Theological Oration 3: On the Son

Contents

Translation in progress.

Reading pages: 1–17 · 18–21

1. 1Gregory turns from criticizing his opponents to setting out the orthodox doctrine of God, promising brevity.
2. 2Christians worship a divine monarchy that is not one person but one nature shared by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: the unbegotten, the begotten, and the one who proceeds.
3. 3The Son and the Spirit are eternal with the Father; they have the Father as cause but no beginning in time.
4. 4The Son’s begetting is incorporeal and free from passion, as different from ours as his virgin birth was.
5. 5God is Father eternally and in the proper sense; biblical tenses show that “he begot” need not imply a temporal beginning.
6. 6Gregory turns the Eunomian dilemma about the Father begetting “willingly or unwillingly” back on its authors.
7. 7Applied to the Father’s own existence, the Eunomian question about will proves absurd.
8. 8No one can explain how the Son was begotten; since we do not understand even our own birth, God’s begetting must be honoured in silence.
9. 9The question whether the Father begot a Son who already existed or did not is as meaningless as the liar paradox or asking whether time is in time.
10. 10If “unbegotten” were God’s substance, the begotten Son could not be God; but unbegotten and begotten are properties within one and the same nature.
11. 11Being unbegotten is a property of the Father, not the divine substance; the Son, begotten of the Father, is equally God.
12. 12Being unbegotten and being God are not the same, or the Eunomian logic would make the Son’s substance older than the Father’s.
13. 13Gregory refutes the argument that the Son’s begetting must have begun or be unfinished, and insists that God has one substance and name, properly shared by the Son.
14. 14The Eunomian appeal to equivocal names, like the land dog and sea dog, fails because it is meant to make the Son unequal to the Father.
15. 15The Father is greater as the Son’s cause, but the Eunomians fallaciously conclude that he is greater in nature.
16. 16“Father” names neither a substance nor an activity but a relation, which implies that the Son shares the Father’s nature.
17. 17Gregory lists the lofty biblical titles of the Son, God, Word, Wisdom, Power, Image, Lord, which show his eternal Godhead.
18. 18The lowly biblical statements about Christ refer to his human nature assumed for our salvation, the lofty ones to his Godhead.
19. 19Gregory sets the humble facts of Christ’s birth and early life beside the divine glory that accompanied each.
20. 20In a long series of contrasts Gregory shows Christ acting in the same events as man and as God, from his baptism to his return in judgment.
21. 21Gregory closes by urging his opponents to put faith before argument, and prays that they may become true believers while the Church keeps the Trinity safe.