Part 1
Gregory of Nazianzus
Five Theological Orations
Translated with an introduction and
notes by
Stephen Reynolds
©Estate of Stephen Reynolds 2011
The Rev'd Dr. Stephen Reynolds 1951-2011
This translation was produced for students in the well-known course "Three Personed-God", which Stephen Reynolds taught in the Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College six times between 2001 and 2009.
David Neelands, Dean of Divinity, Trinity College
iii
Table of Contents
Introduction v The First Theological Oration, Preliminary Discourse 1 The Second Theological Oration, On Theology 13 The Third Theological Oration, On the Son, 1 45 The Fourth Theological Oration, On the Son, 2 71 The Fifth Theological Oration, On the Holy Spirit 97
Introduction
REGORY of Nazianzus (330 – 389) has been treated as one of the brightest stars in the firmament of the Christian tradition. The Orthodox name him "The Theologian"1 – a title they accord only one other, St John the Apostle and Evangelist – and honour him with two feastdays, January 25th and January 30th. The western Catholic tradition has ranked him among "the Four Doctors of the Eastern Church"2 and honoured him on May 9th. (When the Roman Catholic church revised its Calendar in 1969, Gregory was joined with Basil the Great in a single memorial on January 2nd.3
) In spite of these accolades, Gregory has not received anything like the attention that western scholars have devoted to other ancient writers. This is especially true in the English-speaking world. Until recently, the only major modern study of Gregory in English is Rosemary Radford Ruether's Gregory of Nazianzus: Rhetor and Philosopher (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969). Ms Ruether has since moved on to other issues. This work is still well worth consulting, but it has now been supplanted by a full-scale, even magisterial study: John McGuckin's Saint Gregory of Nazianzus. An Intellectual Biography (Crestwood, N.Y.: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2001).
The standard English translation of Gregory's Five Theological Orations has been the one produced by Charles Gordon Browne and James Edward Swallow for the Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, volume 7 (1893). I have used this translation in the past, but with mounting misgivings. So, for this course
, I went back to the Greek text and began to revise Browne and Swallow's version. It turned out to be a major undertaking. Browne and Swallow produced a truly awful translation – it is so literal as to be incomprehensible as English, and at many others points it is not only inaccurate but downright wrong. In my revision, I have used The Five Theological Orations of Gregory of Nazianzus, ed. Arthur James Mason (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1899); and besides the Greek text there established, it will be clear that I have been heavily indebted to Mason's notes on the text. I have also consulted the French translation
1 The title is meant in the strictest possible sense: Gregory defended the divinity (theo-) of the Word (logos) who became flesh (cf. John 1.1-14).
2 The other three are Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, and Cyril of Alexandria. "The Four Doctors of the Western Church" are Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, and Gregory the Great. Doctor, of course, is the Latin word for "teacher" – as in the BAS designation, "Teacher of the Faith". 3 In the Calendar of the Anglican Church of Canada's Book of Common Prayer (1962), Gregory is to be commemorated on the traditional western date, May 9th. The Calendar of the church's Book of Alternative Services (1985) adopted the new Roman usage and appoints Gregory's memorial, with Basil the Great, on January 2nd.
Basil died on January 1st in 379; the Orthodox continue to honour him, alone, on that date. In the Roman Calendar of 1969, however, January 1st is now the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God; the BAS Calendar made the same date the festival of the Baptism of the Lord. Since feasts of our Lord (and, in the mentalité of Roman Catholicism, any feast of our Lady is tantamount to a feast of our Lord) take precedence over all other festivals, the memorial of Basil and Gregory had to be postponed by one day.
produced by Paul Gallay in the Sources chrétiennes series, No. 250 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1978). Again, Gallay's annotations, though less detailed than Mason's, have been very helpful.
The First Theological Oration
(Oration 27)
Preliminary Discourse against the Disciples of Eunomius
Y argument is addressed to those who take pride in their own eloquence – so, to begin with a text of Scripture: I am against you, O arrogant one,1 not only in your system of teaching, but also in the way you hear things, and in your cast of mind. For the ears and tongues of certain persons – and not only their ears and tongues but also (I now see) even their hands – are eager to scratch at our words.2 They are people who delight in profane chatter, and in paradoxes of pseudo-knowledge, and in wranglings over words, which tend to no profit.3 For thus does Paul, the preacher and establisher of the Word cut short,4 the disciple and teacher of the fishermen,5
1 Jeremiah 50.31.
2 Cf. 2 Timothy 4.3-4: "For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths." 3 Cf. 2 Timothy 2.14b, 16: "Warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening…. Avoid profane chatter, for it will lead people into more and more impiety." 4 Cf. Romans 9.28: "For the Lord will finish his work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make the sentence shortened on the earth." 5 In Gregory's view, Paul was the "disciple" of Simon Peter and John ("the fishermen") in the sense that he followed or came after them. Paul was also "the teacher" (or "master") of "the fishermen" not only in the sense that he trained Timothy and Titus, who as his companions and fellowworkers fulfilled the apostolic mission of "fishing for people" (cf. Mark 1.17), but in the sense that he rebuked Peter for not being "straightforward about the truth of the gospel" (Galatians 2.11-14).
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call all that is excessive or superfluous in discourse. But as to those to whom we refer, would that they, whose tongue is so voluble and clever in applying itself to noble and approved language, would likewise pay some attention to actions. For then perhaps in a little while they would become less sophistical, and less strange and astonishing as word-tumblers, if I may use a ridiculous expression about ridiculous behaviour.6
§ 2. But since they neglect every path of righteousness, and look only to this one point, namely, which of the propositions submitted to them they shall bind or loose, (like those persons who in the theatres perform wrestling matches in public, but not that kind of wrestling in which the victory is won according to the rules of the sport, but a kind to deceive the eyes of those who are ignorant in such matters, and to catch applause), and every marketplace must buzz with their talking; and every dinner party be made tedious with silly talk and mind-numbing conversation; and every festival be made unfestive and full of dejection, and every occasion of mourning be consoled by a greater calamity – their questions – and all the women's apartments accustomed to simplicity be thrown into confusion and be robbed of its flower of modesty by the torrent of their words. This being the case, the evil is intolerable and not to be borne, and our Great Mystery is in danger of being made a thing of little moment. Well then, let these spies bear with us, moved as we are with parental compassion, and as holy Jeremiah says, torn in our hearts;
7 let them bear with us so far as not to give a savage reception to our discourse upon this subject; and let them, if indeed they can, restrain their tongues for a short while and lend us their ears. However that may be, you shall at any rate suffer no loss. For either we shall have spoken in the ears of those that will hear,8 and our words will bear some fruit, namely an advantage to you (since the Sower sows the Word upon every kind of mind;9
and the good and fertile bears fruit), or else you will depart despising this discourse of ours as you have despised others, and having drawn from it further material for gainsaying and railing at us, upon which to feast yourselves yet more.
