Dogmatic Treatises, etc. (NPNF Series II, Vol. V)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Selection or partial work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Some scanning errors (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand) · 8 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~680,000 words · 3,210 passages
Cite this work
- APAGregory of Nyssa. (n.d.). Dogmatic Treatises, etc. (NPNF Series II, Vol. V). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/gregory-of-nyssa/dogmatic-treatises-etc-npnf-series-ii-vol-v
- MLAGregory of Nyssa. Dogmatic Treatises, etc. (NPNF Series II, Vol. V). Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/gregory-of-nyssa/dogmatic-treatises-etc-npnf-series-ii-vol-v.
- ChicagoGregory of Nyssa. Dogmatic Treatises, etc. (NPNF Series II, Vol. V). Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/gregory-of-nyssa/dogmatic-treatises-etc-npnf-series-ii-vol-v.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Gregory of Nyssa's dogmatic treatises in the English Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series: the controversy against Eunomius and the Great Catechism.
Context and history
The dispute with Eunomius turns on whether the essence of God can be known, and Gregory holds that it cannot: the names we use to speak of it are ours and do not reach what God is. That argument is the foundation of later Greek negative theology. As throughout the series, the volume is a grouping made by nineteenth-century editors and not a unit Gregory conceived: the works in it were not written together, nor for the same audience.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
He next marvellously overthrows the unintelligible statements of Eunomius which assert that the essence of the Father is not separated or divided, and does not become anything else. He then shows the unity of the Son with the Father and Eunomius' lack of understanding and knowledge in the Scriptures. Gregory further shows that the Only-Begotten being begotten not only of the Father, but also impassibly of the Virgin by the Holy Ghost, does not divide the substance; seeing that neither is the nature of men divided or severed from the parents by being begotten, as is ingeniously demonstrated from the instances of Adam and Abraham. He further very appositely expounds the meaning of the term “Only-Begotten, “ and of the term “First born,“ four times used by the Apostle. Gregory again discusses the generation of the Only-Begotten, and other different modes of generation, material and immaterial, and nobly demonstrates that the Son is the brightness of the Divine glory, and not a creature. He explains the phrase “The Lord created Me,” and the argument about the origination of the Son, the deceptive character of Eunomius' reasoning, and the passage which says, “My glory will I not give to another,” examining them from different points of view. After expounding the high estate of the Almighty, the Eternity of the Son, and the phrase “being made obedient,” he shows the folly of Eunomius in his assertion that the Son did not acquire His sonship by obedience. He thus proceeds to a magnificent discourse of the interpretation of 236 “Mediator,” “Like,” “Ungenerate,” and “generate,” and of “The likeness and seal of the energy of the Almighty and of His Works.” He expounds the passage of the Gospel, “The Father judgeth no man,” and = 242 further speaks of the assumption of man with body and soul wrought by the Lord, of the transgression of Adam, and of death and the resurrection of the dead.…