus would have granted only to the `crest of the wave of intellect'. While Gregorian faith serves as the faculty of apophatic union with God, faith yet gives something to mind. This dimension of Gregory's apophaticism has gone largely unnoticed by scholars. At the apex of an apophatic ascent faith unites with God the Word; by virtue of this union the believer takes on the qualities of the Word, who speaks (logophasis) in the deeds and discourse of the believer. Finally this study redresses how Gregory has been identified with a `mysticism of darkness' and argues that he proposes no less a `mysticism of light'.