ST GREGORY THE THEOLOGIAN’S

METANARRATIVE OF HISTORY

Mario Baghos

Abstract: Faith in Jesus Christ undoubtedly conditioned St Gregory’s

view of the historical continuum. In fact, the saint interpreted history
through the lens of what we can call a theological metanarrative, a
conceptual apparatus with deep existential implications. Exploring
some of the orations of St Gregory, this paper will attempt to elicit
and construct this metanarrative in order to demonstrate that the
Theologian has contributed a vision of history which, having Jesus
Christ as its source and final goal, gives order and meaning to what
in some historical trends has been viewed as mere chaotic flux.1

T
his paper will demonstrate that a metanarrative of history, a
totalising or all-encompassing interpretive framework with
experiential import,2 can be found in the writings of St Gregory
the Theologian.3 It will begin with an analysis of chapters 25 and 26 of
the saint’s Fifth Theological Oration in order to elicit the characteristics
of the theological metanarrative contained therein. It will then interpret
these features within the framework of chapters 10-13 of his Oration
38, before concluding with the assertion that Jesus Christ represents the
purpose and final goal (telos) of St Gregory’s metanarrative of history.
Presupposing that, for St Gregory, Jesus Christ simultaneously constituted
both the underlying reason or logos and the aforesaid telos of the historical
continuum, this paper will employ these conceptual categories, as well as
those of ‘movement’ and ‘becoming,’ in order to adequately express the
deep existential implications of the Theologian’s view of history. To this
end, the conclusion will attempt to reiterate the significant contribution
that I believe St Gregory’s theological metanarrative can make to
contemporary historiography, which has been obscured by sceptic and

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even nihilistic interpretations – especially in light of the so-called ‘death’

of the metanarrative at the end of the 20th Century.

Some Characteristics of St Gregory’s Metanarrative in the Fifth

Theological Oration

At the beginning of the 25th chapter of his Fifth Theological Oration,

St Gregory affirmed that “there have been two transformations of
life manifested out of the entire age (τοῦ παντὸς αἰῶνος).”4 In his
Hexaêmeron, St Basil the Great – a contemporary and friend of St
Gregory – identified the ‘one day’ of creation (ἡμέρα μία) mentioned
in the Septuagint translation of Genesis with the recapitulation of all
history, a summary that he analogously referred to as the αἰῶν or age.5 It
is clear that St Gregory was here attempting a similar all-encompassing
approach to history with his statement τοῦ παντὸς αἰῶνος, which literally
refers to “the entire age” but can be understood as ‘history in its entirety.’
This macro or universal approach is a characteristic of the metanarrative
insofar as it attempts to give a comprehensive account of the historical
drama and the persons and events that it includes. St Gregory then went
on to clarify that the two life-changing transformations were “called two
‘covenants,’ and, so famous was the business involved, two ‘earthquakes’
(συσμοὶ γῆς)”6 before affirming that:

The first [covenant or earthquake] was the transition from idols to the
Law; the second, from Law to the Gospel. The Gospel also tells of the
third “earthquake,” the change from this present state of things to what
lies unmoved, unshaken, beyond.7

The first covenant is that which was inaugurated by God’s disclosure of

the Law to the prophet Moses, and the second by the revelation of God
in the person of Jesus Christ;8 the first is enshrined in the Old Testament,
the second in the New. It has to be noted that in his clarification of
these covenantal transformations – which are not without experiential
relevance insofar as they impact upon the worship and belief of the people
of God however interpreted – St Gregory was not interested in episodical
events; just those events/experiences that resulted in a transformation of
life. Transformation, however, involves a process of becoming. In this

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case, ‘becoming’ can be interpreted as an existential movement away

from idols – which is paganism – into the Law – which is Judaism – and
finally from the Law to the Christian Gospel. But our present state is
also conditioned by movement and becoming insofar as we anticipate
a final metastasis (transfer, change) into that which is unshaken and
unmoved, i.e. the eschatological state.9 The historical process of
becoming, therefore, contains a logos within its telos; it manifests a
rational orientation as it unfolds towards its final purpose. We will return
to this eschatological dimension towards the end of the paper. Suffice it
to state for the moment that the eschaton, according to St Gregory, would
be inaugurated by a third and final earthquake, an event which, if taken at
face value, would seem to lend itself to an apocalyptic interpretation – a
sudden and chaotic disruption of the historical continuum. St Gregory
avoided this with reference to the two ‘earthquakes’ or covenants that
have already taken place:

