Teachings of St. Gregory of Nyssa on prayer in connection with the problem of the Divine Names

Contents Introduction St. Gregory of Nyssa: description of the experience of prayer Prayer and the Names of God Contemplation and deification Conclusion Bibliography “Prayer is everything. It unites everything: faith, life based on faith, salvation...” 1, St. teaches us. Theophan the Recluse. The Church always breathes the breath of prayer. Communication with God and the goal of salvation—deification—are impossible without prayer. The prayer of a Christian is a continuation of the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who, according to Origen, is not alone in his prayer 2. It is no coincidence that, for example, liturgical prayers or the Jesus Prayer are the main means of salvation for a Christian. There is no precise definition of prayer in patristic theology. But the Holy Fathers never strived for this. They described this or that aspect of prayer, this or that stage or level, trying to convey in words the life-giving experience of prayer. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, younger brother of St. Basil the Great, is best known as a contemplative theologian and a great Christian mystical writer who knew how to combine biblical depth with Hellenic wisdom and sophistication. He contributed to the development of theology itself and the practice of prayerful contemplation, and was and is “the greatest philosopher among the Fathers.” Therefore, his views on the nature of prayer are extremely important. Teaching on prayer by St. Gregory of Nyssa can be considered in the following order (although, of course, we do not find any systematic presentation in the saint himself). First, the Holy Father describes the experience of prayer itself and the main criteria for the Orthodox prayer experience. He writes about this mainly in his essay “On Prayer.” Secondly, the nature of prayer as invocation and confession of the names of God is considered by St. Gregory in close connection with the dogmatic dispute about names in the work “Refutation of Eunomius”. Finally, the teaching on prayer by St. Gregory is completely inseparable from his teaching on the knowledge of God. Prayer at its highest level—the level of contemplation—coincides with the heights of knowledge of God. St. Gregory of Nyssa: description of the experience of prayer A description of the prayer experience is contained in the book of St. Gregory of Nyssa “On Prayer.” This book, in its content, is an interpretation of the Lord's Prayer. St. Gregory says that prayer is a union of rational creatures with their Creator, a conversation with God 3. In his work, the saint writes that a person should first learn not how to pray, but what he must certainly pray. “This sacred and divine work - prayer - is abandoned by many during their lives in negligence and neglect” 4. Modern man, carried away by “his own concerns,” recognizes the thought of God as a waste of time. According to St. Gregory, forgetting prayer is not false evidence of man’s forgetting of God; it is evidence of man’s deep corruption and rejection of God. St. Gregory wrote a real hymn to prayer, in which the Father of the Church shows the comprehensiveness and omnipotence of prayer - from bodily needs, through the needs of social life to the heights of spiritual experience. “Prayer is the protective guard of chastity, a good direction for irritability...Prayer is strength of the body, abundance in the home...Prayer is a conversation with God, contemplation of the invisible, etc.” 5. The value of prayer is absolute: “of everything valued in life, nothing is higher than prayer” 6. It is very important what we ask, what words and feelings are put into the request. We often ask for things that are harmful, useless and empty; this is idle talk, nonsense. “A word that is prudent, meaningful and directed towards something useful is in its proper sense called a word” 7, teaches the saint. And in prayer you need to use words that carry deep meaning and benefit for a person. The Lord's Prayer, teaches St. Gregory, is the basis of all other prayers that we have. And those petitions that are given in it are also a direct indication of how a Christian should live, what he should strive for and what benefits he should acquire. Saint Gregory writes: “the most important thing for me, of all the blessings, is that the name of God is glorified by my life” 8 . Life and prayer are inseparable from each other. Prayer is the invocation and glorification of the name of God. Hallowed be thy name (Matthew 6:9). “Is it really possible for the name of God not to be holy?!” exclaims St. Grigory. “...If the name of God is always holy, nothing escapes the power of God’s dominion, but possesses everything, does not require additions in holiness, is abundant and perfect in everything...” 