Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 39:1 (NA 1988)
Article: Gregory Nazianzen’s Use Of Scripture In Defence Of The Deity Of The Spirit
Author: T. A. Noble

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TynBul 39:1 (1988) p. 101

Gregory Nazianzen’s Use Of Scripture In Defence Of The Deity Of The Spirit

T. A. Noble

The Tyndale Christian Doctrine Lecture, 1987

Gregory Nazianzen’s defence of the deity of the Spirit was most fully expressed in two orations which he gave in Constantinople during his brief sojourn there from AD 379 to AD 381. He was summoned to Constantinople in 379 by the orthodox remnant adhering to the Creed of Nicaea. The churches of the capital had been in the hands of the Arians for several decades, but the accession of an orthodox emperor, Theodosius, heralded the eclipse of Arianism, and Gregory left his retirement by the sea and hurried to Constantinople where he established the Nicene congregation in the aptly named private chapel of the Resurrection, the Anastasia. It was there at Pentecost, 379 that he delivered his oration On Pentecost (now numbered Oration 41),1 and there too that he delivered, probably the following Spring in 380, his celebrated Five Theological Orations on the Trinity. The fifth of these, On the Spirit (now numbered Oration 31),2 possibly delivered at Pentecost, 380, is the most complete statement of his pneumatology.3

It will be helpful first, before examining the Fifth Theological Oration and particularly its use of Scripture in defending the Spirit’s deity, to place Gregory’s contribution in the context of the debate on the Spirit and to summarize as

TynBul 39:1 (1988) p. 102

succinctly as is possible the complex Arian controversy which provides the wider background.

1. The Arian Controversy And The Debate On The Spirit

The debate on the status of the Holy Spirit in the late fourth century may be regarded as part of the final chapter of the Arian controversy. Arius began to express his views on the status of the Son as early as 318 and published his letter to bishop Alexander of Alexandria (which is one of our main sources for his theology) in the early 320s.4 According to this, God [the Father] was alone unbegotten (i.e., unbegun) and eternal, and the Son was a perfect creature who, before the ages, was begotten or created - to Arius the two words meant the same thing. This view of the Son as a kind of created demi-god or archangel provoked sufficient reaction throughout the church to secure agreement in 325 at the council of bishops called to Nicaea by the Emperor Constantine that Arianism must be condemned. Agreement was secured for a definitive creed, the orig...

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