Lecture 5 - The Great Cappadocian Theologians

Question 1

The 3 Amigos

Answer 1

1. Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus
2. Three of the most outstanding Godly and articulate theologians of the 4th Century. Let alone the entirety of the early church.
3. Out of the region of Cappadocia
   4.

Question 2

Basil the Great (c. 329–379) at Caesarea - the capital of Cappadocia

Family

Answer 2

1. Born to well off Christian family
2. Learned gospel from the women in his life
   
   1. Macrina the Elder. And his mother St. Emelia.
3. Two of his brothers Gregory and Peter were Bishops.
   
   1. Gregory was Bishop of Nyssa
   2. Peter was Bishop of Sebast
4. His younger sister is Macrina the Younger. She is one of the most significant women leaders of the early church.

Question 3

Basil the Great Education

Answer 3

1. Went to school in Constantinople and then ultimately in Athens
2. Studied law, rhetoric, mathematics, philosophy, and logic
3. Meets Gregory of Nazianzus who will become one of his closest friends and allies
4. He will come to know Julian The Apostate
5. The Cappadocians were not against the study of secular subjects, Liberal arts, or Sciences.
6. In their writings, you will find some of the earliest Christian reflections on natural philosophy. And this is really in contrast to much of Greek thought in their day.

Question 4

“We knew only two streets of the city, the first and the more excellent one to the churches, and to the ministers of the altar; the other, which, however, we did not so highly esteem, to the public schools and to the teachers of the sciences. The streets to the theatres, games, and places of unholy amusements, we left to others. Our holiness was our great concern; our sole aim was to be called and to be Christians. In this we placed our whole glory.”

Answer 4

1. Gregory of nazianzus reflects on when he and Basil were together in Athens reflecting on his college years with Basil.
2. They were not distracted by Athens.

Question 5

“When I see every rocky ridge, every valley, every plain, covered with new-grown grass; and then the variegated beauty of the trees, and at my feet the lilies doubly enriched by nature with sweet odors and gorgeous colors; when I view in the distance the sea, to which the changing cloud leads out—my soul is seized with sadness which is not without delight. And when in autumn fruits disappear, leaves fall, boughs stiffen, stripped of their beauteous dress—we sink with the perpetual and regular vicissitude into the harmony of wonder-working nature. He who looks through this with the thoughtful eye of the soul feels the littleness of man in the greatness of the universe.”

Answer 5

1. Gregory of Nyssa
2. Get off your phones and go outside
3. The focus is on the goodness of creation.
4. Seasons affect us and depression is real
5. Natural theology in the Cappadocian stands in contrast to Greek thought.
6. Natural Theology as taught by the Cappadocians, recognizes that earthly beauty speaks of heavenly glory.

Question 6

Natural Theology

Answer 6

1. Natural Theology as taught by the Cappadocians, recognizes that earthly beauty speaks of heavenly glory
2. Basil is known for a series of sermons on creation.
3. “Eternal flowers of heaven, which raise the spirit of man from the visible to the invisible.”
   
   1. Basil on the cool crisp night stars
4. There’s a sense of wonder that really sharpens our thinking about the relationship between creation and The Creator.
   5.

Question 7

“Everything praises God and glorifies Him with unutterable tones; for everything shall thanks be offered also to God by me, and thus shall the song of those creatures, whose song of praise I here utter, be also ours …. Indeed it is now the springtime of the world, the springtime of the spirit, springtime for souls, springtime for bodies, a visible spring, an invisible spring, in which we also shall there have part, if we here be rightly transformed, and enter as new men upon a new life.”

Answer 7

1. Gregory of Nyssa
2. Natural theology really sharpens the eyes of faith.
3. Schaff, helpfully observes that when you read the Cappadocians, you discover that nature is, as Calvin will say, the theater of the glory of God.

Question 8

Basil the Great Monastic Life

Answer 8

1. He returns to Caesarea as a teacher of rhetoric
2. Around ad 360 he travels through Syria and Palestine in Egypt.
3. He begins to be drawn to the monastic life and gives away his possessions
4. He withdraws to the district of Pontus
   5.

Question 9

“God has shown me a region which exactly suits my mode of life; it is, in truth, what in our happy jestings we often wished. What imagination showed us in the distance, that I now see before me. A high mountain, covered with thick forest, is watered towards the north by fresh perennial streams. At the foot of the mountain a wide plain spreads out, made fruitful by the vapors which moisten it. The surrounding forest, in which many varieties of trees crowd together, shuts me off like a strong castle. The wilderness is bounded by two deep ravines. On one side the stream, where it rushes foaming down from the mountain, forms a barrier hard to cross; on the other a broad ridge obstructs approach. My hut is so placed upon the summit, that I overlook the broad plain, as well as the whole course of the Iris, which is more beautiful and copious than the Strymon near Amphipolis. The river of my wilderness, more rapid than any other that I know, breaks upon the wall of projecting rock, and rolls foaming into the abyss: to the mountain traveller, a charming, wonderful sight; to the natives, profitable for its abundant fisheries. Shall I describe to you the fertilizing vapors which rise from the (moistened) earth, the cool air which rises from the (moving) mirror of the water? Shall I tell of the lovely singing of the birds and the richness of blooming plants? What delights me above all is the silent repose of the place. It is only now and then visited by huntsmen; for my wilderness nourishes deer and herds of wild goats, not your bears and your wolves.”