9 . The name of God testifies to the holiness and absoluteness of the Divine. A true Christian is one who worthily bears the name of Christ. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, teaches St. Gregory, all other Divine names are included, and if a Christian worthily bears the name of Christ, he is also called by all other names of the Divine. “...If anyone takes upon himself the name of Christ, but does not manifest in life what he imagines with this name, he falsely bears this name.” “Anyone who does not discover within himself communion with these names cannot be a Christian” 10. This is so, since “Christianity is an imitation of the Divine Nature” 11. Prayer is the invocation and confession of the venerable Divine Names. Therefore, this or that view on the nature of the name as such, and on the nature of the names of God, has the most direct relation to prayer, and, therefore, to the everyday experience of Christian life. St. Gregory of Nyssa took an active part in resolving the theoretical, philosophical and theological problems of the Divine Names. The development of the Christian teaching about names in general and about the names of God took place during the dispute that unfolded in the 4th century between the Great Cappadocians and the radical Arian (Anomaean) Eunomius. According to Eunomius' theory, all names and words express the divine ideas of things, or the essence of things. Names existed before the creation of things and people. All names of things are revealed to people by God, and thanks to names we can comprehend the essence of things. The names of God, being an expression of the essence of God, are given by God to Himself. These names are revealed to people by God Himself: whoever knows the true name of God also knows the nature of God 12 . Insisting that the names of God express the essence of God, Eunomius did not consider it necessary to consider these names as an object of liturgical veneration. “The secret of piety,” he wrote, “consists not actually in sacred names and not in special customs and mysterious signs, but in the accuracy of dogmas” 13. The best and strongest anti-Arian theologians of that era fought against him and his ideas: Apollinaris of Laodicea, Theodore of Mopset, but most of all – the Great Cappadocians: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian and St. Gregory of Nyssa. The doctrine of the names of St. develops deeper, more distinctly and richer. Gregory of Nyssa in his major work “Refutation of Eunomius.” He writes that names, in general, are not a necessary accessory of objects. “In human nature, we would not at all need the use of words and names if it were possible to reveal to each other the undisguised movements of the mind” 14. Names are something external, attached to objects: names are “brands” attached by the human soul to objects. The source of the origin of names is not in God, but in man; more specifically, in that human mental ability, which Gregory calls the term έπίνοια (or sometimes διάνοια) - “industry”. According to the teachings of St. Gregory, “invention” is not exclusively a person’s own power, but the most precious of all the blessings invested in our soul by Divine Providence 15. St. Gregory argued that the essence of God is unnameable. God “...cannot be grasped either by name, or by thought, or by any other comprehending power of the mind.” The saint teaches that only “... there is only one name that means the divine essence, namely, the very surprise that inexpressibly arises in the soul at the thought of it” 16. Saint Gregory distinguishes between the external and internal side of a name: the external side of a name is its shell, consisting of sounds (when pronounced) and letters (when written); internal – meaning, meaning of the name. In this distinction he follows Basil the Great. St. Gregory of Nyssa goes further: God surpasses not only the sounds and letters of his own Name, but also the meaning contained in them, since the uncreated nature of God is higher not only than any name, but also “every meaning contained in the name” 17. What is the origin of divine names? According to St. Gregory, God receives names in accordance with His actions (energies) in relation to people: “He who is above every name among us receives many different names according to the difference in his good deeds...” 