32 - Gregory of Nazianzus, Letter 101 to Cledonius

Summary

Gregory of Nazianzus (ca. 330–390) was one of the famous “Cappadocian Fathers” (along with Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa). Gregory was not only an important ecclesiastical leader – indeed, he acted as bishop of several cities and briefly presided over the second Council of Constantinople in 381 – but also an innovative theologian. His understanding of the Trinity helped to articulate and publicize pro-Nicene theology in the 370s and 380s, and his Christological ideas had enduring effects on later Christian thought. Perhaps the most underappreciated aspect of Gregory was his literary genius. Highly trained in classical texts, he was an accomplished epistolographer (more than 240 of his letters survive) and poet (nearly 20,000 of his verses survive). The text presented below – Letter 101 to the presbyter Cledonius – was probably written in the spring of 382 or the spring of 383. Although quite long, it was indeed a genuine letter conforming to a new epistolographical type that developed among Christian leaders in the second, third, and fourth centuries, a type in which an author could explicate exegetical, moral, or doctrinal issues at (sometimes great) length.