Origen and Gregory of Nyssa on The Lord's Prayer

The aim of this article is twofold. Both Origen and Gregory of Nyssa treat of the Lord's Prayer, the former in his own treatise On Prayer , the latter in the course of five sermons on the same prayer. By means of an analysis of the methods of both writers and of the results at which they arrive I hope to illustrate their respective treatments of the same text and so to show how what began life as an eschatological prayer became in the course of three or four centuries something rather different. A major difficulty faced by both writers is how to understand the coming of the kingdom, if it is already there.
My second intention, beyond that of comparison is to assess what influence, if any, was exercised by Origen on Gregory. The answer arrived at is rather disappointing, above all for those who believe in a strong influence on Gregory of his predecessor, by way of his grandmother, Macrina. Not only are the styles of the two men quite different, but also, apart from a sort of common Platonism, their answers are often quite distinct.     

Gregory of Nyssa on the Reciprocity of the Virtues

Readers of Gregory of Nyssa have often remarked on the significanceof the virtues to his theology. However, a central aspect ofhis understanding of the virtues has received insufficient attention:the notion that the virtues reciprocally entail one another.It is argued that Gregory uses a single theory to describe theinterrelations between the virtues both as they exist in humansand as they exist in God. This theory is the reciprocity thesis,which posits that if one virtue is present, all the virtuesmust be present. The possible philosophical sources for Gregory'sview and some problems with it are examined.     

Divine Unity and the Divided Self: Gregory of Nyssa's Trinitarian Theology in its Psychological Context

In the last hundred years Gregory of Nyssa's Trinitarian theology has received a substantial amount of attention. Unfortunately, it has been appropriated because of its perceived psychological content—so much so that Gregory's Trinitarian theology becomes re–stated as the Trinity as personal relationship or as locating consciousness(es) in the Trinity. To be sure, a knowledge of Gregory's psychology reveals its role in his Trinitarian theology; however, it also makes clear that personal relationship or consciousness are not important, substantial psychological concepts in the way that they are often taken to be by contemporary interpreters. Rather, Gregory's psychology takes its fundamental shape from a concern for the integrity of the will in its action.     

The Mirror of the Infinite: Gregory of Nyssa on the Vestigia Trinitatis

This essay attempts to demonstrate something of the subtlety and complexity of Gregory of Nyssa's Trinitarian theology by paying close attention to the way in which, for Gregory, the Triune God is reflected in the mirror of the soul—both in its creaturely constitution and in the process of its sanctification by the Holy Spirit. The article is intended chiefly as an argument against the fashionable scholarly opposition between Eastern and Western—or Cappadocian and Augustinian—Trinitarianisms; it also is intended as an argument against social and psychological models of the Trinity alike (neither of which enjoys patristic warrant).     

Person versus Individual, and Other Modern Misreadings of Gregory of Nyssa

This article argues that, despite claiming that his own ontology of personhood is patristic–based, John Zizioulas has not convincingly exegeted the Cappadocian theology of person, especially that of Gregory of Nyssa and Basil of Caesarea. This is unfortunate, given the fact that there are dozens of patristic quotations from, or references to, various Greek Fathers (especially the Cappadocians) throughout Zizioulas's works. Instead, he uses nineteenth– and twentieth–century insights which he then foists on the Cappadocians. This methodology leads him to misleading conclusions. Zizioulas is therefore in error when he contends that the Cappadocians did not understand a person as an individual or when he credits them with having had the same concerns we moderns have when combating individualism today.     

'Whereof We Speak': Gregory of Nyssa, Jean-Luc Marion and the Current Apophatic Rage

Recent postmodern discussions of the Christian apophatic tradition level a noteworthy criticism: after all its negations doesn't Christian apophatic discourse in fact slip back into kataphatic assertions about God? This article seeks to address this claim by bringing into concert two important Christian apophaticists (Gregory of Nyssa and Jean‐Luc Marion) in order to designate a type of discourse that emerges from apophatic union, a discourse that is not kataphatic but logophatic.     

Radical Traditions and the Return to Scripture in Religion and Theology

Books reviewed in this article:
David Weiss Halivni, Revelation Restored: Divine Writ and Critical Responses
Peter Ochs and Nancy Levene, Textual Reasonings: Jewish Philosophy and Text Study at the End of the Twentieth Century
P. Travis Kroeker and Bruce Ward, Remembering the End: Dostoevsky as Prophet to Modernity
Stanley Hauerwas, Wilderness Wanderings: Probing Twentieth Century Theology and Philosophy
David Toole, Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo: Theological Reflections on Nihilism, Tragedy, and Apocalypse
George Lindbeck (ed.) and James J. Buckley, The Church in a Postliberal Age     

The Gospel, Gregory VII, and Modern Theology

According to Paul and Augustine, the gospel announced a radical redistribution of priestly privilege, since all baptized shared Christ's priestly and royal status. Over several centuries, due to changes in baptismal liturgies, the Pauline–Augustinian conception faded, replaced by an ecclesiology that separated true and metaphorical priesthoods. During the eleventh century, the Gregorian reform party provided ideological support for the desacralization of laymen and especially lay rulers. By dividing the church between sacred priesthood and secular laity, the Gregorians laid the foundation stones of modernity and constructed the ecclesio–theological framework of modern theology.     

Re–thinking Gregory of Nyssa: Introduction—Gender, Trinitarian Analogies, and the Pedagogy of The Song

This paper serves first as an introduction to the essays gathered in this collection on Rethinking Gregory of Nyssa. The critique of the so–called de Régnon paradigm for Nyssa's Trinitarianism is laid out, and the significance for a new ecumenical rapprochement between East and West indicated. Some new principles are then outlined for reading Nyssa's spiritual and exegetical corpus in tandem with his more polemical and apologetic writings on the Trinity, such that the Trinitarian themes in The Commentary on the Song of Songs , especially, along with their novel messages about gender, become seen as an intrinsic part of Nyssa's contribution to Trinitarian theology.     

Unity and Diversity of Psychology

Factors both internal and external to psychology are working for both unity and diversity of psychology. Table 1 gives examples of the four kinds of factors, and the article examines each of these examples. It also attempts to evaluate some of the costs and benefits of both unity and diversity. Possible courses of action are considered.     

The Ontology of Scripture and the Ethics of Interpretation in the Theology of John Webster

This article outlines the ontology of Scripture and the ethics of interpretation in the theology of John Webster, covering how the doctrines of revelation, sanctification, inspiration and canonization condition the locus of interpretation. Particular focus is given to the way in which the triune God’s presence and perfection determine Webster’s explication of these topics. The article’s conclusion is that Webster’s work makes a major contribution with the basic approach that it takes, thinking about the Bible in relation to a wider field, though it does not entirely overcome the obstacle of the dualism between history and transcendence.