Gregory lacked the administrative ability of his brother Basil or the contemporary influence of Gregory of Nazianzus, but he was an erudite Christian theologian who made significant contributions to thedoctrine of the Trinity and theNicene Creed. Gregory's philosophical writings were influenced byOrigen. Since the mid-twentieth century, there has been a significant increase in interest in Gregory's works from the academic community, particularly involvinguniversal salvation, which has resulted in challenges to many traditional interpretations of his theology. Gregory is also notable for being the first person in recorded history to have written against all forms ofslavery, declaring the institution inherently sinful.
TheActs of the Apostles depicts that on thePentecost there were visitingJews who were "residents of ...Cappadocia" in attendance inActs 2:9. In theFirst Epistle of Peter, written after 65, the author greets Christians who are "exiles scattered throughout…Cappadocia". There is no further reference to Cappadocia in the rest of theNew Testament.
Early Christianity arose in Cappadocia relatively late, with no evidence of a Christian community before the late second century.[4]Alexander of Jerusalem was the first bishop of the province in the early to mid-third century, a period in which Christians suffered persecution from the local Roman authorities.[4][5] The community remained very small throughout the third century: whenGregory Thaumaturgus acceded to the bishopric in c. 250, according to Gregory of Nyssa, there were only seventeen members of the Church in Caesarea.[6]
Cappadocian bishops were among those at theFirst Council of Nicaea. Because of the broad distribution of the population, rural bishops (Koine Greek:χωρεπίσκοποι) were appointed to support theBishop of Caesarea. During the late fourth century, there were around fifty of them. In Gregory's lifetime, the Christians of Cappadocia were devout, with the veneration of theForty Martyrs of Sebaste andSaint George being particularly significant and represented by a considerable monastic presence. There were some adherents of heretical branches of Christianity, most notably Arians,Encratites andMessalians.[7]
Gregory was aCappadocian Greek,[8] born around 335, probably in or near the city ofNeocaesarea,Pontus.[9] His family was aristocratic and Christian—according toGregory of Nazianzus, his mother wasEmmelia of Caesarea, and his father, a rhetorician, has been identified either asBasil the Elder or as a Gregory.[9][10] Among his eight siblings wereSt. Macrina the Younger,St. Naucratius,St. Peter of Sebaste andSt. Basil of Caesarea. The precise number of children in the family was historically contentious: the commentary on 30 May in theActa Sanctorum, for example, initially states that they were nine, before describing Peter as the tenth child. It has been established that this confusion occurred due to the death of one son in infancy, leading to ambiguities in Gregory's own writings.[11] Gregory's parents had suffered persecution for their faith: he writes that they "had their goods confiscated for confessing Christ."[12] Gregory's paternal grandmother,Macrina the Elder, is also revered as a saint[13] and his maternal grandfather was a martyr, as Gregory put it "killed by Imperial wrath"[12] under the persecution of the RomanEmperor Maximinus II.[14] Between the 320s to the early 340s, the family rebuilt its fortunes, with Gregory's father working in the city of Neocaesarea as an advocate and rhetorician.[15]
Gregory's temperament is said to have been quiet and meek, in contrast to his brother Basil who was known to be much more outspoken.[16] Gregory was first educated at home, by his mother Emmelia and sister Macrina. Little is known of what further education he received. Apocryphal hagiographies depict him studying atAthens, but this is speculation probably based on the life of his brother Basil.[17] It seems more likely that he continued his studies inCaesarea, where he readclassical literature,philosophy and perhapsmedicine.[18] Gregory himself claimed that his only teachers were Basil, "Paul, John and the rest of the Apostles and prophets".[19]
In 371, theEmperorValens split Cappadocia into two new provinces, Cappadocia Prima and Cappadocia Secunda.[22] This resulted in complex changes in ecclesiastical boundaries, during which several new bishoprics were created. Gregory was elected bishop of the newsee ofNyssa in 372, presumably with the support of his brother Basil, who wasmetropolitan ofCaesarea.[23] Gregory's early policies as bishop often went against those of Basil; for instance, while his brother condemned theSabellianist followers ofMarcellus of Ancyra asheretics, Gregory may have tried to reconcile them with the church.[23]
Gregory faced opposition to his reign in Nyssa and, in 373,Amphilochius, bishop ofIconium, had to visit the city to quell discontent. In 375, Desmothenes of Pontus convened asynod atAncyra to try Gregory on charges ofembezzlement of church funds and irregular ordination of bishops. He was arrested by imperial troops in the winter of the same year but escaped to an unknown location. The synod of Nyssa, which was convened in the spring of 376, deposed him.[24] However, Gregory regained his see in 378, perhaps due to an amnesty promulgated by the new emperor,Gratian. In the same year Basil died, and despite the relative unimportance of Nyssa, Gregory took over many of his brother's former responsibilities in Pontus.[25]
