Re-Reading Gregory of Nazianzus

Christopher Beeley, a patristics scholar of Yale and author of such previous studies as Gregory of Nazianzus on the Trinity and the Knowledge of God: In Your Light We Shall See Light (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology, 2008) has recently gathered together an impressive list of prominent scholars to contribute to a new volume about Gregory: Christopher Beeley, ed., Re-Reading Gregory of Nazianzus: Essays on History, Theology, and Culture (Catholic University of America Press, 2012), vii+319pp.)

About this book the publisher tells us:

Re-Reading Gregory of Nazianzus offers a collection of cutting-edge research on one of the leading figures in the early church. Long recognized as a chief architect of Eastern Orthodox Christianity and the definitive articulator of the doctrine of the Trinity, Gregory "the Theologian" has been strangely neglected in modern patristic research. In recent decades Gregory has become the subject of careful study by scholars in a variety of humanistic disciplines, including theology, church history, classics, art history, and literature, and has attracted the renewed attention of Eastern and Western theologians and church leaders as well. This book, the newest volume in the CUA Studies in Early Christianity, presents original works by leading patristics scholars on a wide range of theological, historical, and cultural topics. It offers illuminating new readings of Gregory's writings, ranging from the systematic theology of Gregory's poetry to the Trinitarian doctrine found in his Festal Orations, and from his artful self-presentation in the mode of classical historiography to his later influence on Byzantine theologians and emperors. The book honors the work of American scholar Frederick W. Norris, who led the way in revitalizing the study of Gregory among English-speaking scholars.

Among the nearly twenty contributors, several are well known to and as Eastern Christians, including Brian Daley, Verna E.F. Harrison (whom I interviewed here), Andrew Louth, and John McGuckin, whom I interviewed here.

Also included in this volume are essays by  Christopher A. Beeley, Paul M. Blowers, Susanna Elm, Everett Ferguson, Ben Fulford, Vasiliki Limberis, Brian J. Matz, Neil McLynn, Claudio Moreschini, Suzanne Abrams Rebillard, Andrea Sterk, and William Tabbernee.

Theological Anthropology

Some of the most controverted questions in both Church and society today are anthropological in nature. Two in particular stand out: can women be ordained to the priesthood in the Orthodox Churches, and can same-sex relationships be recognized and affirmed, even considered as "marriages" by Christians? Two new very interesting works from Orthodox scholars have just been published on the topic of theological anthropology:


Nonna Verna Harrison, God's Many-Splendored Image: Theological Anthropology for Christian Formation (Brazos Press, 2010), 224pp.

Her book, with a foreword by Met. Kallistos Ware, will be reviewed by the scholar and Hieromonk Irenei (M.C.) Steenberg, himself author of a recent book in the same area, also with a foreword from Met. Kallistos:

M.C. Steenberg, Of God and Man: Theology as Anthropology from Irenaeus to Athanasius (London/New York: T&T Clark, 2009), xii+208pp.


Steenberg's book, also to be reviewed next year in Logos, is published by T&T Clark (Continuum), which is a very important publisher that has for some time now been putting out a lot of works in theological anthropology--but an enormous number of books in other areas as well. They are also the official English publishers for Met. John Zizioulas's books.