Eirini ARTEMI, Gregory Nazianzen’s trinitarian teaching based on his Twentieth Theological Oration Gregory Nazianzen’s trinitarian teaching based on his Twentieth Theological Oration La doctrina trinitaria de San Gregorio Nacianceno basada en si Quinta Oración Teológica Eirini ARTEMI International Association of Patristic Studies, Athens [email protected] Recibido: 10/09/2013 Aceptado: 02/12/2013 Abstract: Gregory of Nazianzus, the Theologian, is one of the most important fathers and saints of the Christianity, because of his theological thought and his intense poetical style in his work. He is thought as a writer of a unique beauty and brilliance in his writings. In his era, the teachings of Eunomius and Macedonius were a great threat for the Church. The apprehension of the divine nature, being pure spirit, is impossible for a materially based consciousness, and the only hope for human beings to have knowledge of God, therefore, is founded upon their ability to transcend material limitation, when the soul is invited back by God to its true spiritual nature and destiny (τέλος) in communion with God. This economy of salvation, described as a purification and ascent, determines from the outset the radically ‘economic’ nature of theology for Gregory. Gregory insists on explaining how the Holy Spirit exists, underlining that the way of the existence of every person of the Holy Trinity is unique for each of Them. The word ἴδιον (idion: specific) is used to show the relationship between the persons of the Triune God, and not their common nature. For this reason the names Father, Son and Holy Spirit are referred to their relationship, and not to οὐσία (ousia: essence). Also these names (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) do not show the actions of the Holy Persons, because they are common. Otherwise there would be the danger to the Son of not being God. He would be only a creature. For the first time, Gregory uses the unity of the persons of the Holy Trinity as a pattern of the unity of the two natures of incarnated Word, Christ. He uses this type of pattern, because Gregory saw the danger of the heretical teaching of Apollinarius. The latter supports that the human nature of Christ is absorbed by the divine one. Also, there is another heretical danger in thinking the recruitment of human nature by the divine one as superficial, false, not real. So the Christ would not be real Human and God and He could not save the human race. It is clear that Gregory’s trinitarian doctrine originates in a primary and profound soteriological imperative. Key words: Triune God, triadology, divine nature, Gregory of Nazianzus Resumen: Gregorio Nacianceno, el Teólogo, es uno de los padres y los santos más importantes de la cristiandad, a causa de su pensamiento teológico y el intenso estilo poético de su obra. Es considerado como un escritor de una belleza y una brillantez únicas en sus escritos. En su época, las enseñanzas de Eunomio y Macedonio eran una gran amenaza para la Iglesia. La aprehensión de la naturaleza divina, siendo espíritu puro, es imposible para una conciencia basada en lo material, y la única esperanza para los seres humanos de tener conocimiento de Dios, por lo tanto, se basa en su capacidad de trascender la limitación material, cuando el alma es invitada por Dios a regresar a su verdadera naturaleza espiritual y su destino (τέλος) en la comunión con Dios. Esta economía de la salvación, descrita como una purificación y ascensión, determina desde el principio la naturaleza radicalmente “económica” de la teología de Gregorio. Gregorio insiste en explicar cómo el Espíritu Santo existe, subrayando que el camino de la existencia de cada persona de la Santísima Trinidad es De Medio Aevo 4 (2013 / 2) ISSN-e 2255-5889 127 Eirini ARTEMI, Gregory Nazianzen’s trinitarian teaching based on his Twentieth Theological Oration único para cada una de ellas. La palabra ἴδιον (idion) se utiliza para mostrar la relación entre las personas de Dios uno y trino, y no su naturaleza común. Por esta razón los nombres del Padre, el Hijo y el Espíritu Santo hacen referencia a su relación mutua, y no a la ousía. Además estos nombres (Padre, Hijo y Espíritu Santo) no muestran las acciones de las personas divinas, porque son comunes. De lo contrario, habría el riesgo de que el Hijo no fuese Dios, sino solo una creatura. Por primera vez, Gregorio utiliza la unidad de las personas de la Santísima Trinidad como modelo de la unidad de las dos naturalezas del Verbo de Dios encarnado, Cristo. Él utiliza este tipo de modelo, porque Gregorio vio el peligro de la enseñanza herética de Apolinar. Este último sostiene que la naturaleza humana de Cristo es absorbida por la divina. Además, hay otro peligro herético en pensar la adopción de la naturaleza humana por la divina como superficial, falsa, irreal. Así Cristo no sería verdaderamente Hombre y Dios, y él no podría salvar a la raza humana. Está claro que la doctrina trinitaria de Gregory se origina en un primario y profundo imperativo soteriológico. Palabras clave: Santísima Trinidad, trinitaria, naturaleza divina, Gregorio Nacianceno. Summary: 1. Introduction. 