And you must not be astonished if I speak a language which is strange to you and contrary to your custom, who profess to know everything and to
6 Gregory is comparing the Eunomians with the kind of cir-cus-performers who "tumble," i.e. do gymnastic tricks – but with words and concepts. 7 Cf. Jeremiah 4.19. 8 Cf. Mark 4.9, 23: "Let anyone with ears to hear listen!" 9 Mark 4.14.
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teach everything in too audacious and high-flying a manner – not to irk you by saying ignorant and rash.
§ 3. Not to every one, my friends, does it belong to philosophise about God10
– not to every one. The subject is not so cheaply acquired, nor is it for earth-bound minds. And I will add, not before every audience, nor at all times, nor on all points; but on certain occasions, and before certain persons, and within certain limits.
Philosophising about God does not belong to all persons, because it is permitted only to those who have been examined and have a solid footing in contemplation [theoria], and who have been previously purified in soul and body, or at the very least are being purified. For the impure to touch the pure is, we may safely say, not safe, just as it is unsafe to fix weak eyes upon the sun's rays. And what is the permitted occasion? It is when we are free from all external defilement or disturbance, and when that which rules within us
is not confused with vexatious and roving impressions, like persons mixing up good writing with bad, or filth with the sweet odours of unguents. For it is necessary to be truly at leisure to know God; and when we can get a convenient season, to discern the straight road of the things divine. And who are the permitted persons? Those to whom the subject is of real concern, and not those who make it a matter of pleasant gossip, like any other thing, after the races, or the theatre, or a concert, or a dinner, or still lower activities. To such people, idle jests and pretty contradictions about these subjects are a part of their amusement.
10 to philosophise about God (peri theou philosophein): This phrase might be translated as "to do theology," for that is what Gregory basically meant here. Using the term theology to designate "the study of God" as a distinct discipline was not current in Gregory's day, nor did it become so until the late Middle Ages. But translating "philosophising about God" as "doing theology" or "theologising" would not only be an anachronism; it would also lose some of the nuance that Gregory intended. "Philosophy" referred to and embraced far more than the modern notion of philosophy as an academic discipline. It was not a matter of abstract speculation in a vacuum (or an ivory tower), any more than it was a matter of what nowadays often passes for philosophy, wisecracks outfitted in GAP duds. "Philosophy" was for Gregory a rigorous discipline of the whole self for the sake of meditating on, and knowing, what is truly real – in this case, the mystery of God. Thus, to be a "philosopher about God" was not only to be a student or teacher of propositions concerning divinity; it was to be a lover of the highest and truest Wisdom, which is the knowledge of God.
11 that which rules within us: i.e. the reason or the rational soul.
Gregory of Nazianzus
Next, on what subjects and to what extent may we philosophise? On matters within our reach, and to such an extent as the mental power and grasp of our audience may extend. No further, for just as excessively loud sounds injure the hearing, or too much food the body, or just as excessive burdens beyond the strength of the bearers injure them, or excessive rains the earth – so too these hearers may be pressed down and overborne by the difficulty of the arguments and may even lose some of the understanding that they originally possessed.
§ 4. Now, I am not saying that it is not needful to remember God at all times. I must not be misunderstood, or I shall be having these nimble and quick people down upon me again. For we ought to think of God even more often than we draw our breath; and if the expression is permissible, we ought to do nothing else. Indeed, I am one of those who entirely approve that word which bids us meditate day and night,12 and cry out in the evening, in the morning, and at noon day,13 and bless the Lord at all times;14 or, to use Moses's words, when one lies down, or when one gets up, or when one walks on the road, or whatever else one is doing15 – and by this recollection we are to be moulded to purity. So that it is not the continual remembrance of God that I would hinder, but only the talking about God. Nor do I consider even that to be wrong in itself, but only when inappropriate; nor do I object to teaching about God, but only to lack of judgement in doing so. As eating too much honey, even though it is honey, makes one vomit;16 and, as Solomon and I think, there is a time for every thing,17
and that which is good ceases to be good if it be not done in a good way; just as a flower is quite out of season in winter, and just as a man's clothing does not become a woman, nor a
12 Cf. Psalm 1.2: "Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night."
13 Psalm 55.17. 14 Psalm 34.1. 15 Cf. Deuteronomy 6.7: "Recite [these words] to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise." 16 Cf. Proverbs 25.16: "If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, or else, having too much, you will vomit it." even though it is honey: The idea is that honey is one of the very best of things in itself. 17 Ecclesiastes 3.1.
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woman's a man; and as geometry is out of place in mourning,18
or tears at a party – shall we in this instance alone disregard the proper time, in a matter in which discretion should be respected most of all?
§ 5. Surely not, my friends and brethren – for I will still call you "brethren," even though you do not behave like brothers. Let us not think so, nor yet, like excited and ungovernable horses, throwing off our driver Reason, and spitting out the bit of restraining Reverence, let us run wide of the turning post.
19 Instead, let us philosophise within our proper bounds, and not be carried away into Egypt, nor be swept down into Assyria,20 nor sing the Lord's song in a strange land,21 by which I mean before any kind of audience, strangers or kindred, hostile or friendly, sympathetic or unsympathetic, who watch what we do with a critical eye, and would like the spark of what is wrong in us to become a flame, and secretly kindle and fan it and raise it to heaven with their breath and make it higher than the Babylonian flame which burnt up every thing around it.22
For since their strength lies not in their own teachings, they hunt for it in our weak points. And therefore they apply themselves to our – shall I say "misfortunes" or "failings"? – like flies to wounds. But let us at least be no longer ignorant of ourselves, or pay too little attention to the due order in these matters. And if it be impossible to put an end to the existing hostility, let us at least agree upon this, that we will utter mysteries under our breath, and holy things in a holy manner, and we will not cast to profane ears that which may not be uttered, nor give evidence that we possess less gravity than
18 as geometry is out of place in mourning. Some ancient writers classified geometry as part of musical studies, and thus as something fun to do. There is no accounting for tastes.
