Theologian Thursday: Macrina the Younger (327-379)

This week's post concludes my series on the Cappadocians. Even though she's certainly not a "Father," Macrina had a significant influence on the education and edification of her brothers Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, and their partner in crime heresy-fighting Gregory of Nazianzus.

Not only that, but there is a bakery in Seattle from which I'd LOVE a t-shirt/mug/something. I really need to go. Maybe when I'm [hopefully] up there for the meeting of the Wesleyan Theological Society next year (fingers crossed/that's a blog post for later).

Anyway. On to the good stuff.

(image from here)

Macrina was educated in the Bible and the ways of the Church by her mother Emily, and, after the man to whom she was betrothed died before they were married (and before she even knew she was betrothed to him, interestingly enough), she decided to remain a virgin and commit herself to a life of service. She helped her mother raise and teach her nine younger siblings, as well as found two monasteries on their estate in Pontus, and was a constant source of stability and comfort through various deaths in the family. When her mother died, she gave all the money of the family estates to the poor, and lived with the nuns, teaching and working in the community.

After Basil died, she also fell ill, and her brother Gregory came to visit her. Despite her sickness, she comforted Gregory and pointed him to God even to her final breath.

Macrina's life is an example of humility. Though she was born to a wealthy family, she considered herself equal to the nuns with whom she lived, and endeavored to educate all those around her, regardless of rank. Indeed, her death bed was not even a bed at all--it was a board covered with a sack. This sense of equality leads many to assume she believed in and taught universal salvation.


What you should read:

• The Life of Macrina by Gregory of Nyssa

Ratings:
(To read more about my rating system, click HERE.)
Gender Equality:
She was a woman (obviously) but did just as much (and just as important) work for the Church and for her community as her brothers. Indeed, as I've mentioned before, her brothers owe much of their education and upbringing to her.
Environmental Sensibility: 
Environmental Sensibility: 
I'm a bit split on this rating. On one hand, she was an acetic, and had platonic/almost gnostic ideas about the body and the physical world (i.e. they're not important--the spiritual is what matters). On the other hand, her theology of the universal love of God leads me to believe that she would agree with care for creation, just as God cares for creation. I guess I'll leave it at a two.
Heretical Tendencies:
Macrina is together with her brothers and the rest of her family with influence from Origen, and now that I think of it, a lot of her acetic/mystic practices were discarded by the western church, and might be considered unorthodox. But certainly her humility and her love and care for people are and should be normative practice.
General Badassery:
I don't think she is really bad-ass in the usual sense, but the fact that she helped raise 9 kids, founded and worked in monasteries, and generally held her family together is pretty admirable. Plus, she died praying while lying on a wooden board. Dang.

And a quote:
"When the evil has been exterminated in the long cycles of the æons nothing shall be left outside the boundaries of good, but even from them shall be unanimously uttered the confession of the Lordship of Christ."

Theologian Thursday: Gregory of Nyssa (335?-395?)

 (image from here)

Gregory of Nyssa was St. Basil's younger brother. His upbringing is therefore very similar to Basil's and also to Gregory of Nazianzus--privileged, well-traveled, and well-educated. While he is not considered a Doctor of the Church, he was a bishop, and his writings have been influential in academic discourse regarding the Trinity and the "uncreated" nature of God.

Most of his trinitarian theology, not surprisingly, aligns closely with that of the other Cappadocians and their idea of the social trinity--that the three ὑποστάσεις (hypostases/persons) of the Trinity exist as one in a deeply unifying and ontologically significant bond of mutual love. His other works include many homilies (for example, "Treatise on the Work of the Six Days," which mirrors Basil's Hexameron), and works on the Christian life and holiness. In line with his influence from Origen, much of his theology is based on the infinite and uncreated nature of God and universal salvation--that all humanity has been assumed by the Son and therefore redeemed.

OK--Here's the best part. HIS RELICS LIVE IN SAN DIEGO! While writing this post, I found out that St. Gregory of Nyssa Greek Orthodox Church in El Cajon has them/it (still unsure what exactly the relic is... I think it's a jawbone?). Super cool! I might try to go check it out sometime.

What you should read:

• On the Holy Spirit (yep, he wrote one too)
• Great Catechism, chapter 26 (so good!)

Ratings:
(To read more about my rating system, click HERE.)
Gender Equality:
Gregory was big on the idea of humanity being the image of God, in that humans are free and spiritual beings (he followed Origen in this, except that Origen believed in pre-existent souls and Gregory believed souls were created at the same moment the body was). With all of his emphasis on the nous of people, and their spiritual being, I didn't see much about differences between men and women in this regard--he seemed to place them (implicitly) on more or less even ground.
Environmental Sensibility: 
Gregory seems to have had a pretty Platonic idea of nature--that the world was formed from "ideas" in God that manifest themselves through physical qualities outside of God. Therefore, the essence of nature doesn't really exist (i.e. isn't tangible or available to us). Only its qualities. So I'd assume his care for creation was minimal.
Heretical Tendencies:
He spoke out against heretics like Apollinarius and Eunomius. But he did get a lot of his ideas from Origen, who was actually a heretic. So he toes the line a bit.
General Badassery:
I don't know anything especially bad-ass about him. But he did have a heck of a lot of influential correspondence, and he does do a lot of interesting work with Origen's thought. I think he gets the short end of the Cappadocian stick, but he shouldn't!

