In the 370s, Gregory began his ecclesial duties and experienced a set of rather difficult circumstances. Thus, we are left to assume that he rose to prominence in the subsequent years up until his death. He was present at the Council of Constantinople in 381 and, after this council, he was named among ten others “whose teaching is to be considered normative for the interpretation of orthodoxy.”

The new issue of Credo Magazine, “The Great Tradition,” focuses on the early Church Fathers. The following is an excerpt from Shawn Wilhite’s “Gregory of Nyssa: The Father of Fathers.” Dr. Shawn J. Wilhite (Ph.D., Th.M.) is founder and editor of the Center for Ancient Christian Studies and Fides et Humilitas: The Journal of the Center for Ancient Christian Studies. He is Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at California Baptist University. He is also a member of the Evangelical Theological Society, North American Patristics Society, and Society of Biblical Literature. He co-authored Patrick of Ireland: His Life and Impact with Michael A.G. Haykin and Aaron Matherly (Christian Focus, 2014). He has published The Didache: A Commentary and a monograph on the Didache. Currently, he is research Pro-Nicene Theology and Cyril of Alexandria’s Trinitarianism.

Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335/40–395) is often regarded as the most speculative and mystical thinker of the Greek Fathers.[1] Centuries after his death, the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787) rendered Nyssen as the “father of fathers,” named alongside Basil of Caesarea and John Chrysostom.[2] Gregory was the younger brother of Basil of Caesarea and Macrina the Younger. While Basil studied in Constantinople and in Athens,[3] Nyssen remained at home and underwent education from both Basil and Macrina.[4] Despite having undergone brief ascetic pursuits and what seem to be pursuits of the ecclesiastical life, Gregory underwent a spiritual crisis in the 360s, having the impulse of adolescent rebellion, and pursued a secular career instead.[5] He was ordained to the office of “Reader” at an early age, also being a teacher of rhetoric and, quite possibly, marrying (De virg. 3).

In 372, Basil persuaded Gregory to engage in ecclesiastical life once again, though he reluctantly pursued the episcopate office and was filled with great self-doubt.[6] Three years later (375) Nyssen was charged with misusing ecclesial funds and alleged irregularities were brought forward to a council in Ancyra largely composed of homoian bishops that concerned his election to the episcopate.[7] The next year (376) a council in Nyssa deposed Gregory and a non-Nicene bishop assumed the episcopate. Shortly thereafter, Gregory experienced personal losses such as losing his wife (378),[8] the death of Basil on January 1 379, and Macrina later that same year (July 379).[9] The death of the Arian emperor Valens in 378 provided a way for Gregory to return to Nyssa and to resume his ecclesial duties.[10]

In the 370s, Gregory began his ecclesial duties and experienced a set of rather difficult circumstances. Thus, we are left to assume that he rose to prominence in the subsequent years up until his death.[11] He was present at the Council of Constantinople in 381 and, after this council, he was named among ten others “whose teaching is to be considered normative for the interpretation of orthodoxy.”[12] Nyssen was listed as one considered a standard-bearer of Nicene Orthodoxy by Theodosius on 30 July 381.[13]

During Nyssen’s final ten years of life, we observe an increasing focus on the spiritual life. He wrote the Life of Moses (c. 392) and the Homilies on the Song of Songs as his final set of works. Both of these works centralize upon the spiritual features of the Christian soul being drawn upwards to God. The last record that we have of Gregory’s life is his name appearing on the role sheets for a synod at Constantinople in 394. Shortly thereafter, he fades from the historical scene and seems to have died in late 394 or 395.[14]

Ascetic Spirituality and the Life of Virtue

Gregory of Nyssa is often seen as carrying forward the ascetic paradigm of his older brother, Basil. At the bequest of Basil, Gregory was exhorted to write his first major treatise On Virginity. And in order, Gregory of Nyssa writes On what it means to Call Oneself a Christian, On Perfection, On the Christian Mode of Life, The Life of Macrina, and On the Soul and the Resurrection. In On what it means to Call Oneself a Christian, Gregory writes about the etymology of “Christian” and the qualities that relate to this identity. In On Perfection, he continues this thought and returns to the idea of being a Christian as imitating the divine nature. Nyssen writes a two-part volume, entitled On the Christian Mode of Life. Written to a group of monks, Nyssen describes the goal of the religious life as a life of philosophy and he discusses several problems associated with being a monk. Gregory portrays the ascetic ideal in a personal portrait of his sister in Life of Macrina. While more clearly a dogmatic dialogue, Nyssen’s On the Soul displays a conversation between Gregory and Macrina as the telic portrait of Macrina’s ascetic life.

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