Who was Gregory of Nazianzus?
Answered from the commentary of Church History and For the Young
Gregory of Nazianzus was a bishop of Constantinople and a noted Father of the Church around 380, who helped destroy Arianism’s power in the Eastern capital after it had held sway there for nearly forty years. His eloquence, serious teaching, and godly life won him a firm footing despite opposition and persecution, though he disliked the imperial style of the capital. He taught strongly on baptism’s importance and efficacy, and said he would avoid the bishops’ councils of his day because he saw contention and love of power in them.
Verses: Acts 20:28, 1 Timothy 3:1, 1 Timothy 3:2, 1 Timothy 3:3, 1 Timothy 3:4, 1 Timothy 3:5, 1 Timothy 3:6, 1 Timothy 3:7
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What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
Gregory Nazianzen, bishop of Constantinople, was a Father of great note about the year 380. He was the means of destroying the power of Arianism in the Eastern capital, where it had been maintained in great strength for nearly forty years. He had to encounter much opposition and even persecution at first; but by degrees his eloquence, the practical and serious tone of his teaching, and the influence of his godly life, began to tell, and gained him a firm footing, though he never liked the imperial style of the capital.
"Almost all the fathers of this age, Basil, the two Gregories, Ambrose, etc., etc., have treatises on baptism; and vie, as it were, with each other in their praises of its importance and efficacy. Gregory of Nazianzen almost exhausts the copiousness of the Greek language in speaking of baptism." - Milman's History of Christianity, vol. 3.}
Gregory of Nazianzus declared of the councils in his day (A.D. 379-389), "If I must speak the truth this is my resolution, to avoid all councils of the bishops, for I have not seen any good end answered by any synod whatsoever; for their love of contention and their lust of power are too great even for words to express."
Basil and Gregory Naz. teach in general the same truths: the orthodoxy of the last may be questioned. We see from these the general faith of the church. The Hypognosticon once attributed to Augustine is equally clear. "As for any third place we utterly know none, neither shall we find in the holy scriptures that there is any such," Lib. 5.
The Superstition and Idolatry of Gregory
Verses
- Acts 20:28Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own.
- 1 Timothy 3:1–71The word [is] faithful if any one aspires to exercise oversight, he desires a good work. 2The overseer then must be irreproachable, husband of one wife, sober, discreet, decorous, hospitable, apt to teach; 3not given to excesses from wine, not a striker, but mild, not addicted to contention, not fond of money, 4conducting his own house well, having [his] children in subjection with all gravity; 5(but if one does not know how to conduct his own house, how shall he take care of the assembly of God?) 6not a novice, that he may not, being inflated, fall into [the] fault of the devil. 7But it is necessary that he should have also a good testimony from those without, that he may fall not into reproach and [the] snare of the devil.