One Path for All : Gregory of Nyssa on the Christian Life and Human Destiny

Greer, Rowan A.; Smith, J. Warren (CON)

ISBN 10: 0227175344 / ISBN 13: 9780227175347

Published by James Clarke & Co, 2015

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 23861095-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: One Path for All : Gregory of Nyssa on the Christian Life and Human Destiny
• Publisher: James Clarke & Co
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0227175344
• ISBN 13: 9780227175347
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

In his writings and his career Gregory of Nyssa assumes many roles. He is a Christian Platonist, a spiritual guide for ascetics and those seeking the vision of God, as well as one of those who shaped the Trinitarian doctrine of God espoused at Constantinople in 381. But he is also a popular preacher and, paradoxically, someone unafraid of deeper speculations regarding the meaning of the Christian ideal. The translations in Part One illustrate these various concerns, but are not a sufficient basis for the thesis of Part Two, one that attempts to answer the question of how to describe the coherence of a thinker far from systematic. One solution is to appeal to Gregory’s conviction that after this world all Christians, indeed all humans, will be united in diversity, and that this means that all are now on the one path to their destiny, however much their progress may differ. This answer does not pretend to solve all problems, nor does it rule out other approaches to Gregory’s thought. But it locates Gregory’s work in the liturgical and sacramental life of the church that includes ordinary as well as elite Christians.

Table of Contents

"List of Abbreviations
Introduction

Part One: Translations
Concerning the Meaning of the Christian’s Profession
Concerning Perfection | 24
In Praise of Theodore, Holy and Great Martyr
In Praise of Stephen, Saint and Protomartyr I
Another in Praise of Saint Stephen, the Protomartyr
In Praise of the Holy Forty Martyrs 1a
In Praise of the Holy Forty Martyrs 1b
A Speech in Praise of the Forty Martyrs Delivered in the Martyrion
In Regard to Those Fallen Asleep
On “Then Also the Son Himself Will Be Subjected to the One Who
Subjected All Things to Him”

Part Two: Essays
1 The Promises and Baptism
2 The Contest
3 Helpers and Allies
4 The Last Things
A Brief Postscript
Bibliography
Subject Index
Scripture Index"

About the Author

Rowan A. Greer joined the faculty of the Yale Divinity School in 1966 as an assistant professor of New Testament. In 1975 he was appointed Professor of Anglican Studies and shifted his teaching responsibilities from the New Testament to patristic theology and to the history and theologies of Anglicanism. He retired in 1997. His books include Broken Lights and Mended Lives (1986) and Christian Hope and Christian Life (2001).