§ 150. Догматическое учение в других сочинениях. Учение о деятельности.

In other works, the Theologian partly explains the dogma of the Holy Trinity, and partly speaks about other objects of faith. 1. In the word on dogma, after denouncing those who take upon themselves the title of teacher of faith, without preparing themselves for it either by a strict life or by the education of the mind, he expounds at length the doctrine of the Divinity and the eternal birth of the Son of God. Here he says: “Do you hear about the birth? Don't test the image! Do you hear that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father? As it happens, don't explore. If you decide to be inquisitive about the birth of the Son of God and the origin of the Holy Spirit, then I will interrogate you about the connection of the soul with the body, just as you are both the dust and the image of God...” 2. In the last part of the word about Jerome he teaches: “Teach not to introduce three principles, so as not to introduce anything pagan or polytheistic; and when introducing one, do not introduce any Jewish principle - meager, envious, powerless, or suggesting that the Divinity is absorbed by itself (as it pleases those who, although they produce the Son from the Father, but again resolve into the Father) or, (which is what modern sages like) humiliating the nature of the Son and the Spirit and alienating it from the Divinity, as if It fears confrontation and has no power produce something superior to creatures. Teach not to recognize the Son as unbegotten (because the Father is one) and the Spirit as the Son (because the Only Begotten is one). Let them belong exclusively to Divine properties - sonship to Sin, but procession to the Spirit, and not sonship. Both the Father and the Son and the Spirit have in common uncreatedness and Divinity: but it belongs to the Son and the Spirit to have being from the Father, and the distinctive property of the Father is ungeneracy, the Son - begottenness, and the Holy Spirit - originality.” 3. In the word for Pentecost he depicts the actions of the Holy Spirit, and through his actions he makes it possible to see the true God in Him. 4. In the homily for the Nativity of Christ, he speaks about the creation of the angelic world, the material world, the human, and the fall of man, and showing the frustrated situation of man, he says: “Since all this required the strongest aid, the strongest is given.... The Word of God itself - comes to its image, wears flesh for the sake of the flesh, unites with a rational soul for my soul - becomes man in everything except sin.... He who came (from the Virgin) is God and with what was received from him - one, made up of two opposites, of flesh and Spirit.... He has two natures, since He was tired, and hungry, and thirsty, and was in struggle, according to the law of bodily nature...” The Theologian similarly shows “God’s economy” in the 2nd word on Easter, but here he solves another important question about the Savior: “to whom and for what purpose was blood shed for us - great and glorious blood God, Bishop, sacrifice? We were in the power of the evil one...to whom was the blood brought? Is it really that evil one? But how insulting that would be! The thief receives the price of redemption not only from God, but from God himself! For his tyranny, he takes such a high price, to whom it is a pity to give us up!.. So, it is clear that the Father accepts the sacrifice, but not because he needed it.” In another case, the Theologian speaks about this this way: “He (the Son of God) became sin because He took upon Himself the sin of the world, He took upon Himself my disobedience” 616. 5) Two extensive letters to Cledonius expose the willful “innovation” of Apollinaris, complementing one another. In the first message, first, in order to ward off suspicions of restoring previous mistakes, he pronounces condemnations on false thoughts. “We do not separate man from divinity in him... If anyone does not recognize Mary as the Mother of God, then he is excommunicated from divinity. If anyone says that Christ passed through the Virgin as if through a trumpet, and was not formed in her divinely and at the same time humanly, divinely, as born without a husband, - humanly, as born according to the law of pregnancy: then he too is godless.” Then he examines the teachings of Apollinaris. “If anyone puts their trust in a person who has no mind, then he definitely has no mind. He is not worthy to be completely saved. For what is not perceived is not healed; what is united with God is saved. If Adam had fallen in one half, then one half would have been taken up and saved. - They say: “instead of the mind (νοῦς) is the Divinity sufficient?” “What do I care about that? A deity with one flesh is not yet a man, and also with one soul, or with flesh and soul, but without mind; – the mind is what makes a person different. We say: is our mind condemned? What is flesh like? Isn't she condemned? Either reject the body for its sinfulness, or admit the mind for salvation... You dishonor my mind in order to bind God to the flesh, as if bound by no one else. But the mind is united with the mind, as with something closer and related, and then with the flesh; the mind is the best mediation between the deity and our fleshliness.” 