Gregory of Nyssa was a younger brother of Basil the Great. He
was born sometime around 335 and almost nothing is known about his youth. He
probably studied at home in Caesarea. Gregory later said that his brother Basil
was his teacher and he always spoke of him with reverence, describing him as the
equal of the apostles who came after them only in time. He admitted that "I
lived with my brother for only a short period, and only received as much
instruction from his divine tongue as was necessary for me to understand the
ignorance of those uninitiated in the secrets of eloquence." In other words,
Basil taught him only rhetoric. Gregory names his sister Macrina as the other
important teacher of his youth, and his reminiscences of her are full of
gratitude. Gregory grew up in an atmosphere of culture and asceticism, but
little else is known about the details of his education.
In his youth Gregory was greatly attracted by the study of
philosophy. Even after he had entered the clergy as a reader he became a teacher
of rhetoric and devoted himself to the study of pagan literature. This
displeased his family and friends. Gregory the Theologian wrote to him in
friendly reproof: "What has happened to you, O wisest of men? Others do not
praise you for this ignoble glory or for your gradual descent to the lower life,
or for your ambition, which, in the words of Euripides, is the worst of all
demons . . . Why have you become angry with yourself that you should throw away
the sacred books, filled with sweet waters, which you once used to read to the
people . . . and take up with books filled with salt water that are impossible
to drink? Why do you prefer to be called a rhetorician than Christian?" Gregory
admonished him to come to his senses and to vindicate himself before God and the
faithful, before the altars and the sacraments from which he had distanced
himself.
During the period of his distraction by secular philosophy
Gregory also studied Origen, who had an enormous influence on him. He read Philo
and Theognostus as well. Gregory's Origenism was later modified under the
influence of Basil, who purposefully directed his epistle on trinitarian
terminology to Gregory in the fear that Gregory was straying from orthodoxy.
Gregory's enthusiasm for secular learning was only temporary, and he later
condemned the worldly sciences as fruitless: "They constantly suffer pains of
labor which never culminate in new life." However, he always remained a
Hellenist through the influence of Origen.
Gregory acceded to the influence of his family and returned to
the ministry. He married but continued to live a chaste and ascetic life. It
seems that he temporarily retired to his brother Basil's monastery on the shores
of the Iris in Pontus. Gregory did not have a strong character and his
experience with life was limited. During the controversy which followed Basil's
election to the see of Caesarea, Gregory unsuccessfully tried to make peace
between Basil and their uncle by forging letters. Basil told him that the earth
should open up beneath him for such actions but he later accepted his brother's
repentance and was completely reconciled with him. After this incident it is
easy to see why Basil considered Gregory unfit for serious responsibility and
objected when Gregory was nominated as an envoy to Rome: "He is inexperienced in
the affairs of the Church." However, in 371 he consecrated Gregory bishop of the
town of Nyssa.
Gregory helped his brother in the struggle against heresy not
by his activity in Church administration but as a writer and theologian. He was
persecuted for his orthodoxy and brought to trial in Galatia. In 375
Demosthenes, the governor of Cappadocia whom Basil described as a "friend of the
heretics," ordered him to be taken into custody. In 376 he was condemned in
absentia and was deposed for misappropriation of funds and for his "illegal"
consecration. Gregory spent three years in exile and returned to his see only in
379 after the death of Valens. He was greeted by popular rejoicing. His return
to Nyssa was shortly followed by the deaths of Basil and then Macrina. This was
a heavy blow for Gregory. One of his letters to the monk Olympius contains a
moving account of the last days of his sister, who was herself an outstanding
Christian and ascetic.
Gregory considered himself the heir to his brother's labors and
immediately began to work on the writings which Basil had left unfinished,
including the commentary on the Hexaemeron and the polemic against
Eunomius. Friends recognized him as a worthy successor to his brother. At the
Antiochene council of the 146 fathers in 379 he was sent on a mission to report
on the condition of the Church in Arabia, which was rumored to be corrupt and
heretical. Possibly he visited the Holy Land at this time, but some scholars
consider that this journey took place later. The Palestinian Church had been
without spiritual leadership for some time (St. Cyril spent altogether thirteen
years in exile), and corruption was widespread. Gregory was greeted with
suspicion and immediately became involved in controversy with the
Apollinarians.