2. The historical environment of the era in which the Twentieth Theological Oration was written. 3. The Twentieth Oration and the definition of term theologos (theologian). 3.1. The Twentieth Oration. 3.2. The conditions for someone to be called a theologian. 4. The Triune God. 4.1. Trinity: “Monas in Triadi and Trias in Monadi”, One God in three persons. 4.2. The Substance of the Father. God the Father. 4.3. The Existence of the Son. God the Son. 5. Conclusions. Sources and Bibliography * * * * * 1. Introduction “The divine nature is boundless and hard to be understood; and all that we can comprehend of God, it is His boundlessness.” (St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 38, 7). St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390) is, along with St. John the Evangelist, and St. Symeon the New Theologian, one of the few saints in the Eastern Christian tradition bearing the honorific title of “Theologian.” Through his work, he makes clear how someone can speak about God, theologisei, and connect with the Triune God. Only then everyone could become a shareholder of the attributes of the Holy Trinity and obtain partial but certain knowledge about God. Partial, also, is the knowledge that a man as a creature can acquire of God, since any man can know only God’s attributes but never knows His actions. Gregory explains that, while pointing out the characteristics of God, we thus do not give a definition to the understanding of God. Such a definition is, in essence, impossible, because in any definition there is an indication of limits, and, therefore, an indication of boundaries, of incompleteness. There are no boundaries to God, and therefore there cannot be a definition of comprehension of God: “The Divine Nature then is boundless and hard to understand; and all that we can comprehend of Him is His boundlessness”.1 1 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 38, 7, On the Theophany, or Birthday of Christ, PG 36, 317CD. De Medio Aevo 4 (2013 / 2) ISSN-e 2255-5889 128 Eirini ARTEMI, Gregory Nazianzen’s trinitarian teaching based on his Twentieth Theological Oration This paper deals mainly with the triadological teaching of St. Gregory of Nazianzus in his speech “On Theology, and the Appointment of Bishops”2. The knowledge of God is given to humans through theophanies or theopties (the appearence of God) and theological search. Our goal is the detailed exposition of the Trinitarian teaching of Gregory the Theologian. In his teaching, it is underlined unequivocally the consubstantiality and the aidiotita3 of the Persons of the One and, at the same time, Triune God. His arguments rest on solid Greek physics and metaphysics (and on prior conclusions), and he attempts to use analogies with what is observable in nature, ultimately discarding them in favour of what we may term “inspiration.” The teaching of Gregory for the Triune God is relevant to the time in which many heresies, such as Arianism, Eunomius’ and Marcellus of Ancyra’s teaching etc., had strongly made their appearance. These heresies were in opposition to the traditional Trinitarian, Christological and about Holy Spirit doctrines. 2. The historical environment of the era in which the Twentieth Theological Oration was written. In 359, needing reinforcements against Persia, Constantius, son of Constantinus the Great, ordered many of cousin’s Julian the Apostate best legions to march east. Instead, the troops stationed near Paris in mutiny and proclaimed Julian emperor. The latter moved slowly eastwards with them to what would have been a rebellious confrontation. But in 361 Constantius, moving westwards to meet Julian, died in Asia Minor. Julian the Apostate (361-363) was the new emperor. As imperial ruler, Julian had two primary goals: the complete abolition of the Christian religion, and the restoration of paganism, which had fallen on hard times in recent decades. Julian, as a military man, likely was familiar with the maxim “divide and conquer.” Accordingly, he encouraged strife among those who professed allegiance to Christ. He restored4 certain antagonistic bishops, who had been in exile, to their offices, He had the hope they would devour one another. So by recalling exiled bishops, Julian encouraged dissension among the Christians, who were already fighting the heresy of Arius5. The result was new heresies to be founded. The leader and the founder of one of the heresies was Eunomius (333-393) bishop of Cyzicus. For Eunomius, God was the ungenerated Being, the single, supreme, ultimate, and simple Substance. He held that the “Son of God“ was actually created by the Father, and, though possessing creative 2 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 20, On Theology, and the Appointment of Bishops, SC 270 (=PG 35, 1065Α-1081Α). 