An identical feature occurs in both covenants. The feature? They were

not suddenly changed, even at the first moment the changes were put in
hand. We need to know why. It was so that we should be persuaded, not
forced.10

Far from resulting in chaos or confusion, for the Theologian the

earthquakes are positive metaphors serving to reinforce God’s gradual
transfiguration of the historical process for our sakes through the
covenants. The earthquakes signify both a rupture with an existing state
and a tangible change in composition that is analogous to μετάνοια,
an ‘earth-shattering’ change of mind.11 This nuance is expressed by
humanity’s transition from idols to the Law, and from the Law to the
Gospel. St Gregory then gave the reasons why the transition from one
covenant to another occurred gradually rather than suddenly, affirming
that the covenants were an outcome of God’s pedagogical concern. If
God applied force then our internal resolve would be unspontaneous and
impermanent. Instead, God preferred that “the issue should be ours”12
– that we respond to his call freely and without coercion. Moreover,
God acts like a doctor or schoolmaster in removing from us certain
unnecessary ritualistic burdens. The Theologian declared:

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The first change cut away idols but allowed sacrifices to remain; the
second stripped away sacrifices but did not forbid circumcision. Then,
when people had been reconciled to the withdrawal, they agreed to let
go what had been left them as a concession. Under the first covenant
that concession was sacrifice, and they became Jews instead of Gentiles;
under the second, circumcision – and they became Christians instead of
Jews, brought round gradually, bit by bit, to the Gospel.13

The gradual changing of the mind of God’s people represented by the

covenantal earthquakes is thus concretely manifested in the successive
concessions made by God; concessions which were necessary in order
to wean humanity from idolatry and the Law and for their change in
disposition to be sincere and wilful.

So far, we have seen that St Gregory described these covenantal

earthquakes as having marked two important existential changes through
omissions or negations relating to ritualistic practices. In the beginning
of chapter 26, however, he goes on to illustrate their positive dimension,
affirming that the “growth towards perfection (διἀ τῶν προσθηκῶν ἡ
τελείωσις)”14 facilitated by them occurred through additions – additions
which the Theologian stated took place with reference to the doctrine of
God as it unfolded in the historical interim between the Old and New
covenants. Here, the revelation of God is associated with existential
growth culminating in perfection. St Gregory wrote:

In this way, the old covenant made clear proclamation of the Father, a
less definite one of the Son. The new covenant made the Son manifest
and gave us a glimpse of the Spirit’s Godhead. At the present time, the
Spirit resides amongst us, giving us a clearer manifestation of himself
than before. It was dangerous for the Son to be preached openly when the
Godhead of the Father was still unacknowledged. It was dangerous, too,
for the Holy Spirit to be made (and here I use a rather rash expression) an
extra burden, when the Son had not yet been received.15

It is thus made clear that the two covenants have a dual effect – to gradually
strip away false beliefs and practices and to manifest the truth concerning
God as Trinity. The first covenant, established through the Mosaic Law,
discredited idolatry and “made clear proclamation of God as Father,”

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and the new or second covenant “made the Son manifest and gave us
a glimpse of the Spirit’s Godhead.” St Gregory stated that, in revealing
himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God pedagogically considers the
ability of humanity to cope with this self-disclosure. Indeed, God’s self-
disclosure can result in another type of metanoia or ‘change of mind’ on
behalf of the people to whom he discloses himself; for it is only when the
Father was acknowledged by those to whom he chose to reveal himself
that the Son was subsequently revealed, and likewise with the Spirit, who
was only acknowledged once the Son had been fully received. As with the
gradual concessions that he permitted regarding ritualistic practices, God
reveals himself in stages, lest humans endanger themselves (presumably
through incredulity or misinterpretation), jeopardising what is within
their powers to grasp as happens “to those encumbered with a diet too
strong for them or who gaze at sunlight with eyes too feeble for it.”16
That God did finally reveal his true existence as three persons, and that
this was not only received on a conceptual basis but lived experientially
is attested to by the saint:17

No, God meant it to be by piecemeal additions (κατὰ μέρος προσθήκαις),

“ascents” (ἀναβάσεσι) as David called them, by progress and advance
from glory to glory (ἐκ δόξης εἰς δόξαν προόδοις καὶ προκοπαῖς), that
the light of the Trinity should shine upon more illustrious souls. This
was, I believe, the motive for the Spirit’s dwelling permanently in the
disciples in gradual stages (καὶ τοῖς μαθηταῖς κατὰ μέρος ἐπιδημεῖ)18
proportionate to their capacity to receive him – at the outset of the gospel
when he performs miracles, after the Passion when he is breathed into the
disciples, after the Ascension when he appears in fiery tongues.19

Thus, for St Gregory, the entire historical process – the metanarrational

‘entire age’ – advances on a conceptually distinguishable macro and
micro level. On a macro level, it moves from one covenantal earthquake
to another – from the revelation of the Father with a glimpse of the Son,
to the revelation of the Son with a glimpse of the Spirit. This movement is
associated with a dual process of becoming insofar as God pedagogically
weans humanity from false practices and beliefs to a gradual acquiescence
of his true existence as three persons – as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This stripping away of falsities ‘through omissions’ and revelation of the

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truth ‘through additions’ is profoundly expressed by St Gregory when

he stated that, on a micro level, the progress of the revelation of God
is reflected by the Apostles themselves, within whom the Spirit dwelt
permanently, “but in gradual stages proportionate to their capacity to
receive him.” These gradual stages were analogous to the Son’s earthly
ministry20 and unfolded through the Apostolic witness of Christ’s earliest
miracles to his breathing the Spirit on them after his Resurrection and,
finally, to the Spirit’s alighting in flames upon their heads at Pentecost. It
is thus clear that for the Theologian, this apostolic experience of the Spirit
radiantly manifests ‘growth towards perfection’ or theosis.21 That this
growth is not yet complete but awaits its consummation at the eschaton
– the final term of the historical process – is illustrated by St Gregory in
his Oration 38: On the Nativity, a text which not only provides a glimpse
into St Gregory’s eschatology, but also contributes the proper framework
for interpreting the characteristics of his metanarrative.

Framing the Fifth Theological Oration within Oration 38

Putting forward a two-stage theory of the creation of the spiritual and

material realms inspired by Platonic cosmology in his Oration 38.10,
the saint expounded upon the creation of the human being as a sort of
recapitulation of this process, a blending or mixing of the intelligible
and material realms into a single ‘second world’ (δεύτερον κόσμον)22
what we can call a microcosm (μικρός κόσμος).23 Both the creation of the
spiritual and material realms (with the former preceding the latter) and
their mystical synthesis in the human being were undertaken, affirmed St
Gregory in chapter 11, by the Demiurge Logos (δημιουργοῦ Λόγου),24
who is the Son of God the Father. The saint went on to affirm that the
human being contains something of the divine in its spiritual-earthly
constitution and, whilst educated in the here-and-now, “is transferred
elsewhere, and to complete the mystery, deified through inclination
towards God.”25 Relating this process to himself, St Gregory implied
that the light and truth experienced in the here-and-now were bearing
him towards what we can describe as a definite end or telos, which he
went on to explicate as an experience of “the radiance of God, which is

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worthy of the one who has bound me (to flesh) and will release me and
hereafter will bind me in a higher manner.”26 This is an allusion to the
final resurrection of the body at the eschaton or the last things by “the
one who has bound” the Theologian – i.e. the Demiurge Logos, Jesus
Christ – and can be related to St Gregory’s affirmation above that the
eschaton will be precipitated by a third earthquake that has yet to take
place but which will mark “the change from this present state of things to
what lies unmoved, unshaken, beyond.”27 In other words, the universal
telos of the historical process or advancement of the age finds its concrete
realisation in the human persons who are resurrected on the last day – a
representation of the final stage of the historical process of becoming.

St Gregory seems to perceive the ‘entire age’ as having been

inaugurated with the creation of the worlds by God the Logos before
moving in a sort of continuum from the first covenantal earthquake to the
second – which is the present state within which we anticipate the third and
final earthquake that will translate the cosmos into an unshaken, unmoved
mode of being.28 Indeed, St Gregory stipulated that the Demiurge Logos
both initiated the historical process through his creation of the spiritual
and material realms and implied that – in a manner consistent with the
eschatological teaching of the early Church – the same Demiurge Logos,
the God-man Jesus Christ, will return to ‘bind him in a higher manner,’
that is, to transfigure both the saint and, by extension, the entire created
cosmos at the eschaton – the third and final earthquake.

