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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