19 nor yet, like excited and ungovernable horses … run wide of the turning post. Gregory's metaphor has to do with chariot races in the hippodrome of Constantinople: he compares reason ("that which rules within us") with the driver of a chariot. The turning post was the point round which the charioteer had to steer his vehicle to begin the second lap of the race; the tighter the turn, the better for the charioteer's chances of winning, placing, or showing. 20 not be carried away into Egypt, nor be swept down into Assyria. Cf. Hosea 9.3: "They shall not remain in the land of the LORD; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria they shall eat unclean food." 21 Psalm 137.4 (LXX 136.4). 22 the Babylonian flame which burnt up every thing around it. Daniel 3.1923 (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abegnego thrown into the furnace).
Gregory of Nazianzus
those who worship demons and serve shameful fables and deeds; for they would sooner give their blood to the uninitiated than certain words. But let us recognise that as in dress and diet and laughter and behaviour there is a certain decorum, so there is also in speech and silence; since among the many titles and powers of God, we pay the highest honour to "Word". Let even our disputes then be kept within bounds.
§ 6. Why should someone who is a hostile listener to such words be allowed to hear about the begetting of God or God's creation,23 or how God was made out of things which had no existence, or of section and analysis and division?24 Why do we make our accusers our judges? Why do we put swords into the hands of oar enemies?25 Think for a minute: how, or with what temper, will arguments about such subjects be received by those who approve of adulteries and the corruption of children, and who worship the passions and cannot conceive of anything higher than the body, who until quite recently set up gods for themselves – and gods, at that, who were noted for the vilest deeds? Will it not first be from a material standpoint, shamefully and ignorantly, and in the sense to which they have been accustomed? Will they not make your theology a defence for their own gods and passions? For if we ourselves wantonly misuse these words,26 it will be a long time before we shall persuade them to accept our philosophy. And if they are in their own persons inventors of evil,27
how should they refrain from grasping at such things when
23 the begetting of God or God's creation. Gregory here alludes to the different positions of the Nicene and Arian movements regarding the status of the Son of God. The Nicene movement insisted that the Son was "begotten (gennethenta), not made (poiethenta);" the Arians, that the Son was created (genethenta), that is, made.
24 or how God was made out of things which had no existence, or of section and analysis and division. These are Eunomian refinements of the basic Arian position. 25 Why do we make our accusers our judges? Why do we put swords into the hands of oar enemies? The Eunomians, it seems, had a habit of discussing theological issues and promoting their own views at the drop of a hat, regardless of who was present. Gregory is saying that this allows pagans to despise the Christian faith which Nicenes and Eunomians both profess. 26 these words. "Begetting [of God]" and "[God's] creation," mentioned in the first sentence of this section. 27 Romans 1.30.
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offered to them? Such results come to us from our rivalry. Such results dog those who fight for the Word beyond what the Word approves – they are behaving like insane persons who set their own house on fire, or abuse their own children, or disavow their own parents and treat them as strangers.
§ 7. But when we have excluded from the conversation whatever is alien to it,28 and sent the great legion on its way to the abyss in the herd of swine,29 the next thing is to look to ourselves, and polish our theological self to beauty like a statue. The first point to be considered is: – What is this great rivalry of speech and endless talking? What is this new disease of insatiability? Why have we tied our hands and armed our tongues? We do not praise either hospitality, or brotherly love, or conjugal affection, or virginity; nor do we admire liberality to the poor, or the chanting of Psalms, or nightlong vigils, or tears. We do not subdue the body by fasting, or go forth to God by prayer; nor do we subject the worse to the better – I mean the dust to the spirit30 – as they would do who form a just judge-ment of our composite nature. We do not make our life a preparation for death, nor do we make ourselves masters of our passions, mindful of our heavenly nobility; nor tame our anger when it swells and rages, nor our pride that brings about a fall,31 nor unreasonable grief, nor ignorant pleasure,32
nor insincere laughter, nor undisciplined eyes, nor insatiable ears, nor excessive talk, nor absurd thoughts, nor any of the
28 when we have excluded from the conversation whatever is alien to it. Gregory does not mean pagan persons but pagan notions and attitudes which had entered into Christian discourse. 29 sent the great legion on its way to the abyss in the herd of swine. Mark 5.1-13. 30 I mean the dust to the spirit. Cf. 1 Corinthians 15.46-49: "But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven." 31 our pride that brings about a fall. Cf. Proverbs 16.18: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." 32 ignorant pleasure. Gregory is not condemning all pleasure; he is deploring senseless pleasure, pleasure which does know why it is pleased, or what is truly pleasing, and so is indiscriminate and ephemeral.
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occasions which the Evil One gets against us from sources within ourselves; bringing upon us the death that comes through the windows, as Holy Scripture says;33
that is, through the senses. Indeed, we do the very opposite, and have given liberty to the passions of others, as kings give releases from service in honour of a victory, only on condition that they incline to our side, and make their assault upon God more boldly, or more impiously. And we give them an evil reward for a thing which is not good, license of tongue for their impiety.
§ 8. And yet, O chatty dialectician, I will question you a little, and you shall declare to me, as the One who answers through whirlwind and cloud says to Job.
34 Are there many dwelling-places in God's house,35 as you have heard, or only one? Of course you will admit that there are many, and not only one. Now, are they all to be filled, or only some and others not, so that some will be left empty and will have been prepared to no purpose? Of course all will be filled, for nothing can be in vain which has been done by God. And can you tell me what you will consider this dwelling-place to be? Is it the rest and glory which is in store there for the blessed, or something else? – "No, not anything else." – Since then we are agreed upon this point, let us further examine another also. Is there anything that procures these different dwellingplaces, as I think there is; or is there nothing? – "Certainly there is." – What is it? Is it not that there are various modes of conduct, and various aims, one leading one way, another leading another way, according to the proportion of faith, and these we call ways? Must we, then, travel all, or just some, of these ways – the same individual travelling along them all, if that is possible, or, if not, along as many as may be; or else along some of them? And even if this may not be, it would still be a great thing, at least as it appears to me, to travel excellently along even one. – "You are right in your conception." – When you hear there is but one way, and that narrow,36
what then does the word seem to you to mean? That there is but one way, on account of its excellence. For it is but one, even though it may be split into many parts. And it is narrow because of its difficulties, and because it is trodden by few in
33 the death that comes through the windows. Cf. Jeremiah 9.21: "Death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces, to cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares."
