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“Gregory of Nazianzus on Theosis”
Oration 4, Contra Julianum 1, chapters chapters 59, 60, 71 and 123 (124 in Greek text) (selected relevant chapters from a long oration)
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Find out more about our use of cookies here. Click here to read at earlychurchtexts.com in the original Greek (with dictionary lookup links). The English translation below is from C. W. King, Julian The Emperor, containing, Gregory Nazianzen’s Two Invectives and Libanius’ Monody with Julian’s extant theosophical works. earlychurchtexts.com
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-------------- A selection below General Introduction Frances Young ----- Studies Christopher Beeley ----- J. A. McGuckin ----- Jostein Bortnes Gregory of Nazianzus: Images And Reflections ----- Texts and Translations Brian Daley ----- Martha Vinson ------- Fuller bibliography
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59. In the second place, if he imagined that we braved danger out of love of glory, and not of the Truth, let the Empedocleses amongst those people play at such a game, and their Aristacuses, and their Empedotimuses, and their Trophoniuses, and a lot more of such unlucky folks----of whom the one, after making a God of himself, as he fancied, by means of the Sicilian crater, and sent himself up to a better termination of existence, was betrayed by that dear little sandal, vomited up by the fire, and was proclaimed not a god amongst men, but a man of vanity, no philosopher, nay, not even possessed of common intelligence; whilst those who out of the same itch and ambition buried themselves in certain inaccessible caves, and were afterwards detected, did not reap so much honour from the deception as they did disgrace from the discovery. 60. It is sweeter to Christians to suffer for religion's sake, even though they may be unknown to all men, than it is to others to enjoy glory combined with impiety; for we make small account of pleasing men, but our whole aim is at honour from God, or rather at something above this honour, we being true lovers of wisdom and lovers of God, craving for assimilation to the Good for the sake of the Good itself, not for the honours in store for us there. For this is the second class of the praiseworthy actions----the doing anything for reward, and on account of recompense: as the third is of those that shun wickedness out of fear of punishment. Such and of such character are our societies: and this is easy, for those who choose, to prove from many examples...... 71. But thou must admire at least what is here before thee, if thou dost not
those just set forth, thou most philosophical and high-minded of men, that
apest the Epaminondases and Scipios of old in the article of the endurance
of hardship; thou that marchest on foot along with thy troops, and eatest
whatever food is at hand, and praisest that kind of rulership which does
everything for itself. For it is the mark of a philosophical and generous
mind not to despise the virtue even of enemies, and to give more credit to
the valour of foes than to the badness and cowardice of one's own side. Dost
thou see these persons here without livelihood and without a home, all but
without a body and without blood in their veins, and who in this respect
approach near unto God? 1 These men, 123. Where else in the world, tell me, wilt thou find, "When reviled do ye bless; when blasphemed at do ye exhort" (inasmuch as it is not the accusation that does the harm but the reality), "when persecuted, submit; when cursed, pray for them that curse you; when stripped, strip yourself to boot"; in one word, to overcome malice by goodness, and make them better who injure us, by enduring the things whereby our patience is tried? And yet even though we should grant that they can repress vice by means of the lessons of their false doctrine, yet how can they ever attain to the full height of our virtue and discipline, when we even regard as vice the not progressing in what is good, and becoming young in place of old, and standing still in the same place, in the condition of whipping-tops, running round, but not going forward at all, but moving in a stationary way, so to speak, by the impulse of the lash; and it behoves us to have already practised one part of the virtues to grasp at another, and to aim at yet another, until the end, and that deification for which we were born, and to which we aspire, inasmuch as we cast a mental glance across the gulf between the two worlds, and have in expectation a reward commensurate with the magnificence of God! |
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original Greek text
from Oration 4
Oratio IV
Contra Julianum
Against Julian
Theosis
Migne Greek Text
Patrologiae Graecae Cursus Completus
Patrologia Graeca