c. A.D. 329 – 390

Gregory of Nazianzus

Worth knowing

He studied at Athens with his friend Basil of Caesarea and is one of the three Cappadocian Fathers.
In 379 he came to Constantinople, where nearly every church was held by the Arians, and preached the Nicene faith in a small chapel. His five Theological Orations were preached there.
He presided for a time at the Council of Constantinople in 381, then resigned and went home.
The Eastern church calls him the Theologian. His line against Apollinaris, that what Christ did not assume he did not heal, is still quoted in arguments about Christ's full humanity.

In Scholar’s Dream, Gregory of Nazianzus has two books

Theological OrationsGregory of Nazianzus, Orations 27–31Theology ProperChristology

Nazianzen’s CorpusThe Works of Gregory of NazianzusTheology ProperChristology

Gregory of Nazianzus’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Gregory of Nazianzus that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved… if the whole of his nature fell, it must be united to the whole nature of Him that was begotten, and so be saved as a whole.”
Gregory of Nazianzus, Epistle 101, To Cledonius Against Apollinarius (trans. Browne & Swallow, NPNF² 7, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move What Is Not Assumed

ChristologyArgument · power 84 · 95% accurate

In the gameWhatever Christ did not take on, he did not heal. Leave any part of a human being out of the incarnation and you have left that part out of the rescue.

Learned byTheological Orations (Lv 1)

Strong against

×2.5Damascene’s Corpusa book · why?

John of Damascus gives this very rule in the Exposition (3.18): what is not assumed is not remedied. He read Gregory the Theologian closely and quotes him by name.

×2.5Exact Expositiona book · why?

John of Damascus gives this very rule in the Exposition (3.18): what is not assumed is not remedied. He read Gregory the Theologian closely and quotes him by name.

“The Father is without beginning and is unbegotten, and he has always been regarded as the Father.”
Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius 1.33 (trans. Gerald Bray) — quoted under fair use.in copyright · fair use

How it works in the game: the move Without Beginning

Theology ProperArgument · power 70 · 100% accurate

In the gameThere was never a Father who was not already Father. Unbegotten, without beginning — and therefore never without a Son.

Learned byTheological Orations (Lv 24)

“‘No one has ever yet spoken thus, and with such boldness, to Modestus.’ ‘Why, perhaps,’ said Basil, ‘you have not met with a Bishop, or in his defence of such interests he would have used precisely the same language.’”
Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 43.50, the funeral oration on Basil (trans. Browne & Swallow, NPNF² 7, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move You Have Not Met a Bishop

HistoryArgument · power 82 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe prefect Modestus told Basil what the empire could do to him: confiscation, banishment, torture, death. Basil answered that a man who owns a few books cannot be robbed, that he counts no country his own, and that his body had stopped being reachable some time ago. Gregory preached the whole exchange at his funeral.

Learned byNazianzen’s Corpus (Lv 33)

“Farewell, my throne, envied and perilous height… Farewell, East and West, for whom and against whom I have had to fight; He is witness, Who will give you peace, if but a few would imitate my retirement.”
Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 42, the last farewell, delivered before the hundred and fifty bishops at Constantinople in 381 (trans. Browne & Swallow, NPNF² 7, public domain). (trimmed quote)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Farewell, My Throne

EcclesiologyArgument · power 76 · 100% accurate

In the gameConstantinople, 381. Gregory had been brought in to win the council and his own seat became the thing the bishops were fighting about, so he resigned in the middle of it and preached this on the way out. The book’s own Defend may rise as it says so.

Learned byNazianzen’s Corpus (Lv 40)

Passages you can read in the game

Longer excerpts the Scriptorium holds on screen for a player to sit and read, word for word.

“It is difficult to conceive God but to define Him in words is an impossibility.”
Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 28.4, the Second Theological Oration (trans. Browne & Swallow, NPNF² 7, public domain, lightly modernized).

from Theological Orations

“But in my opinion it is impossible to express Him, and yet more impossible to conceive Him.”
Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 28.4 — the sentence immediately after the one above (trans. Browne & Swallow, NPNF² 7, public domain).

from Theological Orations

“And then when I looked up, I scarce saw the back parts of God; although I was sheltered by the Rock, the Word that was made flesh for us.”
Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 28.3 (trans. Browne & Swallow, NPNF² 7, public domain, lightly modernized); cf. Exodus 33:23.

from Theological Orations

“If He is to be worshipped, surely He is an Object of adoration, and if an Object of adoration He must be God; the one is linked to the other, a truly golden and saving chain.”
Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 31.28, the Fifth Theological Oration, on the Holy Spirit (trans. Browne & Swallow, NPNF² 7, public domain).

from Theological Orations

“For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved.”
Gregory of Nazianzus, Epistle 101, to Cledonius (trans. Browne & Swallow, NPNF² 7, public domain).

from Theological Orations

Words Gregory of Nazianzus’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byTheological Orations (Lv 10), Nazianzen’s Corpus (Lv 37)

“The Church, though dispersed … the whole world… has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith… carefully preserves it, as if dwelling in but a single house.”
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.10.1–2 (trans. Roberts & Rambaut, ANF 1, public domain; condensed).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Rule of Faith

ChristologyArgument · power 55 · 100% accurate

In the gameOne public tradition, handed down openly in all the churches.

