St. Gregory of Nazianzus: Select Orations
Overview
This translation makes available nineteen orations by the fourth-century Cappadocian father Gregory of Nazianzus. Most are appearing here in English for the first time. These homilies span all the phases of Gregory’s ecclesiastical career, beginning with his service as a parish priest assisting his father, the elder Gregory, in his hometown of Nazianzus in the early 360s, to his stormy tenure as bishop of Constantinople from 379 to 381, to his subsequent return to Nazianzus and role as interim caretaker of his home church (382–383). Composed in a variety of rhetorical formats such as the lalia and encomium, the sermons treat topics that range from the purely theological to the deeply personal.
Up until now, Gregory has been known primarily for his contributions as a theologian, indifferent to the social and political concerns that consumed his friend Basil. This view will change. It has been due in large measure to the interests and prejudices of the nineteenth-century editors who excluded the sermons translated here from the Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Church. This new translation will help the English-speaking reader appreciate just how deeply Gregory was engaged in the social and political issues of his day.
Exemplifying the perfect synthesis of classical and Christian paideia, these homilies will be required reading for anyone interested in late antiquity. The introduction and notes accompanying the translation will assist both the specialist and the general reader as they seek to navigate the complex environment in which Gregory lived and worked.
For The Fathers of the Church series in its entirety, see Fathers of the Church Series (127 vols.).
Key Features
- An initial English translation well-suited for modern scholarship
- Dispels previously held ideas about Gregory’s social engagement
- One of 127 published volumes in a well-respected series on the Church Fathers
Top Highlights
“For what the Father and Son and Holy Spirit have in common is their divinity and the fact that they were not created, while for the Son and the Holy Spirit it is the fact that they are from the Father. In turn, the special characteristic of the Father is his ingenerateness, of the Son his generation, and of the Holy Spirit its procession.” (Page 172)
“You will never surpass God’s generosity even if you hand over your entire substance and yourself in the bargain. Indeed, to receive in the truest sense is to give oneself to God. No matter how much you offer, what remains is always more; and you will be giving nothing that is your own because all things come from God.” (Page 55)
“knowing the Father in the Son, the Son in the Holy Spirit, in which names we have been baptized” (Page 20)
“causal agent, since the Father is the source of the Son as causal agent, but if you take source” (Page 112)
“Do you think that compassion is not an obligation upon you but a matter of choice? Not rule but recommendation? This is what I myself also should very much like to think, but I stand in terror of his left hand, and the goats,158 and the rebukes leveled against them by the one who has summoned them. They are condemned to take their places on the left not because they stole, or committed sacrilege, or fornicated, or violated any other taboo, but because they did not serve Christ through the poor.” (Page 70)
Praise for the Print Edition
[W]ith the appearance of Vinson’s volume, for the first time all of the orations have English translations. . . . The works contained in her volume are of great interest.
—Nonna Verna Harrison, St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly
[M]ost of these sermons appear here for the first time in an English translation. . . . [R]eading them dose not only provide us with information about a crucial period in the history of the church or about the personal struggle of one of the central figures in that period and not only do we get some glimpses of the concerns of a good pastor in troubled times long past: reading them can inspire to self-reflection and commitment so necessary at all times.
—H. Rikhof, Bijdragen
About Gregory of Nazianzus
Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329 – January 25 389 or 390) (also known as Gregory the Theologian or Gregory Nazianzen) was a 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople. He is widely considered the most accomplished rhetorical stylist of the patristic age. As a classically trained speaker and philosopher he infused Hellenism into the early church, establishing the paradigm of Byzantine theologians and church officials.
