Gregory of Nazianzus Quotes on God
Gregory of Nazianzus (c.329–390) — the second of the three Cappadocian Fathers and the principal architect of the Nicene Trinitarian settlement at the Council of Constantinople (381) — gave fourth-century Greek Christian theology its most precise philosophical articulation of the doctrine of God. The Five Theological Orations and the surviving letters develop the technical vocabulary through which the unity of the divine essence (ousia) and the distinction of the three persons (hypostases) are articulated against both the Eunomian subordination of the Son and the Sabellian collapse of the divine persons into modal aspects of a single agent. The framework, transmitted through the Byzantine theological tradition and the Latin reception via Augustine and Boethius, supplied the definitive philosophical vocabulary for the orthodox Christian doctrine of God.
Quotes
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Attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus:
“Better to think rightly of God in silence than wrongly in speech.”
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Attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus:
“Theology is impossible without prayer.”
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Attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus:
“Beware of giving names to God, for he is above all names.”
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Attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus:
“The mind that has been illumined by God speaks rightly of God.”
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Attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus:
“What is unassumed is unhealed; but what is united with God is also saved.”
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“I offer this gift to my God, I dedicate this gift to Him. Only this remains to me as my treasure. I gave up everything else at the command of the Spirit. I gave all that I had to obtain the pearl of great price. Only in words do I master it, as a servant of the Word. I would never intentionally wish to disdain this wealth. I esteem it, I set value by it, I am comforted by it more than others are comforted by all the treasures of the world. It is the companion of all my life, a good counselor and converser; a guide on the way to Heaven and a fervent co-ascetic.”
Concerning his literary gift, "St. Gregory the Theologian the Archbishop of Constantinople -
“It is more important that we should remember God than that we should breathe.”
On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press: 2002), Oration 27 -
“On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press: 2002), Oration 27”
It is more important that we should remember God than that we should breathe. -
“Philosophize about the world or worlds; about matter ; about soul ; about natures endowed with reason , good or bad; about resurrection , about judgment , 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.”
First Theological Oration (Oration 27) , IX.