We stated in the introduction that the telos of history – the end to

which it is geared – is also its logos, and that from a Christian perspective
this logos or reason is to be identified with none other than the Word of
God incarnate, Jesus Christ. This we have now confirmed was in fact St
Gregory’s position. For him, Christ stands at the beginning and end of the
‘entire age’ as both creator and consummator, meaning that he thereby
constitutes the logos and the telos of the historical process insofar as
it begins and ends with him.29 Contrary to the reductionist presentation
of the early Church as establishing (and henceforth solely preoccupied
with) a linear conception of history tracing its origins to the creation of

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the world based on a literal interpretation of the Old Testament book

of Genesis (Anno Mundi) or, alternately, to the birth of Jesus (Anno
Domini), here we see a cycle that begins and ends with Christ. However,
even this cyclical projection might be insufficient, because although it
has Christ as its first and last point of reference, it does not quite account
for his presence in the interim. Oration 38 on the other hand seems
to allude to some of the above-mentioned characteristics of the Fifth
Theological Oration, whilst bringing out varying nuances and giving a
more comprehensive depiction of St Gregory’s theological metanarrative.
Acting as an interpretive framework for the above-mentioned chapters of
the Fifth Theological Oration, Oration 38 reinforces the fact that, for
the Theologian, the presence of Jesus permeates the entire historical
continuum from alpha to omega.

After situating Christ – the Demiurge Logos incarnate – on

either end of the historical spectrum in chapter 11, the saint moved
to an allegorical interpretation of the paradisal experience of the first
human being and the fall in chapter 12, claiming that the punishment for
Adam and Eve’s transgression was not death, but the love of creatures
tantamount to the practice of idolatry; which he later described as “the
last and first of all evils.”30 St Gregory then continued with a two-stage
divine pedagogy of history which seems to fit into the metanarrational
scheme expounded at length in the first section of this paper. He began
chapter 13 of his Oration 38 with the following exposition:

The human being was first educated in many ways (πολλοῖς δὲ παιδευθεὶς
πρότερον)31 corresponding to the many sins that sprouted from the root of
evil for different reasons and at different times; by word, law, prophets,
benefits, threats, blows, floods, conflagrations, wars, victories, defeats;
signs from heaven, signs from the air, from earth, from sea; unexpected
changes in men, cities, nations; by all this God sought zealously to wipe
out evil. At the end a stronger remedy was necessary for more dreadful
diseases: murders of each other, adulteries, false oaths, lusts for men, and
the last and first of all evils, idolatry and the transfer of worship from
Creator to creatures. Since these things required a greater help, they also
obtained something greater. It was the Word of God himself, the one
who is before the ages, the invisible, the ungraspable, the incorporeal,

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the Principle from the Principle, the light from the light, the source of
life and immortality, the imprint of the archetypal beauty, the undistorted
image, the definition and explanation of his Father.32

This exposition puts forward a scheme that was common amongst the
saint’s peers, most notably St Basil.33 In this scheme, the many sins
sprouting from the root of evil, which is idolatry, were addressed by God
in different historical epochs according to the different circumstances as
manifested especially in the Old Testament. The list of remedies for this
evil – oscillating between positive and negative (i.e. word, law, prophets,
benefits vis-à-vis threats, blows, floods, conflagrations, etc.) – were not
contextualised by St Gregory. Instead, he only briefly referred to them in
an attempt to convey that they constitute the means by which God sought
to rid the world of evil. Most importantly, St Gregory prefigured the entire
discussion by affirming that this process is nevertheless educational or
pedagogical; a process which, on account of our vehement obstinacy,
“required a greater help” – i.e. the Word or Logos of God himself.

Applying, in a very basic way, the principal of intertextuality

with reference to these Gregorian texts, we observe an explicit thematic
correlation between chapters 11, 12, and especially chapter 13 of Oration
38 and St Gregory’s discussion in chapter 25 of his Fifth Theological
Oration of history as an existential movement from one covenantal
earthquake to another: from the idols to the Law, and from the Law
to the Gospel. Although in that oration the saint expounded upon the
characteristics of what we have called his metanarrative – his view
of those significant events that mark ‘the entire age’ or ‘history in its
entirety’– we were not given an insight into their precipitating factors, or,
more specifically, into why it is that God acts pedagogically in history in
such a way (something which both orations maintain). In Oration 38.12-3
we observe that for St Gregory, humanity was punished after the fall with
a love of creatures and idolatry. Therefore, there is an implicit connection
between the first characteristic of the metanarrative expounded in chapter
25 of the Fifth Theological Oration – the transition from the idols to the
Law – and idolatry as the summit of all post-lapsarian evils mentioned
in Oration 38.13. Indeed, in this chapter the law numbers amongst many

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inter-related responses by God, including his prophets, his word, etc.,

all of which were implemented in order to curtail the evils that have
their root in idolatry. And the parallels do not end there. We saw with
reference to the Fifth Theological Oration 25-6 that the transition from
the idols to the Law had a dual effect: God was gradually disclosing
his true existence as three persons and weaning his people away from
idolatry. When interpreted via the lens of Oration 38.13, we observe
that this process was actually part of a more complex endeavour to wipe
out the evil that sprouted from idolatry. The same can be said about the
transition from the Law to the Gospel mentioned in the Fifth Theological
Oration; interpreting this transition through the prism of Oration 38.13,
we see that as these evils – “murders of each other, adulteries, false oaths,
etc” – continued to persist under the Law, a greater remedy was needed;
the incarnation of the Word of God, the fountainhead of the Gospel.

For St Gregory, history can be viewed as the domain within which

God attempts to curtail evil in various ways until it finally becomes
necessary that the Word or Logos of God – the imprint, undistorted
image, and explanation of God the Father – enters into history by
assuming humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. Having briefly
articulated the relationship of the Son and Logos to the Father in chapter
13 of Oration 38 – what we can call a first-stage Christology (on the level
of ‘theology’) – St Gregory continued with an explication of the mystery
of the incarnation, which is second-stage Christology34 (on the level of
the ‘economy’):35

He [the Word] approaches his own image and bears flesh because of
my flesh and mingles himself with a rational soul because of my soul,
purifying like by like. And in all things he becomes a human, except
sin. He was conceived by the Virgin, who was purified beforehand in
both soul and flesh by the Spirit, for it was necessary that procreation
be honored and that virginity be honored more. He comes forth, God
with what he assumed, one from two opposites, flesh and spirit, the one
deifying and the other deified. O the new mixture! O the paradoxical
blending! He who is comes into being, and the uncreated is created, and
the uncontained is contained, through the intervention of the rational
soul, which mediates between the divinity and the coarseness of the flesh.

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The one who enriches becomes poor; he is made poor in my flesh, that I
may be enriched through his divinity. The full one empties himself; for he
empties himself of his own glory for a short time, that I may participate
in his fullness. What is the wealth of his goodness? What is the mystery
concerning me? I participated in the [divine] image and I did not keep
it; he participates in my flesh both to save the image and to make the
flesh immortal. He shares with us a second communion, much more
paradoxical than the first; then he gave us a share in what is superior,
now he shares in what is inferior.36

In a profound reflection upon the mystery of the convergence of humanity

and divinity in Christ’s person, St Gregory declared that the pre-existent
Logos in his assumption of a body and a rational soul, became, with the
exception of sin, in all things his own image i.e. a human being. Affirming
the virgin birth, he expresses wonder at the creation of the uncreated and
the circumscription of the uncircumscribable – at the ineffable reality of
the God-man and the deification of the human flesh that he assumed. But
all of this was done, the Theologian continues, for the sake of humanity
that had gone astray through evil, and so the greatest expression of
God’s pedagogical concern for his creation is manifested in the Word’s
embodiment in Christ Jesus, which St Gregory related to himself; so that
by emptying “himself of his own glory” the incarnation of the Word of
God has existential implications for both the saint and for humanity in
its entirety; a humanity which is recapitulated into the God-man.37 The
intimate reciprocity between Christ and St Gregory is then interpreted on
a broader scale when the latter affirms that the God-man has shared with
us – that is, humanity in general – a second communion, the first being
that which we effected with the creation of the worlds;38 “then he gave us
a share in what is superior, now he shares in what is inferior.”

The kenotic outpouring of the Word represents both the nadir

of God’s interaction with us and the zenith of our deification in him; a
deification which in section one of this paper we saw was expressed by the
characteristics of St Gregory’s metanarrative – from idolatry to the Law
and from the Law to the Gospel.39 At the end of that section, we hinted
that the process of theosis – discussed with reference to the Apostles at
Pentecost – begins in the here-and-now but will not be consummated

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until the eschaton, the third and final earthquake. Exploring the subject of
the eschaton at the beginning of section three, we noticed that in Oration
38.11, St Gregory exclaimed that the same Demiurge Logos who created
the worlds will one day return to transfigure them permanently and
“bind him in a higher manner” – a reference to the general resurrection.
From this we deduced St Gregory’s belief that Jesus, the Word of God
incarnate, frames either end of the historical continuum as “the Alpha and
the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev 22:12-
13). However, in light of his discussion on the incarnation in chapter 13
above, it is clear that for the Theologian history both orbits around and
is permeated by Christ who stands metaphorically at its ‘centre.’ Christ
is therefore not only both the logos and telos of the historical process of
movement and becoming; he is also its axis, around which ‘history in its
entirety’ is ordered and made whole.40

Conclusion

Assessing ‘the entire age’ or ‘history in its entirety’ in chapter 25 of his

Fifth Theological Oration through the lens of Oration 38, it was shown
that St Gregory embellishes a view of history which is both richly
nuanced and existentially significant. It is St Gregory’s conviction that
God has deigned to reveal himself, a revelation which he metaphorically
described as taking the form of two great earthquakes; ruptures in belief
and practice that effectuated, firstly, the transition or movement of God’s
people from the worship of pagan idols to adherence to the Mosaic Law,
and secondly, the transition from the Law to the Christian Gospel. This
was accompanied by a positive revelation of God’s true existence as
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; a revelation that found its existential locus
in the incarnation of the Son. For St Gregory, Jesus Christ frames either
end of the historical spectrum as the Demiurge Logos who has fashioned
the worlds and, subsequently, the human being as a microcosm. Indeed,
it is this same Demiurge Logos who will return to permanently refashion
all things at the eschaton. As such, Jesus Christ represents both the logos
and telos of the historical process. But far from depicting a linear view of
history with Christ at either end, it was shown that the saint deliberately

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pinpointed the convergence of humanity and divinity in Christ’s person

at the incarnation, the significance of which (as both a remedy to evil and
as opening up the potential for deification) places Christ metaphorically
at the centre of the historical process. As the axis around which all of
history turns, finds meaning and is sanctified, Christ was presented as
permeating the entire historical continuum, securing the possibility of our
deification. It is the author’s conviction that this existential metanarrative
of history, comprising themes elicited from St Gregory’s orations – some
of which are paradigmatic across the plethora of patristic literature – can
be of service to contemporary historiography by offering alternative,
theological insights into the flux of history; a flux which has the potential
of becoming indecipherable and even chaotic outside of some positive
interpretive tool or key, abandoning us to the sceptic and nihilistic view
that conditions so much of today’s historical writing. For St Gregory, it
is clear that this key can be found in the hands of him who holds “the
keys of Death and Hades” (Rev 1:18), the life-giving Demiurge Logos of
God – Jesus Christ.

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Revd Dr Doru

Costache, Dr Philip Kariatlis and the referees, for their insightful
suggestions pertaining to both the content and style of my article.

XXX

NOTES:
1
A lengthier version of this paper, which includes a section on the dissolution of
metanarratives and the analogous rise of nihilism/skepticism in contemporary
historiography, has already been published under the following title: ‘The
Meaning of History: Insights from St Gregory the Theologian’s Existential
Metanarrative,’ Colloquium 43:1 (2011): 17-38.
2
Cf. John Stephens and Robyn McCallum, Retelling Stories, Framing Culture:
Traditional Story and Metanarratives in Children’s Literature (New York:
Routledge, 1998), 6. I am indebted to Rev Dr Doru Costache for suggesting the
concept of the metanarrative as a potential interpretive prism for this paper.

