scholarly journals Pokora w walce z pychą – fundamentalny spór moralno-duchowy w rozumieniu Ojców Kapadockich i Jana Chryzostoma

Vox Patrum ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 531-545
Author(s):  
Mariusz Szram
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Development ◽  
Spiritual Growth ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
John Chrysostom ◽  
More Care ◽  
Cappadocian Fathers ◽  
Risk Characteristic

The aim of the article is to show the specificity of the fundamental fight in the soul and in the life of man between pride and humility as it is seen in the writings of the Cappadocian Fathers and John Chrysostom. In the opinion of the Greek Fathers of the 4th century pride is the root of all sin. It destroys all good fruits in the Christian spiritual development, whereas humility enables and protects spiritual growth. Arguing against the here­tics of their time, mainly against the Arians, the Cappadocian Fathers (especially Gregory of Nazianzus) made particular attention to the theologians’ pride, cha­racterized by the lack of respect for the mysteries of God and being proud that is without moderation in talking about God. Gregory of Nyssa pointed out the perversity of the vice of pride: the arbitrary exaltation leads finally to the great unwanted humiliation and even to fall into the sin. John Chrysostom em­phasized the paradoxical risk characteristic of the process of spiritual fight: one can brag because of owned humility and enjoy it. Then even true humility can imperceptibly transform into pride and become its source. Therefore the righteous people should avoid the pride and seek humility with more care than sinners.

Art, Craft, and Theology in Fourth-Century Christian Authors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morwenna Ludlow
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Fine Art ◽  
Active Response ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Shared Practice ◽  
John Chrysostom ◽  
Literary Techniques ◽  
Applied Arts

Ancient authors commonly compared writing with painting. The sculpting of the soul was a common philosophical theme. This book takes its starting-point from such figures to recover a sense of ancient authorship as craft. The ancient concept of craft (ars, technē) spans ‘high’ or ‘fine’ art and practical or applied arts. It unites the beautiful and the useful. It includes both skills or practices (like medicine and music) and productive arts like painting, sculpting, and the composition of texts. By using craft as a guiding concept for understanding fourth-century Christian authorship, this book recovers a sense of them engaged in a shared practice which is both beautiful and theologically useful, which shapes souls but which is also engaged in the production of texts. It focuses on Greek writers, especially the Cappadocians (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa) and John Chrysostom, all of whom were trained in rhetoric. Through a detailed examination of their use of two particular literary techniques—ekphrasis and prosōpopoeia—it shows how they adapt and experiment with them, in order to make theological arguments and in order to evoke an active response from their readership.

Three Ways to Imitate Paul in Late Antiquity: Ekstasis, Ekphrasis, Epektasis

2021 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-117
Author(s):  
Michael Motia
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Dionysius The Areopagite ◽  
John Chrysostom ◽  
Heaven And Earth ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius ◽  
Scholarly Attention

AbstractRobert Orsi’s argument that religion, more than a system of “meaning making,” is a “network of relationships between heaven and earth” helps us understand what is at stake in imitation for early Christians. The question for Orsi is not, “What does it mean to imitate Paul?” as much as it is, “In what kind of relationship is one engaged when one imitates Paul?” Christians argue over both what to imitate (Who is Paul?) and how to imitate (How should Christians relate to Paul in order to be like him or to render him present?). The what has received lots of scholarly attention; this paper focuses on the how. I compare the range of possibilities of how to imitate Paul by focusing on three influential accounts of mimesis: Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (ekstasis), John Chrysostom (ekphrasis), and Gregory of Nyssa (epektasis).

scholarly journals Chryzostomowa terminologia wychowania

Vox Patrum ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 337-391
Author(s):  
Ewa Osek
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Strong Influence ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Clement Of Alexandria ◽  
John Chrysostom

This paper is the study of the Greek terms using by John Chrysostom on rea­ring, upbringing, training and teaching of children. The analyse of these terms and their use in all the John Chrysostom's writings shows as strong influence of the Atttic writers' vocabulary (especiallty Platoʼs), even in his commentaries on the Scriptural verses, as of the early Christian litera­ture (New Testament, Clement of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa).

The Cappadocian Fathers and Civic Patriotism

1974 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Kopecek
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Strong Sense ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
Family Ties ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cappadocian Fathers

In a recent article I argued that the famous Cappadocian Fathers of the fourth century were by birth members of the eastern empire's municipal aristocracy, the so-called curial class. Libanius of Antioch, himself born of a curial family, indicates that this social class was characterized by three traditional values: civic patriotism, devotion to Greek paideia and a strong sense of the importance of family ties and tradition. The purpose of the present essay is to focus on the first and most important component of the threcfold “curial ideal” —that is, civic patriotism — and to investigate the extent to which this value of the social circles to which the Fathers belonged influenced their thought and action as clerics. Although Gregory of Nyssa, the youngest of the Cappadocian Fathers, was not at all immune to the influence of other curial values, our sources reveal little effect of civic patriotism upon his clerical activity. Therefore our study will concentrate on the older Cappadocians, Bishop Gregory the Elder of Nazianzus, his son Bishop Gregory of Nazianzus and Bishop Basil of Caesarea.

scholarly journals The Lost Fresco Paintings of the Inkerman Cave Churches (“Temple with Baptistery”, “Church of Geography”, Monastery of Saint Sophia)

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 31-51
Author(s):  
Yurii Mogarichev ◽  
◽  
Alena Ergina ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
13Th Century ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Cyril Of Alexandria ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Traditional Scheme ◽  
John Chrysostom ◽  
Southwestern Crimea ◽  
The Temple ◽  
The Church ◽  
Mountainous Crimea

Introduction. Among the “cave towns” of Mountainous Southwestern Crimea, there are monuments located in the lower reaches of the Black River valley. There are no less than 9 rock-cut monastic complexes which include about 30 temples. Methods. Some churches of the 13th–15th centuries were decorated with fresco paintings. Today, frescoes have been preserved only in one church. Sources of the 18th–20th centuries indicate traces of paintings in more than five temples. Frescoes inside the “temple with baptistery”, “Church of Geography (Eugraphy)”, and the Monastery of St. Sophia have not survived. Archival materials that expose the plots and compositions are published in this work. Analysis. The frescoes of the “temple with baptistery” date back to the 13th century. The Deesis composition is reconstructed in the apse conch. In the “Church of Geography (Eugraphy)” (the 13th century), on each side of the throne, four figures of saints are depicted (The Holy Fathers composition). This is probably: John Chrysostom, Gregory the Theologian, Basil the Great, Cyril of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, Athanasius of Alexandria and two more saints from among the Cappadocian Fathers. One of them is obviously St. Blaise. This painting in general terms repeats the traditional scheme of the lower register of the painting of the apses of the cave temples of the mountainous Crimea. The monastery of St. Sofia should be dated back to the 14th–15th centuries. During the period of the monastery’s functioning, there were fresco paintings in the Main Church and Church no. 3, but all the attempts to attribute them were unsuccessful. Results. The analyzed frescoes show themes of Deesis and the Great Cappadocians. They are common for altar compositions in cave temples in South-West Crimea. In the interiors of the cave temples of Inkerman, there are: simple linear ornaments, complex plant reports, linear ornaments with complex weaving and plant elements.

Awaking to Mutual, Reciprocal Need in Plague and Epidemic Disease: The Origins of Early Christian Health Care

2020 ◽  
pp. 002436392096295
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Becker
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Epidemic Disease ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Physical Suffering ◽  
John Chrysostom ◽  
Human Need

While the early Christian Church demonstrates a deep desire to relieve physical suffering, the Greco-Roman world in which it developed lacked the same impetus to respond to human need, especially in the context of epidemic or communicable disease. Christianity’s dedication to health care, and its belief that assisting the sick constituted an absolute obligation, distinguished early Christianity from its contemporary cultural milieu which regularly ignored and excluded the sick. The novelty of the Christian approach to healing can be traced to the early church’s unique recognition of human need. This vision of human need, which ultimately replaced the secular Greco-Roman emphasis on reciprocal philanthropy and providing assistance only to the worthy, is clearly exemplified in the life of Christ, in responses to plague and in the writings of John Chrysostom and the Cappadocian Fathers Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus. An analysis of these sources demonstrates that the early Christian Church viewed the sick not only as persons to be assisted insofar as they shared a common human nature but also individuals necessary for the salvation of the broader community as a whole. The early church’s emphasis on reciprocal interdependence between healthy and sick eliminated the boundaries traditionally established between these two groups and transformed long-standing notions of contagious disease. Ultimately, the development of these attitudes toward the sick originates in a deeper truth which underlies the Christian healthcare tradition both in the ancient world and in the modern era: humanity’s profound and mutual need of God, before whom all are spiritually ill.

The Cappadocians

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Cappadocian Fathers

This chapter examines the theologies of salvation of the Cappadocian Fathers—Basil of Caesarea, his younger brother Gregory of Nyssa, and their friend Gregory of Nazianzus. The theology of the Cappadocians, though with disagreements among the members at points, is relatively unified under the ideas of the believer’s salvation being collective, that it is our nature that is saved.

Metaphysics and Experience

2020 ◽  
pp. 63-97
Author(s):  
Mark R. Wynn
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Spiritual Development ◽  
Spiritual Growth ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Moral Virtues ◽  
Theological Virtues ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter, and the next, further develop the notion of infused moral virtue, by considering how the target goods of these virtues can be realized in domains additional to those that Aquinas discusses. Chapter 3 examines in particular how our world-directed experience can be deemed more or less appropriate relative to a theological narrative, and how it is capable therefore of realizing the kind of good that is the object of the infused moral virtues. In this discussion, these goods are called ‘hybrid goods’ to mark the fact that they share their subject matter with the acquired moral virtues (since they are concerned with our relations to the created order), and their teleology with the theological virtues (because here the measure of success for our relationship to creatures is provided by reference to relationship to God). In this chapter, we also consider how a story of progress in the spiritual life that is rehearsed in an experiential idiom may be related to one that is cast instead in metaphysical terms. To develop the account, we examine in particular the relationship between Aquinas’s understanding of spiritual growth, expressed in terms of the acquired and infused moral virtues, and John of the Cross’s narrative of the various phases of the spiritual life. On this basis, we consider how experiential and metaphysical perspectives on spiritual development are mutually informing, while at the same time they also exhibit, relative to one another, a significant degree of independence.

The Cappadocians and their Christian Philosophy

2020 ◽  
pp. 15-71
Author(s):  
Johannes Zachhuber
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Abstract Theory ◽  
Christian Philosophy ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Introductory Overview ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Cappadocian Fathers

This chapter offers an in-depth analysis of the philosophy underlying the teaching of the so-called Cappadocian fathers. After an introductory overview of their historical and intellectual background in the trinitarian controversy of the fourth century, the chapter initially turns to Basil of Caesarea. He introduced a distinctive terminological and conceptual framework to articulate his proposal for a solution to the trinitarian controversy. Philosophically, it is geared towards grammar and logic; it is therefore called the ‘abstract’ dimension of the Cappadocian theory. All three Cappadocians accept this abstract theory. Subsequently, the chapter turns to Gregory of Nyssa who in his cosmological and trinitarian writings develops a corresponding theory geared towards physics and ontology. It will be referred to as the ‘concrete’ dimension of Cappadocian philosophy. These two are conceived as complementary but their difference introduces a conceptual tension into the Cappadocian theory.

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