34 Job 38.1, 3 35 John 14.2. 36 there is but one way, and that narrow. Cf. Matthew 7.13-14: "Enter through the narrow gate…. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it."
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comparison with the multitude of the adversaries and of those who travel along the road of wickedness. – "So I think too." – Well, then, my good friend, since this is so, why do you, as though condemning our doctrine for a certain poverty, rush headlong down that way which leads through what you call arguments and speculations, but I frivolities and quackeries? Let Paul reprove you with those bitter reproaches in which, after his list of the gifts of grace, he says, Are all apostles? Are all prophets? etc.37
§ 9. But it may be as you say. You are high, even higher than the heights, even above the clouds – if you wish, a spectator of things invisible, a hearer of things unspeakable,
38 one who has ascended after Elijah,39 and who after Moses has been deemed worthy of the vision of God,40 and after Paul has been caught up into heaven. Why then do you set up your companions as saints and ordain them as theologians all in a single day, and as it were breathe into them instruction and make them many councils of ignorant oracles? Why do you entangle those who are weaker in your spider's web, as if it were something great and wise? Why do you stir up wasps' nests against the faith? Why do you suddenly spring a flood of dialectics upon us, as the myths of old say that the earth sprouted the giants?41
Why have you collected, like offscourings, every worthless thing that has human form into one torrent, and having made them sillier by flattery, fashioned a new workshop, cleverly making a harvest for yourself out of their want of understanding?
§ 10. Do you deny these things? Do you care for nothing but controversy? Must your tongue rule you at any cost, and can you not restrain the throes of your talk? You may find many other deserving subjects for discussion. Turn this disease of yours to these with some advantage. Attack the silence of Pythagoras, and the Orphic beans, and that preposterous brag, "Himself has
37 1 Corinthians 12.29. 38 a spectator of things invisible, a hearer of things unspeakable. Cf. 2 Corinthians 12.2, 4: "I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven…, into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat." 39 2 Kings 2.11. 40 Exodus 34.6. 41 In ancient Greek mythology, the giants not only sprang out of earth but also warred against the gods. Therein lies the edge of Gregory's allusion – that the Eunomians, like the mythic giants, were waging war on God.
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spoken."42 Attack the "Ideas" of Plato,43 and the transbodiments and circulations of our souls,44 and the reminiscences,45 and the unlovely loves for lovely bodies, though directed to the beloved's soul. Attack the atheism of Epicurus, and his atoms, and his doctrine of pleasure, unworthy of a philosopher;46
or Aristotle's petty Providence, and his artificial system, and his discourses about the mortality of the soul, and the exclusively human focus of
42 Attack the silence of Pythagoras, and the Orphic beans, and the novel brag about "Himself has spoken." Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher and mathematician who flourished in the sixth century B.C.E. He developed a philosophy which was also a religious cult. Novices underwent several years' probation, during which they had to maintain total silence; and the rule of the Pythagorean master was absolute, such that all discussion came to an end as soon as he announced Αυτος εφα (Autos epha – "Himself has spoken"). One strain of Pythagoreanism assimilated elements of the Orphic cult, an ancient Greek mystery religion devoted to Orpheus (of "and Eurydice" fame); as part of its strict dietary laws, members were forbidden to eat beans, on the grounds that they held human souls at an early stage of their migration toward humanity.
43 the "Ideas" of Plato. In Plato's thought, Ideas were the eternal archetypes or patterns of all existing things, according to which divine Reason formed those things. 44 the transbodiments and circulations of our souls. Another of Plato's doctrines was that souls "migrated" after death (and a thousand-year waiting period) from one body to another body; the type of body to which the soul migrated depended on the soul's merit in its previous venue – if good, it might pass from an elephant's body to a human's; if bad, from a human body to that of a snake. 45 the reminiscences. A reference to the previous doctrine. Plato held that the soul "remembers" the knowledge it acquired in a previous embodiment. 46 the atheism of Epicurus, and his atoms, and his doctrine of pleasure, unworthy of a philosopher. Epicurus (ca. 340-270 B.C.E.) was a thoroughgoing materialist who held that pleasure was the only unmitigated good and pain the only unmitigated evil. In his view, "atoms" were the primary materials which made up everything, and they were eternal. He did not deny the existence of the gods, just that they had any impact or influence on the life of the world.
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his teachings.47 Attack the haughtiness of the Stoa,48 or the greed and vulgarity of the Cynic.49
Attack for me the emptiness that is full of absurdities – all that stuff about the gods and the sacrifices and the idols and demons, whether beneficent or malignant, and all the tricks that people play with divination, the calling up of gods or of souls, and the power of the stars. And if these things seem to you unworthy of discussion as petty and already often confuted, and you wish to keep to your line, and seek to satisfy your ambition in it; then here too I will provide you with broad paths. Philosophise about the world or worlds; about matter; about soul; about natures endowed with reason, good or bad; about resurrection, about judgement, about reward, or the sufferings of Christ. For in these subjects to hit the mark is not useless, and to miss it is not dangerous. But with God we shall have converse, in this life only in a small degree; but a little later, it may be, more perfectly, in the Same, our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory for ever. Amen.
47 Aristotle's dismissive treatment of Providence, … and the exclusively human focus of his teachings. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) was the first truly systematic philosopher in that he sought to construct an account of reality according to an intelligible system, working from physical entities back to first principles. He conceived of a divine First Unmoved Mover who (or which) started the creative process but did not interfere thereafter – hence Gregory's remark about Aristotle's dismissive treatment of Providence. The rest of Aristotle's "theology" is very thin, so that his philosophy can seem to be (as Gregory complains) devoid of any serious or sustained reference to the divine. 48 the haughtiness of the Stoa. The Stoa was a colonnade in Athens where the philosopher Zeno of Citium (ca 335-ca. 263 B.C.E.) gathered his disciples; hence the name "Stoic". Zeno and the Stoics opposed Epicurus (see fn. 46) and preached apatheia, the eradication of all feeling so that one might be absolutely unmoved by any external force and thus completely free. This made their teaching seem "haughty". 49 the Cynic. Cynics sought total freedom by despising and indeed consciously outraging social conventions – they cultivated "freeloading," performed bodily functions, even copulated, in public, and refused to bathe.