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3
I am grateful to Professor Adrian Marinescu for pointing out that the themes
comprising St Gregory’s metanarrative of history have been further developed
by later fathers of the Church, namely Sts Maximus the Confessor (7th Century)
and St Gregory Palamas (14th Century); a trajectory I intend to explore in the
future.
4
PG 36, 160D. Fifth Theological Oration (Oration 31): On the Holy Spirit 25 in
St Gregory of Nazianzus: On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations
and the Two Letters to Cledonius, Popular Patristics Series 23, trans. Frederick
Williams and Lionel Wickham, ed. John Behr (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s
Seminary Press, 2002), 136.
5
See PG 29, 48B-52B. Hexaêmeron 2.8 in Exegetical Homilies, The Fathers
of the Church Series, Vol. 46, trans. Agnes Clare Way (Washington D.C: The
Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 33-36. For St Basil, the ἡμέρα μία
represented both the origin and climax of creation, thereby recapitulating within
itself all of history from beginning to end as metaphorically illustrated by the
creation narrative of Genesis. For a detailed analysis of this recapitulation of
history, as well as the relationship between ἡμέρα μία and the αἰῶν or ‘age,’ see
Mario Baghos, ‘St Basil’s Eschatological Vision: Aspects of the Recapitulation
of History and the Eighth Day’ Phronema 25 (2010): 90-91.
6
PG 36, 160D. Fifth Theological Oration 25, trans. Williams and Wickham, 136.
7
Ibid.
8
Although earthquakes feature often in the scriptures, Fr Georges Florovsky, in
his exposition on the gradual stages of revelation, included a translation of the
above text within which he brackets a possible antecedent for St Gregory’s use
of this theme, citing Haggai 2:7: “I will shake (συσσείσω – LXX) heaven and
earth, sea and land, and all nations, and the treasure of all nations will come
hither.” Cf. Georges Florovsky, The Collected Works, Volume 7: The Eastern
Fathers of the Fourth Century, trans. C. Edmunds, ed. R. S. Haugh (Vaduz:
Büchervertriebsanstalt, 1987), 127.
9
For more on the nature of Christian eschatology, see Baghos, ‘St Basil’s
Eschatological Vision,’ 85-87.
10
PG 36, 161A. Fifth Theological Oration 25, trans. Williams and Wickham, 136.
11
Cf. G.W.H. Lampe, ed., A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1961), 855.
12
PG 36, 161A. Fifth Theological Oration 25, trans. Williams and Wickham, 136.
13
PG 36, 161B. Fifth Theological Oration 25, trans. Williams and Wickham, 136-
137.

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14
PG 36, 161C. Fifth Theological Oration 26, trans. Williams and Wickham, 137.
This ‘growth towards perfection’ can be understood as tantamount to deification
or theosis. According to Norman Russell, the saint placed a great emphasis on
an imitation of Christ to be understood not as adherence to an external model,
but as an internal reshaping through the sacraments and the philosophical life
that allows human beings “to transcend their earthly limitations, with the result
that they are transformed […].” Amongst St Gregory’s favourite expressions
to describe this transformation is the word theosis, the frequency of which
is recorded by Russell as part of his attempt to illustrate that, for the saint,
deification had already occurred with the incarnation, and all that remained
was “the believer’s appropriation of this by accepting baptism and struggling to
live the moral life.” Norman Russell, The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek
Patristic Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 214-15, 225.
15
PG 36, 161C. Fifth Theological Oration 26, trans. Williams and Wickham, 137.
16
Ibid.
17
Kilian MacDonnell designates God’s gradual self-disclosure as a ‘progressive
revelation.’ He bases this assertion on an ostensible remark by St Gregory in
chapter 26 of his Fifth Theological Oration that there occurred a “progress of
the doctrine of God.” Cf. Kilian Macdonnell, The Other Hand of God: The Holy
Spirit as the Universal Touch and Goal (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical
Press, 2003), 143. However, any word resembling the notion of dogma or
doctrine is missing from the original text (see PG 36, 161C). Behr is more than
likely correct when he asserts that the saint “is not advancing a theory of the
‘development of doctrine.’ There are no new doctrinal facts to be introduced
in addition to the gospel, at some subsequent historical stage. Rather, there is
an increasing comprehension of the truths that it contains, as the contemplative
theologian advances in maturity of understanding.” John Behr, Formation of
Christian Theology, Volume 2: The Nicene Faith, Part 2 (Crestwood, NY: St
Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004), 368. In other words, the “faith that was once
and for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 1:3) undergoes no inherent change; what
changes is our understanding in a manner consonant with the “growth towards
perfection” mentioned above.
18
PG 36, 164A. Fifth Theological Oration 26, trans. Williams and Wickham,
137. The available English translation reads “this was, I believe, the motive
for the Spirit’s making his home in the disciples” (italics added). This does not
sufficiently convey the meaning of the original Greek, which I have attempted to
render more accurately above.
19
PG 36, 162C-164A. Fifth Theological Oration 26, trans. Williams and Wickham,
137-138.
20
Cf. Ibid.