6) The second word on Baptism is an excellent instruction about the mystery of Baptism. Here, a) the mysterious and visible side of Baptism is explained. “The grace and power of Baptism,” says St. Gregory, cleanses sin in everyone and washes away all impurity into filth brought by damage. since we consist of two parts, of soul and body, of nature, visible and invisible, then the cleansing is twofold - by water and by spirit; the first is acceptable visibly and physically, and the other at the same time is accomplished spiritually and invisibly, one is an image, the other is truth and cleanses the very depths, gives help to the carnal man, makes us new from the old, from such as we are now, godlike.” Then the theologian b) denouncing those who put off Baptism until old age, justifies the Baptism of infants. “If you protect yourself with a seal, secure your future with the best and most effective benefit, marking your soul and body with chrismation and spirit, then what can happen to you?” c) shows what Baptism requires from the person being baptized, for which it explains the rites of Baptism. 7) Among the poems of Nazianzus, the iambics about the authentic books of inspiration 617 are important for dogmatics; then mysterious chants (απορρητα) - deep reflections on principles, on the Son, on the Spirit, on the world, on providence, on spirits, on the soul, on human virtue, on human nature, on the suffering of the soul. Let us extract from the song of St. Gregory, doctrine of the soul, grace and human activity. a) “The Word, taking part of the newly created earth, with immortal hands made my image and gave it its life, because a spirit was sent into it, which is a stream of the invisible Divinity 618. The soul is God’s breath 619, God’s image 620.” It goes without saying that St. Gregory the Theologian, calling the human soul “God’s breath” and “stream of Divinity,” assimilates to the nature of the soul not Divinity itself, but only such an acceptability to the Divine, according to which the soul, in its proper state, is animated or animated by the Holy Spirit and brightened by the radiance of the Triune God. For otherwise it would be necessary to admit that the soul of man, by its Divine nature, already existed before his birth. But St. the theologian rejects both Pythagoras’ transmigration of souls 621 and Origen’s doctrine of their pre-existence 622. Of the two other opinions about the origin of the soul in each of us, he does not reject the transition of the soul from parents to children at the conception of the body, but considers the subject difficult and dark 623. b) “I am the image of God and am involved in sinfulness; the worst in me opposes the best.... Two, exactly two, spirits in me: one is good and he strives for good, and the other is worse and he seeks evil... The mind mourns slavery, the delusion of the first-born father, the destructive conviction of the mother, this mother of your insolence 624. I do what I hate, I enjoy evil, and internally I laugh at the terrible fate with a bitter, malicious laugh - for me, death is pleasant... I shed hot tears, but I did not cry sin with them... I am sharp-sighted at the sins of others and short-sighted at my own 625. c) To what extent does this corruption of nature extend within us? “The soul is a divine and unquenchable light. For it is not fitting for the image of the great God to be destroyed ingloriously, although sin tried to make it corrupt 626. How is your salvation accomplished? “Virtue is not only a gift from the great God, who honored his image, because your desire is also needed. It is not the work of your heart alone, because it requires the most excellent strength.... For my success, two shares are needed: from the great God - the first and the last, and one share from me. God created me receptive to goodness; God also gives me strength: and in the middle - I am flowing.... Without Him (without Christ), we are all a toy of vanity, the living dead, stinking of sins 627. Let us then call the moral poems of St. Gregory. - They either present a general image of spiritual life and virtue 628, or depict particular objects - purity, patience, compassion for the poor, an evil tongue, false friends, passion for wealth, feminine vanity, human emptiness 629. In others, praise is given to virginity, in comparison with worldly life, and advice to virgins 630, instructions to newlyweds, parents, and youth 631. Elegiac poems mourn the troubles of earthly life with its passions and call for God's help 632. For edification in salvation, wrote St. Gregory historical poems about his life and its private events 633 and epitaphs 634. Last 1. to Kledonius 4.205. Creation St. Gregory 5. 48–49. They are in the book of rules, page 345. About the soul. Creation 4. 243. Also about virginity 5. 33. About the soul 4. 243–244. More about people. nature 4. 261. On the suffering of the soul 4, 305–306. Oh man. good 4. 255. Also in word 37, 3, 225. Sect. 1. car. 29–31. Sect. 12. p. 1. 29. 37. 38. Epigram. 4–6. 1, 2–27. 11, 1, 9. 18. 35–38. 40. Epigr. 7–9. 21–23. 1, 1–4. 6. 8. 44. Epigr. 22. 24. 16, 19. 28. 31. 42. 46. 48. 51. 72. 11, 1. 2. 5. 12. 16. 33–37. 41. 92–94. A total of 129 - parents (55–102), brother Caesarea (6–21), sister Gorgonia (22–24), mother of St. Vasily (55), his brother (1–3), sisters (120. 123), etc. You might be interested in: