09 — Legacy and Reception
How the Church and the scholarly tradition have received Gregory of Nyssa: the Byzantine honor that crowned him “Father of the Fathers” at the Second Council of Nicaea (787), and the twentieth-century recovery — led by Daniélou and von Balthasar, carried by the Jaeger critical edition, the International Colloquia, and the Brill Dictionary — that made the youngest Cappadocian central to modern theology. These files trace his authority across the councils and his return to prominence in the modern age.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Church Father)
Gregory’s reception is a study in selective transmission. The councils received him as a doctrinal authority of the first rank — named in the edict of 381, cited at the Sixth and Seventh Councils, titled patēr paterōn at Nicaea II — and the Byzantine tradition prized his Trinitarian and mystical works while quietly setting aside (or attributing to interpolators) his teaching on the universal restoration. After centuries of relative neglect in the West, the twentieth century rediscovered him: Daniélou’s recovery of epektasis and the mystical Gregory, von Balthasar’s Presence and Thought, the critical edition begun by Jaeger, and a flourishing field of contemporary scholarship.
Files in this Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Father of the Fathers | The Nicaea II (787) title and its citation of Gregory; the conciliar reception; the strong Byzantine reception of the mystical and Trinitarian works and the ambivalence over the apokatastasis; the influence on Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus, and Palamas. |
| The Modern Recovery | Daniélou’s Platonisme et théologie mystique; von Balthasar’s Presence and Thought; the Jaeger critical edition; the International Colloquia and the Brill Dictionary; the contemporary scholars and why Gregory has become central to modern theology. |
See Also
- The Universal Restoration — the disputed eschatology that reception had to qualify
- Mystical Ascent — the works the modern recovery prized most
- St. Maximus the Confessor — the heir who received and disciplined Gregory’s thought
- St. Gregory Palamas — the heir to Gregory’s apophaticism
- The Ecumenical Councils — the councils that received Gregory as authority
References
- Mateo-Seco, Lucas Francisco, and Giulio Maspero, eds. The Brill Dictionary of Gregory of Nyssa. Vigiliae Christianae Supplements 99. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
- Daniélou, Jean. Platonisme et théologie mystique: Essai sur la doctrine spirituelle de saint Grégoire de Nysse. Paris: Aubier, 1944.
- Balthasar, Hans Urs von. Presence and Thought: An Essay on the Religious Philosophy of Gregory of Nyssa. Translated by Mark Sebanc. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1995. [French original: Présence et pensée, Paris: Beauchesne, 1942.]
- Ludlow, Morwenna. Gregory of Nyssa, Ancient and (Post)modern. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.