Guest Review | On God and Christ

On God and Christ 
by St. Gregory of Nazianzus (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2002)

Review by C. Pak, Founder, AC USA


A Doctor of the Church and one of the three most well-known Cappadocian Fathers, St. Gregory of Nazianzus lived deep within the "homoousia" polemic, i.e., debates about differences between the Father and Son. The Eunomians (sometimes referred to as Neo-Arians) were very much at the center of these debates, who held to a distinction in ousia, substance, between Father and Son. The works in this book take us back to the original conflict and allow us to look into the mind of a Cappadocian who contributed significantly to our understanding of Father and Son being of the same substance. St. Gregory went to great lengths to describe and explain the concept of "begetting" - think of the part of Creed, "begotten not made" - to demonstrate that the Father can beget the Son and the Son remains of the same substance of the Father.

The Arian controversy, which preceded the Eunomian controversy,  claimed that the Son was created and not begotten - that was clarified at Nicea. The Eunomians rejected the idea that the Son shared the same substance with the Father because the "begotten" Son could not be of the same substance of the "unbegotten" Father. These works look deeply at these arguments and propose clarifications that were then incorporated into doctrine. I highly recommend reading it if you want to get into the mind of someone who literally wrestled with a very tough issue in the 4th century, which we can view today in the 21st century.


A caution: this work is not for the faint of heart. The polemical language here can at times be unsettling and the reader must constantly remind oneself of historical context, audience and what was at stake here. It also requires some knowledge of the heresy being targeted. If you want to know more about heresies, a book that outlines the history of heresies is A Brief History of Heresy, by G.R. Evans. Although not written by a Catholic theologian, it does a good job of sketching with very broad strokes the various forms of heretical thought that demanded clarification in language by the Church. I'll review that next time.