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The Second Theological Oration
Oration 28
On Theology
N the previous Discourse we laid down clearly what sort of character theologians ought to have, and on what kind of subject they may philosophise, and when, and to what extent. We saw that theologians ought to be pure (as far as possible), in order that light may be apprehended by light; and that they ought to consort with thoughtful people, in order that their word may not be fruitless through falling on an unfruitful soil;1 and that the suitable season is when we have gained an inner calm from the whirl of outward things; so that we are not like those panting with rage and lose our breath; and that the extent to which we may go is that to which we have ourselves advanced, or to which we are advancing. Since then these things are so, and we have broken up for ourselves the fallow ground of divinity so as not to sow upon thorns,2 and have levelled the surface of the ground,3
being formed and forming others by Holy Scripture – let us now enter upon theological questions, setting at the chief the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, of whom we are to treat; that the Father may be well pleased, and the Son may help us, and the Holy Ghost may inspire us; or rather that one illumination may come upon us from the one God, one in diversity, diverse in unity – which is the marvel itself.
§ 2. Now when I eagerly go up on to the Mount
– or, to use a truer expression, when I both eagerly long and at the same time am anxiously
1 Cf. Mark 4.18-19: "And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful."
2 Cf. Jeremiah 4.3: "For thus says the LORD to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns."
3 Cf. Isaiah 28.25: "When they have levelled its surface, do they not scatter dill, sow cummin, and plant wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and spelt as the border?"
4 Gregory here begins a meditative "riff" on Exodus 19, the story of the Israelites camped before Mount Sinai.
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fearful (the one through my hope and the other through my weakness) to enter within the cloud and hold converse with God, for so God commands – then, if any be an Aaron, let him go up with me, and let him stand near, being ready, if it must be so, to remain outside the Cloud. But if any be a Nadad or an Abihu, or of the Order of the Elders, let him go up indeed, but let him stand afar off, according to the value of his purification.5 But if any belong to the multitude who are unworthy of this height of contemplation, if they are altogether impure let them not approach at all, for it would be dangerous for them. But if they are at least temporarily purified, let them remain below and listen to the Voice alone and to the trumpet, the bare words of piety, and let them see the mountain smoking and lightning, at once a terror and a marvel to those who cannot go up. But if any are evil and savage beasts, and altogether incapable of taking in the topics of contemplation and theology, let them not hurtfully and malignantly lurk in their dens among the woods, to catch hold of some teaching or saying by a sudden spring, and to tear the sound words 6 to pieces by their misrepresentations. Instead, let them stand afar off and withdraw from the Mount, or they shall be stoned and crushed and perish miserably in their wickedness. For to those who are like wild beasts true and sound discourses are stones. If they are a leopard let them die with their spots.7 If they are a ravening and roaring lion, seeking what they may devour of our souls or of our words;8 or a wild boar, trampling under foot the precious and translucent pearls of the Truth;9 or an Arabian wolf and a stranger,10
or one keener even than these in tricks of argument; or a jackal
5 Cf. Exodus 24.1-2: "Then [the LORD] said to Moses, 'Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship at a distance. Moses alone shall come near the LORD; but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.' "
6 1 Timothy 6.3; 2 Timothy 1.13. 7 If they are a leopard let them die with their spots. Cf. Jeremiah 13.23: "Can Ethiopians change their skin or leo-pards their spots?" 8 Cf. 1 Peter 5.8b: "Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour." 9 Cf. Matthew 7.6: "Do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you."
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(that is, a treacherous and faithless soul) which changes its shape according to circumstances or necessities, and feeds on dead or putrid bodies or on little vineyards when the large ones have escaped them; or any other carnivorous beast, rejected by the Law of Moses as unclean for food or enjoyment – our discourse must withdraw from such and be engraved on solid tables of stone, and that on both sides because the Law is partly visible, and partly hidden; the one part belonging to the mob who remain below, the other to the few who press on up the Mount.
§ 3. What is this that has happened to me, O friends, initiates in the mysteries,11 and fellow-lovers of the truth? I was running to lay hold on God; so I went up the Mount and drew aside the curtain of the Cloud, and entered away from matter and material things, and as far as I could I withdrew within myself. And then when I looked up, I barely saw the back of God; although I was sheltered by the Rock, the Word that was made flesh for us.12 And when I looked a little closer, I saw, not the first and unmingled Nature, known to itself – to the Trinity, I mean; not that which dwells behind the first veil and is hidden by the Cherubim,13
but only that Nature which at last even reaches to
10 an Arabian wolf comes from Habakkuk 1.8, according to the Septuagint. NRSV translates the Hebrew text as "more menacing than wolves at dusk". Gregory perhaps means and a stranger to interpret the image.
11 initiates in the mysteries. I.e., they have been baptised.
12 I barely saw the back of God; although I was sheltered by the Rock, the Word that was made flesh for us. Cf. Exodus 33.18-23: Moses said, 'Show me your glory, I pray.' And he said, 'I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, "The LORD" …. But,' he said, 'you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.' And the LORD continued, 'See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.' "
13 that which dwells behind the first veil and is hidden by the Cherubim. Gregory is referring to the Ark of the Covenant. Exodus 25.17-21: "Then you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its width. You shall make two cherubim of gold; you shall make them of hammered work, at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other; of one piece with the mercy seat you shall make the cherubim at its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above,
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us. And that is, as far as I can learn, the Majesty – or, as holy David calls it, the Glory14 – which is manifested among the creatures, which it has produced and governs. For these are the "back" of God, which the divine Trinity leaves behind as tokens of itself – like the shadows and reflection of the sun in the water which show the sun to our weak eyes, because we cannot look at the sun itself, since by its unmixed light it is too strong for our power of perception. In this way then shall you discourse about God, even if you were a Moses and a god to Pharaoh,15 even if you were caught up like Paul to the Third Heaven and had heard unspeakable words,16 even if you were raised above them both and exalted to the status of an angel or archangel. For though a thing be all heavenly, or above heaven, and far higher in nature and nearer to God than we are, yet it is further distant from God and from the complete comprehension of God's nature, than it is lifted above our complex and lowly and weighed-down composition.17
overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings. They shall face one to another; the faces of the cherubim shall be turned toward the mercy seat. You shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark; and in the ark you shall put the covenant that I shall give you." And Exodus 26.30-31, describing the tabernacle (or "tent of meeting") which was hold the Ark: "Then you shall erect the tabernacle according to the plan for it that you were shown on the mountain. You shall make a curtain [or veil] of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim skilfully worked into it."