Answer 9

1. Basil
2. Hhe sees this mountain as an idyllic place to meet God
   3.

Question 10

“What is more blessed than to imitate on earth the choir of angels, at break of day to rise to prayer, and praise the Creator with anthems and songs; then go to labor in the clear radiance of the sun, accompanied everywhere by prayer, seasoning work with praise, as if with salt? Silent solitude is the beginning of purification of the soul. For the mind, if it be not disturbed from without, and do not lose itself through the senses in the world, withdraws into itself, and rises to thoughts of God.”

Answer 10

1. I think this is one of the clearest descriptions of the monastic life, of the life of solitude
2. He’s recognizing inwardly, I am confronted with so many demands on my life.
3. Basil encourages us to meditate to soak our souls in God’s word

Question 11

“I have well forsaken my residence in the city as a source of a thousand evils, but I have not been able to forsake myself. I am like a man who, unaccustomed to the sea, becomes seasick, and gets out of the large ship, because it rocks more, into a small skiff, but still even there keeps the dizziness and nausea. So is it with me; for while I carry about with me the passions which dwell in me, I am everywhere tormented with the same restlessness, so that I really get not much help from this solitude.”

Answer 11

1. Basil
2. the real bankruptcy of the monastic life is that you can’t atone for your own sins.
3. You see the blemishes on your soul, even when you are in solitude, you’re confronted with the reality of your own sin. That’s crushing. And the fact is, if you’re by yourself, it would drive you to despair.
4. You seized the blissful confines of solitude. And yet you can never enjoy that solitude because you still are confronted with your own sin.

Question 12

Basil - Solitude

Answer 12

1. Celibacy
2. Withdrawal from the world
3. Meditation on scriptures, prayer and contemplation
4. Renunciation of worldly possessions
5. These are necessary disciplines for taming, sinful passions, and attaining true quietness of the soul.
   6.

Question 13

Bishop of Caesarea Basil the Great

Answer 13

1. 364 Basel made an elder against his will
2. 370, with the cooperation of Gregory his friend, and his father. He was elected Bishop of Caesarea, and all of Cappadocia
3. 50 bishops under him and he was fighting against Arianism

Question 14

“Nothing more? Not one of these things touches me. His property cannot be forfeited, who has none; banishment I know not, for I am restricted to no place, and am the guest of God, to whom the whole earth belongs; for martyrdom I am unfit, but death is a benefactor to me, for it sends me more quickly to God, to whom I live and move; I am also in great part already dead, and have been for a long time hastening to the grave.”

Answer 14

1. Emperor Valens threatened the bishop Basil with banishment and death for defending Nicaea
2. The emperor was about to banish Basil when the emperor’s son was suddenly deathly ill
3. Basel died in 379 two years before the Council of chalcedon

Question 15

Basil the Great “On the Holy Spirit”

Answer 15

1. His most famous work
2. Written in roughly the year 375
3. He defends the deity of the Holy Spirit as the third, distinct person of the trinity.
   
   1. He makes the simple point that scripture gives divine titles to the Holy Spirit.
   2. He is the agent of creation, the ancient of the virgin birth.
   3. So attributes and titles that are reserved for the father and the son are also attributed to the spirit.
4. Basil was a great pastor. He was an ascetic. And he was a great defender of Nicaea, especially in his doctrine of the trinity.

Question 16

Gregory of Nyssa

Answer 16

1. Younger brother of Basil
2. He believed that the call of a Christian was to focus on the things of God, on things that are eternal
3. Gregory of Nyssa marries, but ultimately pursues the monastic life after the death of his wife.
   
   1. His broken heart leads him to the aesthetic life.
      4.

Question 17

“From all the evils of marriage, virginity is free; it has no lost children, no lost husband to bemoan; it is always with its Bridegroom, and delights in its devout exercises, and, when death comes, it is not separated from him, but united with him forever.”