3 Eternity 4 He ordered the bishops who were in exile, because of their heretic ideas to return to their ecclesiastic places, to their dioceses 5 Vlasios FEIDAS, Ecclesiastic History, I, Athens 1992, p. 507. De Medio Aevo 4 (2013 / 2) ISSN-e 2255-5889 129 Eirini ARTEMI, Gregory Nazianzen’s trinitarian teaching based on his Twentieth Theological Oration power, was not of His essence; further, the “Holy Spirit“ was created by the Son in order to be the Sanctifier of souls. Christ was bornand He wasn't eternal therefore, according to Eunomius, Christ cannot be called God according to his essence; his essence is creation. Similarly, Christ’s essence is expressed with the notion “offspring” (γέννηµα), while God’s essence is denoted as “unbegotten” (ἀγέννητος). To sum up, Eunomius’ argumentation, the persons of God had different names and because of this they had different essence6. In 364 Valens (364-378) is the emperor to the throne of the empire. His reign started after a short period of Jovian’s reign (363-364). The Emperor Valens (364-378) lent his powerful support to the Eunomians, even to the extent of persecuting the Orthodox. He was a vehement follower of the Arian branch of Christianity and actively persecuted the Catholic Church. In his reign many Orthodoxs were exiled. In 378, Valens was killed in the Battle of Adrianople against the Goths and his nephew Gratian became the new emperor. He favored Christianity and recalled all exiled orthodox bishops from the exile. The reign of Gratian formed an important epoch in ecclesiastical history, since during that period Orthodox Christianity for the first time became dominant throughout the empire. Gratian also published an edict that all their subjects should profess the faith of the bishops of Rome and Alexandria (i.e., the Nicene faith). The move was mainly thrust at the various beliefs that had arisen out of Arianism, but smaller dissident sects, such as the Macedonians, were also prohibited. In 379 Gratian chose for his co-Augustus for East Theodosius, who favored the Nicean Christian religion (325)7. In 381, Theodosius summoned a new ecumenical council at Constantinople to repair the division between East and West on the basis of Nicean orthodoxy. Generally, Theodosius proved to be a champion of the orthodox faith, and his intent in calling this Council was to completely eradicate Arianism, and condemn Macedonios and Apollinarianism by establishing the teaching on the unity of the Holy Trinity and the complete manhood in Christ. In the end the council of 381 defined orthodoxy, clarified jurisdictions of the state church of the Roman Empire, and ruled that Constantinople was second in precedence to Rome8. The general situation of this era was reflected in the twentieth oration of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus. From the first clauses of the oration, the holy father prefigured the reader of it for the context of this writing work. Simultaneously, Gregory expressed his reaction to those men that declared that they are theologians: 6 Stylianos PAPADOPOULOS, Patrologia I, Athens 1992, p. 365. See Eirini ARTEMI, “The religious policy of Byzantine Emperors from First to the Fourth Ecumenical Councils”, Ecclesiastic Faros, 76 (2005) 121-163. 7 Ibid. 8 S. WILLIAMS, G. FRIELL, Theodosius: The Empire at Bay, Yale University Press, 1995, p. 27. De Medio Aevo 4 (2013 / 2) ISSN-e 2255-5889 130 Eirini ARTEMI, Gregory Nazianzen’s trinitarian teaching based on his Twentieth Theological Oration When I see the endless talkativeness that haunts us today, the instant sages and designated theologians, for whom simply willing to be wise is enough to make them so, I long for the philosophy that comes from above; I yearn for that “final lodging”9, to use Jeremiah’s phrase, and I want only to be off by myself10. On the other hand the real theologian searches for God, and he is illuminated by the Holy Spirit, and can talk about the infinite God: For nothing seems so important to me as for a person to shut off his senses, to take his place outside the flesh and the world—not to fasten on human realities unless it is completely necessary, and so, in conversation with himself and with God, to live above the level of the visible, and always to bear the images of divine things within himself in their pure state, free from the stamp of what is inferior and changeable. In this way, one is—and one is always becoming— a spotless mirror of God and divine things, assimilating light to light, and adding clarity to indistinct beginnings, until we come to the source of the light that radiates in this world and lay hold of our blessed end, where mirrors are dissolved in true reality11. 3. The Twentieth Oration and the definition of term theologos (theologian: the man who speak for the God.). 3.1. The Twentieth Oration The Twentieth Oration of Gregory Nazianzus, “On Theology, and the Appointment of Bishops”, is one of his dogmatic orations. This work is written in the summer or in autumn of 380, after the writing of the five theological orations. By many considered to be a summary of the first theological treatise “On Theology”, this, however, does not seem to be accepted, because this base is in 380 and theological reasons were written at the beginning of that year. Many scholars place it in the spring of 380, and John McGuckin suggests it may be a reworking of his “first lecture” in the capital, given as early as September or October 379 AD12. The cause for this writing is the environment that prevailed then in the Church. His aim is to present “pseudo-theologians,” who “try to mould other people into holiness overnight, appoint them theologians, and as it were, breathe learning into them, and thus produce ready-made any number of 9 JER. 9:2. 