14 Psalm 8.1: "You have set your glory above the heavens" (NRSV). A. J. Mason comments: "Gregory prefers the word [µεγαλοπρεπεια, "glory"] because it expresses not the abstract quality, like µεγαλειοτης ["majesty"], but the impression produced by its manifestation."
15 Cf. Exodus 7.1: "The LORD said to Moses, 'See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.' "
16 2 Corinthians 12.2, 4: "I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven…, into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat."
17 Cf. Wisdom 9.15: "For a perishable body weighs down the soul, and this earthy tent burdens the thoughtful mind." By our composition (krama), Gregory means humanity's composite nature, our being made up of body and soul.
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§ 4. Therefore we must begin again in this way. It is difficult to have a clear idea of God, but to define God in words is an impossibility, as one of the Greek theologians taught18 – not unskilfully, it seems to me – with the intention that he might be thought to have apprehended God; in that he says it is a hard thing to do; and yet may escape being convicted of ignorance because of the impossibility of giving expression to the apprehension. But in my opinion it is impossible to express God, and yet more impossible to form a clear idea of Him. For that which may be conceived may perhaps be made clear by language, if not adequately, at least dimly, to any one who is not hard of hearing or dull of understanding. But to exhaust the whole of so great a subject is quite impossible and impracticable, not merely to the utterly careless and ignorant but even to those who are spiritually exalted and who love God, and likewise to every other created nature. For the darkness of this world and the thick covering of the flesh are an obstacle to the full understanding of the truth. I do not know whether it is the same with the higher natures and purer Intelligences19
which because of their nearness to God, and because they are illumined with all His Light, may possibly see, if not the whole, at any rate more perfectly and distinctly than we do – some perhaps more, some less than others, in proportion to their rank.
20 What concerns us is not only the peace of God which surpasses all understanding and knowledge,21 nor only the things which God has stored up in promise for the righteous, which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived except in a very small degree,22 nor the accurate knowledge of the creation. For even of this I would have you know that you have only a shadow when you hear the words, I will consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars and the settled order which prevails among them,23
§ 5. But let this question be dropped for now.
not as if the Psalmist were considering them now, but as destined to do so hereafter. But far before them is that nature which is above them, and out of which they spring, the Incomprehensible and Illimitable – not, I mean, as to the fact of its being, but as to its nature. For our preaching is not futile, nor is our faith in
18 Plato, Timaeus 28 E.
19 the higher natures and purer Intelligences. I.e. angels and archangels.
20 this question. I.e. regarding the angels' knowledge of God.
21 Philippians 4.7.
22 1 Corinthians 2.9; cf. Isaiah 64.4.
23 Psalm 8.4.
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vain,24
nor is this the doctrine we proclaim; for we would not have you take our candid statement as a starting point for a quibbling denial of God, or for exalting yourself against me on account of my confession of ignorance. For it is one thing to be persuaded of the existence of a thing, and quite another to know what it is.
§ 6. Now our own eyes and the Law of Nature teach us that God exists, and that He is both the creative Cause of all things and the Cause-thatmaintains-all-things-in-harmony. Our eyes teach us this, because they fall on visible objects and see them in beautiful stability and progress – immovably moving and revolving, so to speak. Natural Law teaches us the same truth because, through these visible things and their order, it reasons back to their Author. For how could this Universe have come into being or been put together, unless God had called it into existence, and held it together? For every one who sees a beautifully made lute, and considers the skill with which it has been fitted together and arranged, or who hears its melody, would think of none but the lute-maker or the lute-player and would let their thoughts run back to him, although they might not know him by sight. And thus to us also is manifested that which made and moves and preserves all created things, even though He may not be comprehended by the mind. And very wanting in sense are those who will not willingly go thus far in following natural proofs. But not even this which we have imagined or fashioned for ourselves, or which reason has sketched for us, is the same as God. If someone has ever attained, to one degree or another, some under-standing of God, what proof is there of the fact? Who ever reached this extremity of wisdom? Who was ever deemed worthy of so great a gift? Who has opened the mouth of their mind and drawn in the Spirit,
25 so that by the One who searches all things, even the depths of God,26
such a person takes in God and no longer needs to advance further, since such a person already possesses the ultimate object of desire and that to which a high-minded person's whole life and all their intelligence press forward?
24 our preaching is not futile, nor is our faith in vain. Cf. 1 Corinthians 15.14, 17: "If Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain…. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins."
25 Who has opened the mouth of their mind and drawn in the Spirit. Cf. Psalm 119.131: "I opened my mouth and drew in my breath." The Greek for "breath" is pneuma, which may also mean "Spirit".
26 1 Corinthians 2.10.
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§ 7. For what will you conceive the Deity to be, if you rely upon all the approximations of reason? Or to what will reason carry you, O most philosophic of humans and best of theologians, who boast of your familiarity with the Unlimited? Is God a body? How then is God the Infinite and Limitless, and formless, and intangible, and invisible? Are bodies described in this way? That would be a real stretch! – for such is not the nature of a body! Or will you say that God has a body, but not these attributes? What gross stupidity, that a Deity should possess nothing more than we do. For how is God an object of worship if He is circumscribed? Or how shall God escape being composed of elements, and therefore subject to be resolved into them again, or even altogether dissolved? For every compound is a starting point of strife, and strife of separation, and separation of dissolution. But dissolution is altogether foreign to God and to the First Nature. Therefore there can be no separation in order that there may be no dissolution, and no strife in order that there may be no separation, and no composition in order that there may be no strife. Thus also there must be no body in order that there may be no composition, and so the argument is established by going back from last to first.