The abuses in the Holy Land made a painful impression on
Gregory, and for this reason he disapproved of the custom of pilgrimages. They
could be especially harmful for women, whose purity and chastity were often
endangered in the course of such voyages. Palestine was overflowing with vice
and every kind of impiety. Furthermore, Gregory wrote: "Why should you try to do
that which is not done by the saints or others who are close to the Kingdom of
Heaven?" The Lord did not command us to go to Jerusalem as a good deed. "What
advantage is gained by those who visit these places? It is not as if the Lord
has been living there in the body until the present day, but has gone away from
those of us who live in other lands; or as if the Spirit is flourishing in
Jerusalem, but is unable to come to us here . . . A change of place does not
bring God closer to you. No matter where you may be, the Lord will come to you
if your soul is such that He can dwell and walk in you. But if the inner man in
you is full of deceit, then even if you stand on Golgotha, or on the Mount of
Olives, or under the memorial of the Resurrection, you are as far from receiving
Christ into yourself as one who has not even begun to confess faith in Him." On
the contrary, "the true Bethlehem, and Golgotha, and Mount of Olives, and
Resurrection, are all found in the heart of the man who has God." What will we
find in Jerusalem that is new? "We will find that the Christ who was manifest
there was the true God, but we confessed this before we came to Jerusalem, and
after our journey our faith has neither diminished nor increased. We also knew
that He became man through the Virgin before we were in Bethlehem. We believed
in the Resurrection of the dead before we saw His tomb. We confessed the reality
of the Assumption before we saw the Mount of Olives." It is more important to
"travel forth from the body to our Lord than to travel from Cappadocia to
Palestine."
In 381 Gregory took part in the Second Ecumenical Council. By
this time he was a well-known and influential figure. Through an edict of the
emperor on July 30, 381, Gregory was included among the bishops who were to be
regarded by orthodox believers as the central authorities of the Church
Communion. Prelates were nominated from each province, and Gregory shared the
nomination from Pontus with Helladius of Caesarea and Otreius of Melitane. His
later relations with Helladius caused him much difficulty.
In 382 and 383 Gregory was again present at the councils in
Constantinople and continued his struggle against the Arians. He made the
acquaintance of the nun Olympiada, who was greatly respected for her piety by
John Chrysostom. In 394 Gregory participated in a council on the affairs of the
Church in Arabia. This is the last event in his life of which we have definite
knowledge. He probably died in 394. Even during the life of John Chrysostom he
disappeared from public notice. A few fragments of information have been
preserved about the last years of his life and seem to indicate that his
authority was widely respected and that he continued to be influential in Church
affairs, although he probably spent little time in Nyssa.
Gregory's contemporaries considered him the great defender of
orthodoxy against the Arians and Apollinarians, the "pillar of orthodoxy" and
"the father of the fathers." This reputation was later questioned during the era
of Origenist controversy. At one point Gregory's name was not included in a list
of the "selected fathers," and his immediate influence diminished. However,
later at the Seventh Ecumenical Council he was again named "the father of the
fathers." Critical discussion of Gregory's theology began as early as the fourth
century, and Barsanuphius has given the reason for this reevaluation. "Many
saints who became teachers surpassed their own instructors by receiving approval
from above to set forth a new teaching. At the same time, however, they
preserved what they had received from their former instructors, even when this
teaching was false. After these men became spiritual teachers they did not pray
to God to reveal to them whether that which their earlier instructors had taught
them had truly been inspired by the Holy Spirit. Since they respected the wisdom
of their instructors, they did not examine their words. They did not ask God if
these words were true." Gregory's theology had been developed under the
influence of Origen, and thus it contained elements of school tradition along
with orthodox Church doctrine. Gregory's system was never condemned as a whole
but it was later purged of its Origenism.
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment