The Image Of God In The Theology Of Gregory Of Nazianzus

Provides the first full-length analysis of Gregory Nazianzen's multifaceted account of the image of God against the backdrop of biblical themes.

Gregory of Nazianzus (ca. 330-390) is one of the three Greek church fathers from Cappadocia. This book explores both his theology and his general importance as an independent thinker, profile writer, orator, and poet. Gregory has often been in the shadow of the other Cappadocians - Basil of Ceasarea and Gregory of Nyssa.

Gregory of Nazianzus, a 4th-century bishop of Constantinople, receives relatively little attention from modern Western scholars, yet he is one of the most influential theologians in the history of Christian doctrine. As an advocate for the conceptual understanding of the Trinity, Gregory set precedents for the way his fellow and future Christians would perceive and worship God. Christopher A. Beeley presents the first comprehensive study in modern Western scholarship of Gregory's doctrine of the Trinity in the full range of his theological and practical vision of the Christian life.

The doctrine of the imago Dei, that human beings are created in the "image and likeness of God," is an endlessly fascinating topic. Not only is it a central doctrine to Christian life and practice but also touches, perhaps even helps to form, every other doctrine of the Christian faith in one way or another. We do not think about God, in a Christian sense, as any other than the God who creates humanity in God's image. However, many of the details of this claim and what it means for human beings are left undefined by Hebrew and Christian Scriptures and it is not even mentioned in the creeds. This space leaves room for exploration. So the quest for what it means for human beings to be made in the image and likeness of God has never ceased to occupy theologians, clerics, and the laity alike. In this Companion, Peppiatt charts the developments of the doctrine through the ages, summarizing each position and perspective up to the modern day. This volume offers a compact but rich overview of the various ways in which this doctrine has been and is understood as well as pointing readers to further questions for consideration.

Misunderstandings about what it means for humans to be created in God's image have wreaked devastation throughout history -- for example, slavery in the U. S., genocide in Nazi Germany, and the demeaning of women everywhere. In Dignity and Destiny John Kilner explores what the Bible itself teaches about humanity being in God's image. He discusses in detail all of the biblical references to the image of God, interacts extensively with other work on the topic, and documents how misunderstandings of it have been so problematic. People made according to God's image, Kilner says, have a special connection with God and are intended to be a meaningful reflection of him. Because of sin, they don't actually reflect him very well, but Kilner shows why the popular idea that sin has damaged the image of God is mistaken. He also clarifies the biblical difference between being God's image (which Christ is) and being in God's image (which humans are). He explains how humanity's creation and renewal in God's image are central, respectively, to human dignity and destiny. Locating Christ at the center of what God's image means, Kilner charts a constructive way forward and reflects on the tremendously liberating impact that a sound understanding of the image of God can have in the world today.

This book presents the first modern critical edition of the work of Gregory of Nyssa, On the Human Image of God (formerly known as On the Making of Man, De hominis opificio) and the first English translation since the nineteenth century. This treatise is one of the most important of Gregory's texts. Paralleling the structure of Plato's Timaeus, Gregory's work begins by offering two analyses of the human being. The first presents the human being as the culmination of the ascent made by nature through the various levels of life, and as made, body and soul, in the image of God. The second considers why this is not immediately apparent, the need for time to be able to grow, individually and collectively, to this status, as the body of Christ, the image of God, and the role of sexuality within this growth. The third part of the work brings both analyses together, to see the same movement in the life-span of each person. The extensive introduction provided in this volume examines the philosophical and theological background of Gregory's text, beginning with Anaxagoras, Plato (the Timaeus), Philo, and Origen, and also compares aspects of Gregory's work with that of Irenaeus of Lyons and Maximos the Confessor.

What does it mean to be a human being made in the image of God? This book makes the case that the divine image can be seen in not just one or two aspects of human identity but in all of them. The author, a specialist in early Christianity, reveals the light that leading theologians of the early church shed on contemporary discussions of what it means to be human. Each chapter explores a different facet of the divine image and likeness and maps out a path that can lead toward wholeness and holiness. This fresh approach to theological anthropology brings Greek patristic theology to students in a readable fashion.

It seems that the wish to benefit all, and to lavish indiscriminately upon the first comer one’s own gifts, was not a thing altogether commendable, or even free from reproach in the eyes of the many; seeing that the gratuitous waste of many prepared drugs on the incurably-diseased produces no result worth caring about, either in the way of gain to the recipient, or reputation to the would-be benefactor. Rather such an attempt becomes in many cases the occasion of a change for the worse. The hopelessly-diseased and now dying patient receives only a speedier end from the more active medicines; the fierce unreasonable temper is only made worse by the kindness of the lavished pearls, as the Gospel tells us. I think it best, therefore, in accordance with the Divine command, for any one to separate the valuable from the worthless when either have to be given away, and to avoid the pain which a generous giver must receive from one who treads upon his pearl,’ and insults him by his utter want of feeling for its beauty.