THEOLOGIA AND OIKONOMIA: THE SOTERIOLOGICAL GROUND OF GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS’S TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY.

Abstract

This dissertation explores the soteriological ground of the trinitarian theology of
Gregory of Nazianzus and establishes a consistent link in his thought between the
spheres of oikonomia and theologia. His writings are studied against the background of
contemporary theological and philosophical trends thus demonstrating the context
within which he elaborated his main theological concepts as well as their novelty.
Although Gregory drew heavily on the heritage of his intellectual master Origen, he
significantly changed his perspective from cosmological speculations to reflections on
the historical embodiment of Christ’s salvific activity. This shift was to lead Gregory
towards a positive view of the body and of bodily desire which he considered a vital
force in human existence capable of union with God in the process of deification.
Gregory thus fully identified Christ with humanity in its total manifestation, including
the human mind with its fallen and rebellious desire, now assumed and redeemed in the
incarnation. Hence Gregory placed the suffering image of Christ at the heart of his
trinitarian theological construction. As this thesis argues, around this image evolves the
whole dogmatic edifice of Gregory’s theology. Christ’s divine sovereignty is
understood not in separation and independence from the passion on Cross. Rather, its
full manifestation is only possible because of the cross, because of Christ’s free and
willing acceptance of it. The whole set of interrelationships between the suffering
Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit are depicted according to the logic of
coincidence of sovereignty and humiliation. It is precisely in this combination of
theological themes – expressed with our new concept of “kenotic sovereignty” – that
the focus of the present thesis is located. This innovative spiritual disposition shapes
both Gregory’s theological epistemology and his hermeneutical strategy. Arguing for
the possibility of knowing the divine in and through human bodily existence and
corroborating this view with suitably interpreted Scriptural evidence, he opens the
horizons for the human ascension to the realm of the divine trinitarian life. In this way
Gregory envisages access to the transcendent theology of the Trinity which is
understood by him in purely personal terms, insofar as it implies the intimate
conversation of God with us “as friends” (Or. 38.7). This unique reworking of classical
and Christian themes is possible because of Gregory’s insistence that divine
sovereignty and transcendence become intelligible exclusively in the context of Easter.
Thus the habitually neglected narrative of the cross and resurrection of Christ in the
thought of the Theologian is the only key to unlock his understanding of the luminous
mystery of the Trinity.