10 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 20, On Theology, and the Appointment of Bishops, SC 270, 1 (=PG 35, 1065AB). 11 Ibid. 12 J. A. MCGUCKIN, St. Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual Biography, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, New York 2001, p. 243ff, 253ff. De Medio Aevo 4 (2013 / 2) ISSN-e 2255-5889 131 Eirini ARTEMI, Gregory Nazianzen’s trinitarian teaching based on his Twentieth Theological Oration Councils of ignorant intellectuals”13. Gregory explained which the criteria to someone to be called theologian are14. The Holy Father accuses the bishops and many of priests of his time of incompetence of their priesthood. He feels angry with those who didn’t have the right qualifications to be theologians. Most of them are theologians only by name but not by essence. The real theologian must have illumination by God, should be able to speak about God and should be purified and know adequately the Scriptures15. Gregory explains that a theologian must achieve his purification, before he purifies others. He must be defender of the truth; only then he would stand together with angels. Continuing his oration, Gregory mentions events from the Scriptures and mainly from the Old Testament who were impious to God and became the cause of the punishment of Israel. Nazianzus wants to emphasize that anyone who is disrespectful to God or doesn’t justify and punish ungodly people, he is unworthy to be serving God16. Instead, whoever is cognizant of his unworthiness, but tries to purify himself, then is illuminated and is given Grace by God to theologize17. This oration is a dogmatic text and an exquisite literary creation. It also shows that this Cappadocian Father is very knowledgeable about the art of rhetoric and inept handler of Greek language. Its content is mainly a dense statement of Gregory’s synthetic view of the orthodox doctrine of One God as a Trinity of Persons. Here as elsewhere, he emphasizes that the ability to approach this central understanding of faith in the right spirit depends, first of all on the moral18. 3.2. The conditions for someone to be called a theologian In Gregory’s view, Christian theology involves and represents a dynamic, lived relation between God and the theologian. The oration begins not with abstract information about God, but it clears that purification is the necessary condition for knowing God, for every theologian, as he grows in holiness in order to know God more fully19. 13GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 27, 9, The First Theological Oration. A Preliminary Discourse Against the Eunomians, PG 36, 20D. 14 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 20, On Theology, and the Appointment of Bishops, SC 270, 1 (=PG 35, 1065B). 15 Ibid, SC 270, 1-2 (=PG 35, 1065B). 16 Ibid, SC 270, 2 (=PG 35, 1065B). 17 Ibid. 18 B. E. DALEY, Gregory of Nazianzus, The Early Church Fathers, publ. Taylor & Francis, Oxford 2006, p. 98. 19 C. A. BEELEY, Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity and the Knowledge of God: Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity and the Knowledge of God, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2008, p. 111, 88. De Medio Aevo 4 (2013 / 2) ISSN-e 2255-5889 132 Eirini ARTEMI, Gregory Nazianzen’s trinitarian teaching based on his Twentieth Theological Oration Gregory explains that as Theologian could be considered the man who speaks or writes treatises for God. Regarding Christianity, the theologian is the God-seer. He is the one who succeeds to realize the “most” of the divine truth in relation to God’s truth, which neither decreases nor increases. The capture of the divine truth is succeeded with the lighting of the Holy Spirit. ...completing in detail that which was incompletely said by them concerning the Holy Ghost; for that question had not then been mooted, namely, that we are to believe that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are of one Godhead, thus confessing the Spirit also to be God20. The Holy Spirit enables the theologian to rise above the human level of life. He gives his intellect a light to understand truths and reach decisions not by reasoning things out, but by a kind of intuition. The guidance of the Holy Spirit is above reason. The theologian “communicates” with the Holy Spirit and the latter reveals him another part of the divine truth with His lighting. Further, he inquired into the truth of our faith which had been torn asunder, confused, and parceled out into various opinions and portions by many; with the intention, if it were possible, of reducing the whole world to harmony and union by the co-operation of the Spirit: and, should he fail in this, of attaching himself to the best party, so as to aid and be aided by it, thus giving token of the exceeding loftiness and magnificence of his ideas on questions of the greatest