Theological Term of the Week: Gregory of Nyssa

Gregory of Nyssa
One of the Cappadocian fathers, brother of Basil of Caesarea, bishop of Nyssa, and one of the Eastern Church’s “outstanding theologians and teachers on the spiritual live.”1 He lived from 335-394. 

• From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. H. Needham:

Among Gregory’s anti-Arian writings were his Against Eunomius, his Sermons on the Holy Spirit against the Spirit-fighting Macedonians, and his Letter to Ablabius that there are not Three Gods. The Eastern Church soon came to recognise him as on of their outstanding theologians and teachers on the spiritual life. His fame as an opponent of Arianism was so great that the assembled father of the Council of Constantinople asked Gregory to deliver the opening address. Gregory’s overflowing admiration for Origen led him to accept Origen’s doctrine of universal salvation; later theologians tried to rescue Gregory’s orthodoxy by arguing that other followers of Origen had inserted into Gregory’s writings the passages which teach universalism, but there is no evidence for this, and the passages are too numerous. The more realistic attitude taken by others was that Gregory of Nyssa was a holy man and a great theologian who had sadly erred on this particular point.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: Who was Gregory of Nyssa? and Who were the Cappadocian Fathers?
2. Theopedia: Gregory of Nyssa
3. Credo Magazine: Gregory of Nyssa

Related terms:

• Ambrose of Milan
• Athanasius
• Basil of Caesarea
• Gregory of Nanzianzus
• Irenaeus of Lyons
• Justin Martyr
• Origen
• Sabellius
• Tertullian

Filed under Christian History

1From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. R. Needham.

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Sunday's Hymn: The King of Love My Shepherd Is

The King of Love my Shepherd is,
Whose goodness faileth never;
I nothing lack if I am his
And he is mine for ever.

Where streams of living water flow
My ransomed soul he leadeth,
And, where the verdant pastures grow,
With food celestial feedeth.

Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love he sought me,
And on his shoulder gently laid,
And home, rejoicing, brought me.

In death’s dark vale I fear no ill
With thee, dear Lord, beside me;
Thy rod and staff my comfort still,
Thy cross before to guide me.

Thou spread’st a table in my sight;
Thine unction grace bestoweth;
And O what transport of delight
From thy pure chalice floweth.

And so through all the length of days
Thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise
Within thy house for ever.

 —Hen­ry W. Bak­er

Other hymns of worship songs for this Sunday:

• Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise at The Happy Wonderer 

Selected Reading, May 1, 2021

 

A couple things you should read this weekend.

Christian History

Robert Jermain Thomas
A fascinating story of a missionary well-known in Korea, but not known at all to me. Do you know this story?

Gregory of Nanziansus
The theological term for this week is a Cappadocian Father. 

Christology

Why Jesus’s Humanity Matters as Much as His Divinity
“[T]he apostle John makes Jesus’s humanity a test of orthodoxy: ‘By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God’ (1 John 4:2). And whoever rejects the reality that Jesus came “in the flesh” is called an ‘antichrist’ (1 John 4:3).”

So why it matters so much that Jesus is truly human? Michael Kruger explains.