18 ; “God is not speech and does not have existence in voice and sound. Those who call upon Him do not name what He is, for the nature of Being is ineffable, but He receives its name from the actions that we believe concern our lives.” 19 The most important indication of the direct connection between the doctrine of the Divine names and prayer is contained in book 11 of the Refutations of Eunomius. “Therefore, since Eunomius despises the sacred names, when invoked by the power of the most divine birth, grace is given to those who approach in faith, and also despises the communication of signs and customs, in which the strength of Christianity; then we will say to the listeners of this deception: how can you not see that this is a persecutor of the faith, causing those who trust him to deviate from Christianity? In this text, “confession of the sacred names of the Trinity” is placed on a par with the Church Sacraments and rites, with the prayer of the Church, with all ascetic practice, as well as other sacred symbols that are an integral part of the Tradition of the Church and the entire economy of salvation. Dogma cannot be separated from prayer. St. Gregory insists that the entire church tradition is the only means of human salvation. St. Gregory, defending the dogma of the consubstantiality of the Holy Trinity, proves that the Trinity is cognized in Its energies, which means that the names of God do not denote the essence itself, but denote the energy (action) of the essence. Names are possible only with the participation of a free human mind, i.e. subject to "invention". This means that a name is a meeting of two energies: a person names, and God acts with His energy. The energy of God and our imagination are connected in the name, and without this connection there is no name. Therefore, the calling and confession of the names of God is a feat of a person who freely strives for the correct and true knowledge of Him Whom he names in prayers, while the free action of God gives prayer the power that deifies man. The effort of human achievement and the assistance of God’s grace elevates the worshiper to the heights of contemplative prayer and deification. This is the significance of the dispute over names for the teaching of St. Gregory of Nyssa on prayer. According to St. Gregory, at the heights of contemplation, “the theophany that has taken place for us in the flesh, Christ the incarnate Word” 20 is revealed. And it was Him who the seers saw in the Old Testament. The Song of Songs was written about Him. The process of deification itself takes place on the path of deeply intense experiences of the heart - this goal is realized on the path of mystical love for God. The crown of mystical feat is ἔξτασις (ecstasy). Ecstasy represents admiration or delight of feeling. According to St. Gregory of Nyssa, the human soul, as created in the image of God, carries within itself a reflection of the properties of the Divine nature. By creating a person, God creates in him, as it were, an image of Himself, giving him everything that He Himself has. God is, first of all, Good, Beauty, Love, Wisdom, and the soul carries these goods within itself. But along with the positive properties of St. Gregory of Nyssa also puts forward another side of the Divine being - its metaphysical transcendence. The nature of God is above every concept and image accessible to reason; about Him we can only say that It exists, but what It is is incomprehensible to our reason. St. Gregory of Nyssa thinks of the Divine being as supernatural Simplicity and Purity. These properties of the Divine were supposed to be reflected in the human soul as a reflection of the Prototype. And the human soul in its metaphysical basis is nothing more than qualityless simplicity and purity. But in the present state of man, the image of God in him is a drachma hidden under the dirt and impurity of sin. The good is in God, and man seeks it outside of God in the sensory-material side of existence. In this addiction to a substance lies the source of a person’s spiritual impurity. According to Gregory, the sensory-physical side of human nature, although it is a creation of God, is joined by God to his spiritual side only in His foreknowledge of the fall of man. According to his idea and, so to speak, his original plan, man is a pure angel-like spirit. In order to return to the state of primitive purity and primordial simplicity of spirit, a person