moment. Here too was shown in a very high degree the simple-mindedness of Athanasius, and the steadfastness of his faith in Christ. For, when all the rest who sympathized with us were divided into three parties, and many were faltering in their conception of the Son, and still more in that of the Holy Ghost (a point on which to be only slightly in error was to be orthodox) and few indeed were sound upon both points, he was the first and only one, or with the concurrence of but a few, to venture to confess in writing, with entire clearness and distinctness, the Unity of Godhead and Essence of the Three Persons, and thus to attain in later days, under the influence of inspiration, to the same faith in regard to the Holy Ghost, as had been bestowed at an earlier time on most of the Fathers in regard to the Son. This confession, a truly royal and magnificent gift, he presented to the Emperor, opposing to the unwritten innovation, a written account the orthodox faith, so that an 20 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Epistle 102, 21-6 - Against Apollinarius; The Second Letter to Cledonius, SC 208, 2, (=PG 37, 180A). De Medio Aevo 4 (2013 / 2) ISSN-e 2255-5889 133 Eirini ARTEMI, Gregory Nazianzen’s trinitarian teaching based on his Twentieth Theological Oration emperor might be overcome by an emperor, reason by reason, treatise by treatise21. The donation of the grace of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity is achieved when someone is constantly struggling to get rid of his passions, to succeed his inner purity and purification of the soul through prayer, fasting and participation in the sacraments of the Church22. The careful study of the sacred texts of the Bible and the works of earlier Church Fathers has an important role in the effort for founding the grace of Holy Spirit. Mostly what matters the most, it is the true faith in God, trying to harmonize our life according to the will and commandments of the Triune God. Although many Fathers observed the specific terms, our Church was parsimonious to attribute this characterization to Christian Church, Fathers, saints and teachers. So over the two thousand years of earthly existence of the Church only three saints worthy be called theologians. One was the beloved disciple of Christ, the Son of Thunder, John the Evangelist. The other was Gregory of Nazianzus and the third was Symeon the New Theologian. Only they managed to acquire the experience of the deeper and broader truth than which had been formed by the other theologians to their time”23. In particular oration Gregory emphasizes that the theologian is not the one who was ordained priest and he is wise according to human standards, but the one that has been occupied by the grace of the Holy Spirit24. This holy grace makes him anxious to wish the union with the Divinity. The true theologian has innermost peace and mental quiet. At the same time, he tries to be in constant vigilance to achieve the without ending renewal of his internal world, having always as base the true faith in Christ Jesus25. Only then, the man works as an “unblemished inflectors of God” and he can theologize correctly26. 21 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 21, 33, On the Great Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, PG 35, 1121B-D. 22 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 27, 3, The First Theological Oration. A Preliminary Discourse Against the Eunomians, PG 36, 13CD: “Not to every one, my friends, does it belong to philosophize about God; not to every one; the Subject is not so cheap and low; and I will add, not before every audience, nor at all times, nor on all points; but on certain occasions, and before certain persons, and within certain limits. Not to all men, because it is permitted only to those who have been examined, and are passed masters in meditation, and who have been previously purified in soul and body, or at the very least are being purified”. 23 Stylianos PAPADOPOULOS, Patrologia II, Athens 1990, p. 499. 24 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 20, 1, On Theology, and the Appointment of Bishops, PG 35, SC 270, 1 (=PG 35, 1065A). 25 Konstantinos SKOUTERIS, The meaning of the terms “theology”, “theologize”, “theologian” in Greek Fathers' teaching and in ecclesiastic writers to Cappadocians, Athens 1989, p. 168. 26 I COR. 13:12: “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known”. De Medio Aevo 4 (2013 / 2) ISSN-e 2255-5889 134 Eirini ARTEMI, Gregory Nazianzen’s trinitarian teaching based on his Twentieth Theological Oration In another part of this speech, Nazianzen notes that someone who speaks for God must be worthy, because God, the ultimate clean being, can be touched only by an absolute purified man. As we can understand, someone can theologize, can speak for God, only if He has been examined, and is passed master in meditation, and who has been previously purified in soul and body, or at the very least is being purified. For the impure to touch the pure is, we may safely say, not safe, just as it is unsafe to fix weak eyes upon the sun’s rays. And what is the permitted occasion? It