05 — Sources and History
The source-critical heart of the collection: a survey of what is authentically Gregory’s — the Address of Thanksgiving to Origen, the Canonical Epistle, the Creed, the To Theopompus, and the Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes — together with the dubia and spuria that gathered around his name; and an account of how the historian separates the secure core (Gregory’s own works, Eusebius, and Basil’s appeal) from the wonder-tale of Gregory of Nyssa’s Life, written a century after Gregory’s death.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Ante-Nicene Father; Wonderworker)
Gregory the Wonderworker presents the historian with an unusual double record. On the one side stands a small but precious body of genuine writing — an autobiographical oration, a datable pastoral letter, a fully Trinitarian creed, a philosophical dialogue surviving in Syriac, and a paraphrase of Ecclesiastes — which lets us hear the ante-Nicene theologian and bishop in his own voice. On the other stands the Life of Gregory the Wonderworker composed by St. Gregory of Nyssa around 380, fully a century after its subject’s death, in which nearly all of the biography and all of the miracles are first recorded. This section holds the two apart. The first file weighs the authenticity of the works circulated under Gregory’s name, separating the genuine from the doubtful and the spurious; the second sets out the method by which the secure historical core — Gregory’s own writings, the sober near-contemporary notice of Eusebius, and the Pontic tradition that reached the Cappadocians through Basil’s grandmother Macrina the Elder — is distinguished from the marvels that Nyssa’s encomium supplies, per METHODOLOGY.md §3.5.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| the-genuine-works.md | A source-critical survey of the authentic Gregorian corpus — the Address of Thanksgiving to Origen, the Canonical Epistle, the Creed, the To Theopompus, and the Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes — and the dubia and spuria (the Sectional Confession of Faith / Twelve Topics, On the Trinity, the Annunciation homilies) that circulated under his name, with the scholarly disputes over attribution. |
| the-life-and-the-legend.md | How the historical Gregory is separated from the wonder-tale: Gregory of Nyssa’s Life (c. 380) as the source of nearly all the biography and all the miracles, pinned per METHODOLOGY §3.5; the sober witnesses of Eusebius (HE 6.30) and Basil (who knew the Pontic tradition through Macrina the Elder); and the method of building the secure core. |
See Also
- The Student of Origen — the Address of Thanksgiving, the firmest of the genuine works, treated as the bedrock of the biography
- The Canonical Epistle — the most securely datable genuine work, transmitted through the Church’s canonical tradition
- The Trinitarian Creed — the Creed among the genuine works, preserved within Nyssa’s Life
- The Witness of Gregory of Nyssa — the Life of c. 380 as the chief source for the miracle-tradition
- The Church Fathers — Gregory among the ante-Nicene Fathers
- METHODOLOGY.md — the citation and verification standard governing the treatment of the genuine works and the wonder-tale
References
- Gregory Thaumaturgus. Address of Thanksgiving to Origen, Canonical Epistle, A Declaration of Faith (the Creed), and the Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes. Trans. S. D. F. Salmond, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6. Ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Buffalo: Christian Literature Company, 1886.
- Slusser, Michael, trans. St. Gregory Thaumaturgus: Life and Works. Fathers of the Church 98. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1998.
- Gregory of Nyssa. De vita Gregorii Thaumaturgi (On the Life of Gregory the Wonderworker). PG 46:893–958. Trans. in Slusser, St. Gregory Thaumaturgus.
- Eusebius of Caesarea. Ecclesiastical History 6.30. Trans. Arthur C. McGiffert, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 1. 1890.
- Jerome. De viris illustribus (On Illustrious Men) 65. Trans. Ernest Cushing Richardson, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 3. 1892.
- Crouzel, Henri. Grégoire le Thaumaturge: Remerciement à Origène, suivi de la Lettre d’Origène à Grégoire. Sources chrétiennes 148. Paris: Cerf, 1969.