Answer 17

1. Gregory of Nyssa book “On Virginity”
2. Written between 83-70
3. He commends virginity as a higher grade of perfection. And here he depicts the happiness, of those who are unencumbered by marriage
4. Gregory of Nyssa sees celibacy and virginity as a way to marry the church
5. In this sense, virginity is a philosophy of perfect unadulterated freedom in Jesus

Question 18

Gregory of Nyssa - Bishop of Nyssa

Answer 18

1. Basil called him against his will in 372 from a life of solitude
2. He defends the Nicene faith and he battles Arian, heresy
3. Aryans however, succeed in removing Gregory of Nyssa, from office in 376, driving him into exile, but after two years, he ultimately returns to Nyssa.
4. His brother and sister die and he is taken to a very sad place.
   5.

Question 19

“Thou, O God, hast taken from me the fear of death. Thou hast granted me, that the end of this life should be the beginning of true life. Thou givest our bodies in their time to the sleep of death, and awakest them again from sleep with the last trumpet …. Thou hast delivered us from the curse and from sin by Thyself becoming both for us; Thou hast bruised the head of the serpent, hast broken open the gates of hell, hast overcome him who had the power of death, and hast opened to us the way to, resurrection. For the ruin of the enemy and the security of our life, Thou hast put upon those who feared Thee a sign, the sign of Thy holy cross, O eternal God, to whom I am betrothed from the womb, whom my soul has loved with all its might, to whom I have dedicated, from my youth up till now, my flesh and my soul. Oh! send to me an angel of light, to lead me to the place of refreshment, where is the water of peace, in the bosom of the holy fathers. Thou who hast broken the flaming sword, and bringest back to Paradise the man who is crucified with Thee and flees to Thy mercy. Remember me also in Thy kingdom!… Forgive me what in word, deed, or thought, I have done amiss! Blameless and without spot may my soul be received into Thy hands, as a burnt-offering before Thee!”

Answer 19

1. Macrina - sister of Basil and Gregory
2. Gregory puts into her mouth, in a literary form, her teaching on the soul death and resurrection in a book titled “On the Soul and Resurrection”
3. Written by Gregory from the vantage point of his sister who died in his arms.
4. We have this prayer from the Macrina.
5. Macrina was considered one of the great theologians of the early church.
6. asdfas

Question 20

Gregory of Nazianzus

Answer 20

1. Born in the year 330
2. his mother Nona is regarded as one of the noblest and godliest women of Hhe early church.
3. Also called Gregory the Theologian
4. He was an outstanding preacher of the word of God and more specifically, he was an outstanding preacher of the Nicene doctrine of God.
5. With him, you see a union of Greek Theology and Nicene Trinitarianism. He was one of the great champions of trinitarian Orthodoxy.
6. He loved monastic seclusion. He loved poetry, loved nature, loved friendship
7. Gregory of Nazianzus ultimately reluctantly gives in and takes the mantle of leadership, but he never wants it.
8. asdfas

Question 21

“She was a wife according to the mind of Solomon; in all things subject to her husband according to the laws of marriage, not ashamed to be his teacher and his leader in true religion. She solved the difficult problem of uniting a higher culture, especially in knowledge of divine things and strict exercise of devotion, with the practical care of her household. If she was active in her house, she seemed to know nothing of the exercises of religion; if she occupied herself with God and his worship, she seemed to be a stranger to every earthly occupation: she was whole in everything. Experiences had instilled into her unbounded confidence in the effects of believing prayer; therefore she was most diligent in supplications, and by prayer overcame even the deepest feelings of grief over her own and others’ sufferings. She had by this means attained such control over her spirit, that in every sorrow she encountered, she never uttered a plaintive tone before she had thanked God.”

Answer 21

1. Gregory of Nazianzus on his mother Nona
2. Known for her care for the poor and her disdain for heathen women.
3. She had a Ministry to widows and orphans.
   4.

Question 22

The Cappadocians

Answer 22

1. Known for their natural theology,
2. Known for their asceticism, and life of solitude
3. Known for their friendship with each other.
4. Known as the great defenders of trinitarianism in the fourth century

Question 23

Gregory of Nazianzus - Education

Answer 23

1. He went to Caesarea, Palestine, Alexandria, and Athens. He went to the great centers of education
2. He studied science and art
3. adfas
4. he devotes himself to celibacy.
5. He will write an invictus. He will write a diatribe against Julian, the apostate defending Christianity in the Roman world
6. As he came out of his studies in Athens, he wanted to give himself to an aesthetic life where he reduced himself to a diet of bread and water. He would fill his day with prayer and meditation on scripture.
   7.

Question 24

Gregory of Nazianzus - Ministry

Answer 24

1. 361 his father ordained him against his will to get him out of the solitary life.
2. Basil feels like Gregory hasn’t appreciated the opportunity given to him
3. He’s ultimately elected. Bishop of Cappadocia.
4. At the time of the Council of Chalcedony, Gregory is elected the bishop of Constantinople.
5. The Lord used this man more than any other to defend Orthodoxy in the church. H used Gregory to really solidify the Nicene definition of the Trinity.