Gregory's First Theological Oration

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Gregory's First Theological Oration

Growing up as a Catholic, I never even considered watching whom I spoke in front of when in a conversation about God. I never dwelled on the fact that I might be putting "the sword into the enemies hands", or that only people that were concerned with God should speak of Him. Gregory of Nazianzus believed that only certain people, certain places and certain occasions were worthy of the discussion of God. In Gregory's First Theological Oration, he clearly delivers the guidelines that believers should heed when speaking of or about God.

First and foremost, the First Oration is not just a set of guidelines, but also a preparatory work that precedes four other Orations. The Five Theological Orations earned Gregory the title of the Theologian (Catholic Online). In them he discusses the consubstantiality of the Son and Holy Spirit in relation to God, as well as the fact that no human, despite their level of understanding or knowledge, can fully comprehend the nature of God (Bone). With these subjects in mind, it is important to consider a bit about Gregory's background.

Born to the Bishop of Nazianzus in Cappadocia, religion was a central part of Gregory's life. He was educated in Christian writings, especially Origen (Catholic Online). Origen lived during the Christian persecutions between 185 and 254 AD. He is considered one of the greatest Christian Theologians of all time, most likely in regards to his many biblical commentaries and sermons. Some of his better known works were On First Principle, which discussed Christian Neo-Platonism, and Against Celcus, which was a written response to the Pagan philosopher Celcus' attack on Christianity (IEoP). Together with his friend Basil, Gregory composed the Philocalia, meaning "Love of Beauty" which was an anthology of Origen's works. Gregory was also extremely well versed in Greek philosophy (Catholic Online).

A very surprising fact is that it was under force from his father that Gregory became a priest. He did not feel that he was pure enough to be in such a sacred office, because he had not yet finished learning. Several times he took sanctuary in a monastery. He was eventually made into the Bishop of Nazianzus, but a larger position was offered to him as the Bishop of Constantinople. He accepted the role, but unfortunately could not keep it, since one cannot be Bishop of two places, and the original "bishopship" should be the position kept (Catholic Online).

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