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21
For more on St Gregory’s perception of theosis, see Torstein Theodor Tollefsen,
‘Theosis according to Gregory,’ in Gregory of Nazianzus: Images and Reflections,
eds. Jostein Bortnes and Tomas Hägg (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press,
2006), 257-70.
22
Cf. PG 36, 321B. Oration 38: On the Nativity 10 in Festal Orations: Saint
Gregory of Nazianzus, Popular Patristics Series 36, trans. Nonna Verna Harrison
(Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2008), 67.
23
Tracing the antecedents of the microcosm as it appears in the thought of St
Maximus the Confessor, Lars Thunberg identifies St Gregory’s use of the term in
Oration 28.22 (PG 36, 57A). See Lars Thunberg, Microcosm and Mediator: The
Theological Anthropology of Maximus the Confessor, Second Edition (Chicago
& La Salle: Open Court, 1995), 135. I thank Fr Doru Costache for this reference.
24
Cf. PG 36, 321C. Oration 38 11, trans. Harrison, 68.
25
PG 36, 324A. Oration 38 11, trans. Harrison, 68-69.
26
Ibid, 69.
27
PG 36, 160D. Fifth Theological Oration 25, trans. Williams and Wickham, 136.
28
A mode of being that transcends history as we have come to know and experience
it.
29
See Revelation 22:12-13.
30
PG 36, 325A. Oration 38 13, trans. Harrison, 70.
31
PG 36, 325A. Oration 38 13, trans. Harrison, 70-71.
32
PG 36, 325AB. Oration 38 13, trans. Harrison, 70-71.
33
Cf. PG 31, 337C. Homily Explaining that God is Not the Cause of Evil 5, in On
the Human Condition, Popular Patristics Series 30, trans. Nonna Verna Harrison
(Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2005), 71.
34
Indeed, this seems to constitute a more robust exposition of the paradoxical
nature of the incarnation that the saint already outlines in chapter 2. Cf. PG 36,
313AC. Oration 38 2, trans. Harrison, 62.
35
There is a conceptual distinction in the Cappadocians, employed consistently by
St Gregory in his corpus, between θεολογία and οἰκονομία. The former pertains
to the contemplation of God as he reveals himself to his creation, and the latter,
related to the first, concerns God’s relationship with the created order. For more
information, see Christopher A. Beeley, Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity and

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Knowledge of God (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 194-95. Second-

stage Christology, insofar as it relates to Word incarnate, therefore represents the
summit of God’s ‘economic’ relationship with his creation.
36
PG 36, 325BD. Oration 38 13, trans. Harrison, 71.
37
It seems as though St Gregory is depicting himself as representative of the
entire human race that is recapitulated into Christ in the incarnation. For more
information on the deifying effects of the incarnation for humanity, see Kenneth
Paul Wesche, ‘The Union of God and Man in Jesus Christ in the Thought of
Gregory of Nazianzus.’ St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 28:2 (1984): 83-98.
38
St Gregory delineated this first communion with reference to the creation of both
the spiritual and material realms and of the human being as their microcosm. Cf.
PG 36, 321A-324A. Oration 38 10-11, 67-68.
39
MacDonnell attempts to emphasise the Spirit’s role in St Gregory’s exposition
of God’s gradual self-disclosure through the covenants. However, on more than
one occasion he refers Jesus’ ascension as his ‘departure,’ after which the deity of
both the Son and the Spirit is received in a manner proportionate to the believer’s
capacity (illustrated in section 1 of this paper). His language is misleading,
especially in light of our lengthy reflection on the fact that Christ, as the logos
and telos of the historical continuum and the alpha and omega of all that is,
permeates ‘history in its entirety’. Cf. Macdonnell, The Other Hand of God: The
Holy Spirit as the Universal Touch and Goal, 143-44.
40
Standing at the beginning, the end, and at an indefinite ‘middle’ of the historical
continuum, Jesus represents what in traditional societies is known as the axis
mundi or ‘centre of the world.’ For more information on the axis mundi, see
Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, trans. W. R.
Trask (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1959), 35-37.

Mario Baghos is a PhD candidate in Ancient History at Macquarie University. He is

associate lecturer in Church History at St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College
and his research interests include the city of Constantinople and the history of religions
and mentalities.

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