needs to put aside everything alien. To restore this primitive purity of the image of God in oneself. You need to see God in yourself, in your soul, and for this it must be pure and mirror-like from sensory images. The body must be in a kind of sleep and inaction... a person must come out of everything visible” 21, “become outside the material world” 22, “renounce the veils of the flesh” 23 in order to make himself the most clear image of the beauty of the Prototype” 24. The second point is contemplation - St. Gregory understands this as the detachment of the spirit from the empirical-rational content of consciousness. “Mind,” says St. Gregory, - stretching further, always delving into the understanding of what is truly comprehensible with greater and more perfect attentiveness, the higher he approaches the contemplation of the Divine, the more he sees the incontemplation of the Divine nature... For in this is the true knowledge of what is sought; This is our knowledge, that we do not know, because what we seek is above all knowledge, as if covered in a kind of darkness from everywhere by incomprehensibility. Therefore, Moses, when he became superior in knowledge, then confesses that he sees God in darkness, i.e. then he recognizes that the Divinity in its very nature is that which is above all knowledge and comprehension. Who is God? “He who covered the darkness (Ps. 17:12), as David says” 25. This moment is a moment of ecstasy when the mind comes out of its nature, “out of itself,” and remains in a state of “frenzy.” The path of contemplative life, the path of knowledge of God, is always characterized by thirst, impulse and desire for communion with God, “after all, the true contemplation of God consists in the fact that a person looking at God will never cease to desire this,” 26 – teaches St. Grigory. In this state, a person achieves primitive purity, and his soul most perfectly reflects the features of the Prototype. And “whoever (in this state) sees himself, sees in himself what he desires, and thus the pure in heart becomes blessed, because, looking at his own purity, he sees the Prototype in this image” 27. But it is not only the reflection of the Divine that the human soul contemplates in itself at this time. At this moment she feels the presence of the Divine Himself within her. According to the teachings of St. Gregory, “nothing can remain in being without existing in existence;” 28. God also dwells in man. But a person devoted to sensory-material life does not feel Him within himself. Saint Gregory says: “It is not as a spectacle that God is offered before the face of one who has purified the soul,” 29 but God Himself. In these reflections, Saint Gregory shows us that through self-knowledge we can come to the knowledge of God. In this feeling of the Divine lies the highest moment of human deification, for at this moment the spirit of man, imprinting on itself this metaphysical property of the Divine, becomes uniform with its Prototype and begins to bear the names of God. The prayer experience of the Holy Father amazes with the variety of mystical experiences, and his creations with the wealth of ideas and images based on them. So, the teaching of St. Gregory of Nyssa on prayer combines all the main aspects of the theology of the great Father of the Church: dogmatic, ascetic-practical and mystical. Genuine prayer is an effective force, as a means (but not a reason!) that changes a person and leads him along the path of salvation to his ultimate goal - deification 30. Prayer, being the invocation and confession of the true names of God, is inextricably linked with the nature of these names. The names of God denote the energies of God that act in these names and in the person who calls them. Prayer “through mysterious holiness, spiritual action (energy) and the ineffable disposition of the diligent in prayer introduces one into unity with God” 31. A true Christian is one who bears the name of Christ not falsely, but changes himself with the help of God in such a way that he is not ashamed to be called by the names of God Himself. A true Christian is a co-name with Christ and the entire Holy Trinity. Such co-identification between man and God is achieved at the pinnacle of contemplation, which is the goal of achievement, the goal of good deeds, and the goal of salvation, i.e. deification as the eternal bliss of eternal thanksgiving in the Kingdom of God. a) Works of St. Gregory of Nyssa: • St. Gregory of Nyssa. About prayer // Eastern Fathers and teachers of the Church of the 