§ 8. And how shall we preserve the truth that God pervades all things and fills all – as it is written, Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord;27 and The Spirit of the Lord fills the world 28 – if God partly contains and partly is contained? For either God will occupy an empty Universe, and so all things will have vanished for us. The result of this is, that we will have insulted God by making Him a body and by robbing Him of all things which He has made. That, or else God will be a body contained in other bodies – which is impossible – or He will be enfolded in them, or contrasted with them, as liquids are mixed and one divides and is divided by another. Such a view is more absurd and muddle-headed than even the atoms of Epicurus; and so this argument concerning the body will collapse, having no "body" and no solid basis at all. But we might assert that God is immaterial (as for example that "fifth element" which some have imagined29
), and that He is carried round in circular movement. Let us assume that God is immaterial, and that He is "the fifth element"; and, if they please, let God be bodiless as well, in accordance with the independent drift and arrangement of their argument. For I will not at present differ with them on this point. In what respect, then, will God be
27 Jeremiah 23.24.
28 Wisdom 1.7.
29 Aristotle postulated the existence of a fifth element (quint-essence) made up of formless matter (in the strict Aristotelian sense of Matter without any Form), in addition to the basic elements of earth, air, water, and fire.
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one of those things which are in movement and agitation, to say nothing of the insult involved in making the Creator subject to the same movement as creatures, and unite the One who carries all (if they will allow even this) with those whom He carries. Again, what is the force that moves your "fifth element," and what is it that moves all things, and what moves that, and what is the force that moves that? And so on and so on without end. And how can God help being altogether contained in space if He is subject to motion? But if they assert that God is something other than this "fifth element;" perhaps having an angelic nature, how do they know that angels have bodies and what kind of bodies they have? And in that case, how far could God, to whom the angels minister, be superior to the angels? And if God is above them, we will again have to introduce an irrational swarm of bodies and end up with a bottomless pit of nonsense which can stop nowhere.
§ 9. And so we see that God is not a body. For no inspired teacher has yet asserted or admitted such a notion, nor does the idea have any place in our courtyard. Nothing then remains but to grant that God is incorporeal. But this term incorporeal, though granted, still does not set God's essence before us or contain that essence within itself – any more than do the terms unbegotten, and unoriginate, and unchanging, and incorruptible, and any other predicate which is used of God or in relation to God. For what light does it shed on God's existence, with respect to His nature and underlying essence, to say that God has no beginning, and is incapable of change or limitation? Indeed, the whole question of God's existence is still left for further considera-tion and exposition by those who truly have the mind of God and are advanced in contemplation. For just as to say, "It is a body," or "It was begotten," is not sufficient to present clearly to the mind the various objects of which these predicates are used, but you must also express the subject of which you use them, if you would present the object of your thought clearly and adequately. For every one of these predicates, corporeal, begotten, mortal, may be used of a human, or a cow, or a horse: -- just so, those who eagerly pursue the nature of the One who is Being itself30
will not stop at saying what God is not, but must go on beyond that and say what God is. For clearly it is easier to take in some single point than to go on disowning point after point in endless detail, in order, both by the elimination of negatives and the assertion of positives, to arrive at a comprehension of this subject.
But those who state what God is not without going on to say what God is, act in much the same way as those who, when asked how many two-timesfive make, would give as their answer, "Not two, not three, not four, nor five, nor twenty, nor thirty, nor in short any number below ten, nor any
30 the nature of the One who is Being itself (ten tou ontos … phusin). An allusion to Exodus 3.14: "God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' He said further, 'Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ' I AM has sent me to you.' "
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multiple of ten" – but would not answer "ten," nor settle the mind of their questioner upon the firm ground of the answer. For it is much easier, and more concise to declare what a thing is not from what it is, than to demonstrate what it is by stripping it of what it is not. Surely this is obvious to every one.
§ 10. Now since we have ascertained that God is incorporeal, let us proceed a little further with our examination. Is the divine nature nowhere, or is it somewhere? For if the divine nature is nowhere, then some person of a very inquiring turn of mind might ask, "How then can it exist at all?" For if the non-existent is nowhere, then that which is nowhere is also perhaps nonexistent. But if the divine nature is somewhere, God must be either in the universe or above the universe. And if the divine nature is in the universe, then God must be either in some section of it or extending everywhere throughout the whole of it. If in some section, then God will be circumscribed by that part which is less than the divine nature.31 But if the divine nature extends everywhere, then God will be circumscribed by something which is merely larger than any other large thing – I mean the universal, which contains the particular. If the All-in-all that is God is contained by the everything that is the universe, it cannot be exempt from limitation in any given place. This follows if the divine nature is contained in the universe.32
And besides, where was God before the universe was created? This is a point of no little difficulty.
On the other hand, if the divine nature is above the universe, what distinguishes it from the universe? And just where is this above located? And how could this being elevated above be distinguished in thought from what it is elevated above, if there is no boundary to divide and define them? Is it not necessary that there be some space in between to mark off the universe from that which is above the universe? And what could this be but a place, which we have already rejected? For I have not yet brought forward the point that God would be altogether circumscribed, if the divine nature were even comprehensible in thought. For comprehension is one form of circumscription.
31 then God will be circumscribed by that part which is less than the divine nature. Which, logically speaking, is absurd.
32 But if the divine nature extends everywhere…. This follows if the divine nature is contained in the universe. Here Gregory's grammar so peculiar that editors of the Greek text wish that they could translate this passage into intelligible Greek. His point seems to be this: The uni-verse may be the largest of all "places" because it contains all other "places," but it is still circumscribed, not infinite. So, if the divine nature were extended throughout the universe, it would be circumscribed, and subject to the limitations of each particular "place" within the universe.
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§ 11. Now, why have I gone into all this, perhaps too painstakingly for most people to listen to and for the prevailing manner of discourse, which despises noble simplicity and prefers conundrums? This is why: so that the tree may be known by its fruits33 – I mean, that the darkness which is at work in such teaching may be known by the obscurity of the arguments. For my purpose in doing so was not to get credit for myself for astonishing utterances or excessive wisdom through tying knots and solving difficul-ties (this was the great miraculous gift of Daniel34), but to make clear the point at which my argument has aimed from the first. And what was this? That the divine nature cannot be apprehended by human reason, and that we cannot even represent to ourselves all its greatness. And this not out of jealousy, for jealousy is far from the divine nature, which is free of passions, the only good and Lord of all – especially jealousy of the most precious among all His creatures.35 For what does the Word prefer to those who are gifted with rational discourse?36
Why, even their very existence is a proof of God's supreme goodness. Nor yet is this incomprehensibility meant to increase the glory and honour of the God who already has enough, as if God's possession of glory and majesty depended upon the impossibility of approaching Him. For it is utterly sophistical and foreign to the character, I will not say of God, but of any moderately good human being who has anything of a proper conscience, to seek their own supremacy by throwing a hindrance in the way of another.