is when we are free from all external defilement or disturbance, and when that which rules within us is not confused with vexatious or erring images.27 Otherwise it will be like persons who mix up good writing with bad, or filth with the sweet odours of ointments. For it is necessary to be truly at leisure to know God; and when we can get a convenient season, to discern the straight road of the divine things28. Only through purification in Christ, the potential theologian achieves to get rid of his passions but accepts with his whole being the fact of salvation29. Support this view later, a passage from the work of another Cappadocian Father, Gregory of Nyssa. He supports that someone can talk about theology, only if he is purified, and has virtue and the grace of the Holy Spirit30 The theology is an awesome project31, emphasizes Gregory the Theologian. Man fails to capture the eternal, anarcho archi (something which starts but it has no real start), the aidio (: eternal) and eternal God. Man cannot talk for Him or better about Him. This becomes more difficult when the mind is in diffusion. He must therefore be removed from anything that related to the observable universe and obtain the required inner peace. The latter was sought by the Holy Father throughout his entire life. It was what made him to be in constant struggle between monastic life and social contribution. He followed a middle way, since he considered that anyone who lives in the world is useful for others, useless, but for himself, because he is surrounded by the passions that agitate him. Instead, anyone who lives outside the world is certainly stable and looks God and therefore he is useful in himself, but he has “narrow” and 27 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 27, 3, The First Theological Oration. A Preliminary Discourse Against the Eunomians, PG 36, 15A. 28 Ibid. 29 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 20, 1, On Theology, and the Appointment of Bishops, SC 270, 4 (=PG 35, 1068D- 1069A). See Basil of Caesarea, On Isaiah, 14, PG 30, 621A. 30GREGORY OF NYSSA, On the Inscriptions of the Psalms, PG 44, 577D. 31 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 20, 4, On Theology, and the Appointment of Bishops, SC 270, 4 (=PG 35, 1069B). De Medio Aevo 4 (2013 / 2) ISSN-e 2255-5889 135 Eirini ARTEMI, Gregory Nazianzen’s trinitarian teaching based on his Twentieth Theological Oration restricted love for his fellow man. The best way of theology for Gregory is the vision of God. Only thus a greater degree of experience of the divine truth is achieved that is entirely consistent with the theological teachings of the Sacred Tradition and the Church. The theology is impossible and unthinkable without the vision of God. As mentioned, the vision of God, the personal experience of truth is a function of purification: Love what already abides within you, and let the rest await you in the treasury above. Approach it by the way you live: what is pure can only be acquired through purification. Do you want to become a theologian someday, to be worthy of the divinity? Keep the commandments; make your way forward through observing the precepts: for the practical life is the launching-pad for contemplation. Start with the body, but find joy in working for your soul32. Only so the theologian will gain the experience of the knowledge of God, the knowledge of the uncreated attributes of the Holy Trinity, and not the knowledge of the divine nature, because His essence (ousia) is incomprehensible to everyone except the Hypostases of the Triune God. The word for God is greater than any philosophy. The latter deals with mundane things and the concepts that are mutated; their meaning or their philosophical content is completely debunked. The rise in the level of theology resembles like climbing to “inaccessible mountain”. The man cannot achieves this only by his power and the exercise of his body and mind, because the theology is the fruit of the action of the Holy Spirit and the whole of the Holy Trinity, since all divine energies except the hypostatic idioms are common to all persons of the Triune God. The theology of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity arises from man’s deepest experiences with God. It comes from the genuine living knowledge of those who have come to know God in faith. 4. The Triune God 4.1. Trinity: “Monas in Triadi and Trias in Monadi”, One God in three persons. The holy Gregory begins the Twentieth Oration by defining the word “theologian” and how someone should theologize. Then, he gives the definition of what theology is and what its content33. Theology, then, is the speech for God’s word. The Holy Trinity is three “unconfused” and distinct divine persons (hypostases), who share one divine essence (ousia)—uncreated, immaterial and 32 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 20, 4, On Theology, and the Appointment of Bishops, SC 270, 12 (=PG 35, 1080B). 33 GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Oration 20, On Theology, and the Appointment of Bishops, SC 270, 5-11,(=PG 35, 1065Α-1081Α.) De Medio Aevo 4 (2013 / 2) ISSN-e 2255-5889 136