And a quote:
“Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything. People kill one another over idols. Wonder makes us fall to our knees.”

Theologian Thursday: Saint Basil the Great (330-379)

 (image found here)

If you subscribe to Greek Orthodox hagiography, Basil comes from a family full of saints. Can you imagine? His brothers Gregory of Nyssa (whom we'll talk about next week) and Peter, sisters Macrina and Theosebius, mother Emily and grandmother Macrina were all saints. The Roman Catholic Church also includes his father, Basil, among the saints.

He became the bishop at Caesarea, and used his position, along with his relationships with Gregory of Nazianzus and Athanasius, to fight the heresies of Arianism and modalism. These early discussions about the Trinity are so interesting because they wrestle with all these ridiculously fine points of theology. Basically, Basil & Co. wanted the Holy Spirit to be considered homoousios (ὁμοούσιος--same essence) with the Father and Son, however, faithful to the Greek tradition, he was wary of considering the Son homoousious with the Father, even though the Nicene Creed and the Western church had established this as orthodox. But obviously (because of his disdain for Arianism) he wanted to uphold the divinity of Christ. Crazy fine points!

I feel like in this time period of debate and compromise, no one really got everything they wanted, and I think this can speak to the church today--despite conflicting beliefs, there really is room at the table for everyone.


What you should read:

• On the Holy Spirit
• The Hexameron   

Ratings:
(To read more about my rating system, click HERE.)
Gender Equality:
Coming from such a holy family, Basil had a lot of respect for his grandmother, his mother, and his sisters. They all had significant influence on his spiritual development and his life in general.
Environmental Sensibility:
It's probably safe to say that Basil falls in line with the other Church Fathers here. It wasn't a high priority at the time, but surely, if questioned, he would support a positive environmental ethic.
Heretical Tendencies:
Though he (and the other Cappadocians, for that matter) were influenced by the work of Origen, they were staunchly orthodox.
General Badassery: 
Honestly, Basil doesn't seem too crazy. I think anyone who was part of these crazy theological debates in the fourth century had to be pretty intense, but I haven't read any stories of Basil being especially badass.

And a quote. This one is longer than the ones I usually share, but I think it's important, and very convicting!
“The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.”

Theologian Thursday: Gregory of Nazianzus (c.329-c.390)

For the next few weeks, Theologian Thursday is going to highlight the Cappadocian Fathers (and sister Macrina)--perhaps the most important Greek influence in church history. I'm pretty excited about it, because I love rediscovering pre-schism Christian thought--eastern ideas that were lost and have been lacking in the western church. It really helps develop a fuller, more rounded theology.

(image from here)

Gregory of Nazianzus was an acetic monk at heart, but after traveling and studying extensively spent a good deal of his life in the priesthood and public ministry--mostly due to the prodding of his father and his friend Basil the Great. He became the bishop of Constantinople, the goal of this position being to rid the church of Arian and Apollinarian heresies.

His life work was upholding Nicene orthodoxy, as well as developing an orthodox theology of the Trinity and a fleshed-out pneumatology. Gregory is usually credited with the formation of the idea of "procession" of the Holy Spirit--that it proceeds from both the Father and the Son, and yet, since Father and Son are one, that which proceeds from them is also one with them (I know, crazy stuff, right?). I'll probably discuss more about his trinitarian thought and the "social" trinity in later Cappadocian posts--it was kind of a team effort.

What you should read:

• Fifth Theological Oration: On the Holy Spirit
• Concerning the Unity of God/Concerning Heresies
• He actually has lectures on each part of the Nicene Creed
• The Kenosis of the Son

Ratings:
(To read more about my rating system, click HERE.)
Gender Equality:
Gregory is another of the super-early Church Fathers, so it's hardly fair to rate him here. But since he was one of the Cappadocian Fathers, I imagine he did get some influence from Macrina (about whom I'll post later), so surely he had a little respect for the ideas of women.
Environmental Sensibility:
I think Gregory was much more concerned with spiritual issues than those regarding creation. However, one could interpret his belief about Christ's assuming humanity for the purpose of its redemption to be assuming creation as a whole.
Heretical Tendencies:
Super orthodox. He lived and breathed the Nicene Creed. And while the western church may have shelved his ideas, I think it's definitely safe to say he's nowhere near heresy.
General Badassery: 
Gregory was pretty tame. He spoke harshly against Arians, but that's to be expected from such an orthodox bishop. I'm more convinced of his character by the fact that, though he wasn't really interested in being a high-profile church leader, and would rather live the monastic life, he basically did as he was told by those around him. He's also the least-well-known of the Cappadocians. Pretty vanilla, I'd say. But of course that doesn't make his work any less important!

And lastly, a quote:
"That which was not assumed is not redeemed; but that which is united to God is saved."