§ 12. But whether there are other reasons for the incomprehensibility of the divine nature, let those attend who are nearer God and are eyewitnesses and beholders of God's unsearchable judgements
37 – if there are any who are so eminent in virtue and walk in the paths of the abyss, as the saying goes.38
But
33 Cf. Matthew 7.17, 20: "In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit…. Thus you will know them by their fruits." 34 Cf. Daniel 5.12: "An excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel."
35 I.e. humankind.
36 Gregory here makes a pun which cannot be rendered in English. The Word (Logos) prefers the creature who is LOGIKĒ, "capable of rational discourse".
37 Romans 11.33: "How unsearchable are [God's] judgements and how inscrutable his ways!"
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as for ourselves, so far as we have attained understanding, measuring by means of our puny measure things which are contemplated with difficulty, we say that perhaps one reason [for the incomprehensibility of the divine nature] is to prevent us from too casually throwing away the knowledge of it because it was so easily come by. For people cling tightly to that which they acquire with labour; but that which they acquire easily they quickly throw away, because it can be easily recovered. And so it is turned into a blessing – at least to all who are sensible – that this blessing is not too easy. Or perhaps it is in order that we may not share the fate of fallen Lucifer, lest, as a result of receiving the full light, our necks become stiff against the Lord Almighty and we fall from the height that we had attained – a downfall most pitiable of all. Or perhaps it may be to give a greater reward hereafter to those who by their labour and glorious life have here been purified and have persevered in seeking what they desired.
Therefore this darkness39 of the body has been placed between us and God, like the cloud of old between the Egyptians and the Hebrews;40 and this is perhaps what is meant by The Lord made darkness His secret place 41 – that is to say, our thickness, through which few can see even a little. But let those discuss this point whose business it is; and let them ascend as far as they can in the inquiry. To us who are (as Jeremiah says) prisoners of the earth,42
and covered with the thickness of carnal nature, this any event is known: As it is impossible for humans to step over their own shadows, however fast they may move (for the shadow will always move on as fast as it is being overtaken), or as it is impos-sible for the eye to draw near to visible objects apart from the intervening air and light, or for a fish to glide about outside of the waters – so there is no way for those who are in the body to be conversant with objects of pure thought apart from bodily objects. For something in our own environment is always creeping in, even when the mind
38 Job 38.16
39 Cf. Exodus 10.22: "Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was dense darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days."
40 Exodus 14.19-20: "The angel of God who was going be-fore the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night."
41 Psalm 18.12 [LXX 17.12].
42 Lamentations 3.34.
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has most fully detached itself from the visible, and collected itself, and is attempting to apply itself to those invisible things which are akin to itself.
§ 13. Are not "wind," "fire," and "light,"43 "love," "wisdom," and "righteousness,"44 "mind" and "word,"45 and other similar terms – are not these the names of the First Nature? What then? Can yon conceive of wind apart from motion and diffusion; or of fire without its fuel and its upward motion and its proper colour and form? Or of light not mingled with air and separated from that which is (so to speak) its parent and source? And how do you conceive of a mind? Is it not a faculty in someone rather than existing on its own, and are not thoughts, whether silent or uttered, its movements? And word – what else can you think it than that which is either silent within ourselves or else outpoured (for I shrink from saying dispersed)?46
And if you conceive of wisdom, what is it but the habit of mind which you know as such, and which exercises itself in contemplation of things either divine or human? And righteousness and love, are they not praiseworthy dispositions, the one opposed to injustice, the other to hate? On some occasions they intensify, on others they relax themselves; now they take possession of us, then they leave us alone – in short, they make us what we are and change us as colours do bodies.
Or are we rather to abandon all these terms and look at the divine nature absolutely, as best we can, gathering a fragmentary sort of image in accordance with our conjectures? What then is this manufactured image, which is made with these terms without being these terms? Or rather, how can
43 Wind. John 3.8: "The wind [to pneuma] blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit [ek tou pneumatos]." John 4.24: "God is spirit [pneuma]." Fire. Deuteronomy 4.24: "For the LORD your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God." Light. John 9.5: "Jesus answered…, 'As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.' " 44 Love. 1 John 4.16: "God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them." Wisdom. 1 Corinthians 1.24: "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." Righteousness. Jeremiah 23.6: "The LORD is our righteousness." 45 Word. John 1.1: "The Word was God." See fn. 36 above.
46 outpoured (for I shrink from saying dispersed). When a word is uttered, its sound falls away; in that sense, the word perishes or is lost. But in another sense – perhaps in the sense of conveying meaning – it can and must be said to endure beyond, and even apart from, its actual utterance.
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that which is One by its Nature, without composite parts and without comparison, still be all of qualities signified by these terms – and be each one of them in perfection? Thus our mind wearies itself in its efforts to transcend corporeal things and consort with the incorporeal, stripped of all clothing of corporeal ideas, so long as it investigates with its inherent weakness what is above its strength. For every rational nature longs for God and for the First Cause, but is unable to grasp God for the reasons I have mentioned. Faint, therefore, with the desire and (as it were) restive and impatient of the disability, the mind tries a second course. Either it looks at things that are seen and out of some of them makes a god – and a big mistake; for in what respect and to what extent can that which is seen be higher and more godlike than that which sees, that it should worship what it sees? Or else, by means of the beauty and order of the things that are seen, the mind comes to know that which is above sight, without suffering the loss of God through the magnificence of visible things.
§ 14. That is why some have made a god of the sun, others of the moon, others of the host of stars, others of heaven itself with all its hosts, to which they have attributed the guiding of the universe, according to the quality or quantity of their movement. Others again have made gods of the elements – earth, air, water, fire – because of their useful nature, since without them human life cannot possibly exist. Others again have worshipped any chance visible objects, setting up the most beautiful of what they saw as their gods. And there are those who worship pictures and images, at first of their own ancestors – at least, such is the case with the more affectionate and sensual – and honour the departed with memorials, and afterwards even the pictures and images of strangers are worshipped by people of a later generation separated from them by a long period of time. They do this through ignorance of the First Nature, and follow the traditional honours as lawful and necessary – for usage, when confirmed by time, was held to be Law. And I think that certain admirers of arbitrary power, who extolled bodily strength and admired beauty, after a while made a god out of the one whom they honoured, perhaps getting hold of some fable to help on their imposture.