Learned byTheological Orations (Lv 16)

Strong against

×4Gos. Judasa book · why?

And this book is BUILT on that error — it has nowhere left to stand once the rule is read out.

×4Gos. Thomasa book · why?

And this book is BUILT on that error — it has nowhere left to stand once the rule is read out.

×2"That’s Three Gods"an argument · why?

Irenaeus points to the one faith held by the churches everywhere: one God the Father, one Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. The church has always named three and counted one God.

×2Hidden Sparkan argument · why?

Irenaeus shows the church has not grown through sharing secrets but by bearing witness (publicly!) to the truth, from Germany to Egypt.

×2Letter to Floraan argument · why?

Ptolemy wrote it privately, to one woman. Irenaeus’ test is a faith said aloud in every church, for anyone to compare.

×2The Traitor’s Handsan argument · why?

Irenaeus points to the one faith held by all the churches together. The Donatists kept a pure church in one province, but the true church is spread through the whole world.

×2Thirty Aeonsan argument · why?

Irenaeus’ complaint was that no two Valentinian teachers described the aeons the same way. He compared their disagreements against the shared and consistent testimony of the church — the Rule of Faith.

“He who thinks that he knows the magnitude of God, is diminishing it; he who desires not to lessen it, knows it not.”
Minucius Felix, Octavius 18 (trans. R. E. Wallis, ANF 4, public domain). The move takes its name from the same chapter: “He can neither be seen — He is brighter than light.”public domain

How it works in the game: the move Brighter Than Light

Theology ProperArgument · power 68 · 100% accurate

In the gameGod cannot be seen — he is brighter than sight; nor grasped — he is purer than touch. The confident measurer loses the thread.

Learned byTheological Orations (Lv 28)

“the renewal of creation has been the work of the self-same Word that made it at the beginning. For it will appear not inconsonant for the Father to have wrought its salvation in Him by Whose means He made it.”
Athanasius, On the Incarnation 1.4 (trans. Archibald Robertson, NPNF² 4, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Word Made Flesh

ChristologyArgument · power 70 · 100% accurate

In the gameFrom Athanasius: only the Creator can recreate.

Learned byTheological Orations (Lv 36), Nazianzen’s Corpus (Lv 36)

Strong against

×4One Nature After the Unionan argument · why?

It holds the flesh in place — which is the one thing his union cannot do.

×4The Ugly Broad Ditchan argument · why?

Lessing’s ditch says history can never carry necessary truth. The claim on the table is that it did, once, on purpose — the Word made flesh, a fact about a Tuesday.

×3The Many Faiths, One Realan argument · why?

Hick says the faiths are level roads to one summit. Athanasius answers with a fact and not a view: God himself became a man. That cannot be one road among several, because it is not a road at all. It is an arrival.

×2Changeable by Naturean argument · why?

The Word who became flesh is the Word who made the world. He was truly tempted, but he was never a creature who might have gone the other way.

×2Devout Man Onlyan argument · why?

A devout man can teach, but he cannot remake the world. The Word who made creation became flesh to renew it, and that is why he is worshipped.

×2Exalted Creaturean argument · why?

Athanasius’ answer: only the one who made the world can remake it. A creature, however high, cannot save creation, because it is part of creation.

×2God by Gracean argument · why?

Athanasius says the Word who renews creation is the same Word who made it. That is who the Son is, not a title he was lent.

×2The Thaliaan argument · why?

The Word who became flesh is the Word through whom everything was made, time included. The one who made time did not begin within it.

×2The True Word: On the Godsan argument · why?

The Word who came down is the Word who made the world. Coming into his own creation does not change the Creator.

×2Thirty Aeonsan argument · why?

The thirty levels exist to keep God away from matter. John 1 answers that he came down all of them himself — the Word, made flesh.

Who else was alive

Gregory of Nazianzus against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 1A.D. 50A.D. 100A.D. 150A.D. 200A.D. 250A.D. 300A.D. 350A.D. 400A.D. 450

Matthew Paul John Mark Pliny the Elder Clement of Rome Ignatius An early Christian community Polycarp Claudius Ptolemy Hermas Justin Martyr Aristides Quadratus Melito Unknown authors writing under borrowed names Irenaeus The author of the Epistle to Diognetus Athenagoras Clement of Alexandria Tertullian Marcus Minucius Felix Origen Cyprian Plotinus Lactantius Eusebius Athanasius Eustathius of Sebaste Apollinaris of Laodicea Cyril of Jerusalem Epiphanius of Salamis Gregory of Nazianzus Basil of Caesarea Eunomius of Cyzicus Gregory of Nyssa Ambrose of Milan Jovinian Augustine The Macedonians Helvidius

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate61 authors sit outside this window