4th century. Anthology in 3 volumes. M.: MIPT Publishing House, 1999. T. II • St. Gregory of Nyssa. About the life of Moses the lawgiver. M.: Publishing house of the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian, 1999. • St. Gregory of Nyssa. To Armonius about what the name and title “Christian” means // Ibid. • St. Gregory of Nyssa. About the structure of man. St. Petersburg: Axioma, 2000. • St. Gregory of Nyssa. Big public word // aka. Dogmatic writings. Krasnodar: Text, 2006. T. 1. • St. Gregory of Nyssa. To Avlavius ​​that there are not “three Gods” // Ibid. • St. Gregory of Nyssa. Refutation of Eunomius // aka. Dogmatic writings. Krasnodar: Text, 2006. T. 2. • St. Gregory of Nyssa. An accurate explanation of the Song of Solomon // aka. Creations. M., 1862. Part 3. b) Creations of the Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church: • St. Basil the Great. Against Eunomius // aka. Creations. M., 1991. T. 1. • St. Gregory the Theologian. Creations. M., 1991. T. 1. • Origen. On prayer and exhortation to martyrdom. Samara, 1992. • prot. Georgy Florovsky. Florovsky G.V. Prot. Eastern fathers of the 4th century. M.: Pilgrim, 1992. • Epifanovich S.L. Rec.: Minin P. Main directions of ancient church mysticism. Sergiev Posad, 1916 // aka. St. Maximus the Confessor and Byzantine theology. M.: Martis, 1996. P. 186. • Zarin S.M. Asceticism according to Orthodox Christian teaching. M.: Pilgrim, 1996. • hieromon. Hilarion (Alfeev). Saint Gregory of Nyssa. Life and Creations // Eastern Fathers and Teachers of the Church of the 4th century. Anthology in 3 volumes. M.: MIPT Publishing House, 1999. T. II. pp. 365–403. • ep. Hilarion (Alfeev). The sacred secret of the Church. Introduction to the history and problems of the Imiaslav disputes. St. Petersburg: Aletheya, 2002. T. 1. • Losev A.F. The dispute about names in the 4th century and its relation to name-glorification // aka. Name. St. Petersburg: Aletheya, 1997. pp. 39–45. • Manzaridis G.I. The deification of man according to the teachings of St. Gregory Palamas. TSL, 2003. • Minin P. Mysticism and its nature - website “Hesychasm” – http://www.hesychasm.ru/library/minin/mysticism_1.htm • Nesmelov V.I. The dogmatic system of St. Gregory of Nyssa. St. Petersburg: Center for the Study, Protection and Restoration of the Holy Heritage. Pavel Florensky, 2000. • Spassky A.A. History of dogmatic movements in the era of the Ecumenical Councils. M.: Pilgrim, b.g. • Troitsky S.V. The teaching of St. Gregory of Nyssa on names and name worshipers. Krasnodar: St. Elias Church, 2002. St. Theophan the Recluse. Outline of Christian doctrine. M.:b.g.S.441. Origen. About prayer, 11//aka. On prayer and exhortation to martyrdom. Samara, 1992. St. Gregory of Nyssa. About prayer // Eastern Fathers and teachers of the Church of the 4th century. M., 1999. T. II. P. 398. St. Gregory of Nyssa. To Armonius about what the name and title “Christian” means // Eastern Fathers and Teachers of the Church of the 4th century. Anthology in 3 volumes. M.: MIPT Publishing House, 1999. T. II.S. 351. Troitsky S.V. The teaching of St. Gregory of Nyssa on names and name worshipers. Krasnodar: St. Elias Church, 2002. P.5. St. Gregory of Nyssa. Refutation of Eunomius, 11 // aka. Dogmatic writings. Krasnodar, 2006. T. 2. P. 324. St. Gregory of Nyssa. Refutation of Eunomius, 8. St. Gregory of Nyssa. Refutation of Eunomius, 12. St. Gregory of Nyssa. Refutation of Eunomius, 10. St. Gregory of Nyssa. Refutation of Eunomius, 12; see this is also stated in the saint’s small treatise: To Avlavius ​​about the fact that there are not “three Gods” // St. Gregory of Nyssa. Dogmatic writings. Krasnodar, 2006. T. 1. P. 58–67. St. Gregory of Nyssa. About the life of Moses the lawgiver. P. 63. St. Gregory of Nyssa. About the life of Moses the lawgiver. P. 64. St. Gregory of Nyssa. About the life of Moses the lawgiver. M.: Publishing house of the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian, 1999. P. 67. Wed. with the opinion of another great Gregory - St. Gregory Palamas, who considered prayer a deifying virtue, which is a means of preparing and achieving deification. Through unceasing prayer, according to him, God moves into a person without falsehood. See about this: Manzaridis G.I. The deification of man according to the teachings of St. Gregory Palamas. TSL., 2003. pp. 85–87. St. Gregory of Nyssa. About perfection and what a Christian should be, to Olympius the monk // cit. by: Zarin S.M. Asceticism according to Orthodox Christian teaching. M.: Pilgrim, 1996. pp. 444–445.