He was present at theSynod ofAntioch in April 379, where he unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile the followers ofMeletius of Antioch with those ofPaulinus.[26] After visiting the village of Annisa to see his dying sister, Macrina, he returned to Nyssa in August. In 380 he travelled toSebaste, in the province ofArmenia Prima, to support a pro-Nicene candidate for the election to the bishopric. To his surprise, he himself was elected to the seat, perhaps due to the population's association of him with his brother.[27] However, Gregory deeply disliked the relatively unhellenized society of Armenia, and he was confronted by an investigation into his orthodoxy by local opponents of the Nicene theology.[27] After a stay of several months, a substitute was found—possibly Gregory's brother Peter, who was bishop of Sebaste from 381—and Gregory returned home to Nyssa to write books I and II ofAgainstEunomius.[27]
Gregory participated in theFirst Council of Constantinople (381), and perhaps gave there his famous sermonIn suam ordinationem. He was chosen toeulogise at the funeral of Meletius, which occurred during the council. The council sent Gregory on a mission to Arabia, perhaps to ameliorate the situation inBostra where two men, Agapius and Badagius, claimed to be bishop. If this is the case, Gregory was unsuccessful, as the see was still contested in 394.[27][28] He then travelled toJerusalem whereCyril of Jerusalem faced opposition from local clergy due to the fact that he had been ordained byAcacius of Caesarea, anArian heretic. Gregory's attempted mediation of the dispute was unsuccessful, and he himself was accused of holding unorthodoxviews on the nature of Christ.[28] His later reign in Nyssa was marked by conflict with his metropolitan, Helladius. Gregory was present at a 394 synod convened at Constantinople to discuss the continued problems in Bostra. While the year of his death is unknown,[29] it is generally accepted that he died in 394.[30]
The traditional view of Gregory is that he was an orthodoxTrinitarian theologian,[31] who was influenced by theNeoplatonism ofPlotinus and believed inuniversal salvation followingOrigen.[32] However, as a highly original and sophisticated thinker, Gregory is difficult to classify, and many aspects of his theology are contentious among both conservativeEastern Orthodox theologians and Western academic scholarship.[31][33] This is often due to the lack of systematic structure and the presence of terminological inconsistencies in Gregory's work.[34]
Gregory, following Basil, defined the Trinity as "one essence [οὐσία] in three persons [ὑποστάσεις]", the formula adopted by the Council of Constantinople in 381.[35] Like the other Cappadocian Fathers, he was ahomoousian, andAgainst Eunomius affirms the truth of theconsubstantiality of the trinity over Eunomius' Aristotelian belief that the Father's substance is unengendered, whereas the Son's is engendered.[36] According to Gregory, the differences between the three persons of the Trinity reside in their differing hypostatic origin, and the triune nature of God is revealed through divine action (despite the unity of God in His action).[37][38] The Son is therefore defined as begotten of the Father, the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father, and the Father by his role as progenitor. However, this doctrine would seem tosubordinate the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to the Son.Robert Jenson suggests that Gregory implies that each member of theGodhead has an individual priority: the Son hasepistemological priority, the Father hasontic priority and the Spirit hasmetaphysical priority.[39] Other commentators disagree:Morwenna Ludlow, for instance, argues that epistemic priority resides primarily in the Spirit in Gregory's theology.[40]
Modern proponents ofsocial trinitarianism often claim to have been influenced by the Cappadocians' dynamic picture of the Trinity.[41] However, it would be fundamentally incorrect to identify Gregory as a social Trinitarian, as his theology emphasises the unity of God's will, and he clearly believes that theidentities of the Trinity are the three persons, not the relations between them.[34][40]
Gregory was one of the first theologians to argue that God isinfinite. His main argument for the infinity of God, found inAgainst Eunomius, is that God's goodness is limitless, and as God's goodness isessential, God is also limitless.[42]
An important consequence of Gregory's belief in the infinity of God is his belief that God, as limitless, is essentially incomprehensible to the limited minds of created beings. InLife of Moses, Gregory writes: "...every concept that comes from some comprehensible image, by an approximate understanding and by guessing at the Divine nature, constitutes an idol of God and does not proclaim God."[43] Gregory's theology was thusapophatic: he proposed that God should be defined in terms of what we know He is not rather than what we might speculate Him to be.[44]
Accordingly, the Nyssen taught that due to God's infinitude, a created being can never reach an understanding of God, and thus for man in both life and the afterlife there is aconstant progression [ἐπέκτασις] towards the unreachable knowledge of God, as the individual continually transcends all which has been reached before.[45] In theLife of Moses, Gregory speaks of three stages of this spiritual growth: initial darkness ofignorance, then spiritualillumination, and finally a darkness of the mind in mysticcontemplation of the God who cannot be comprehended.[46]
Gregory was one of the earlier proponents ofChristian universalism. Gregory argues that when Paul says that God will be "all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28), this means that though some may need to undergo a long period of purification, eventually "no being will remain outside the number of the saved"[47] and that "no being created by God will fall outside the Kingdom of God".[48] Due to the unity of human nature in Christ "all, thanks to the union with one another, will be joined in communion with the Good, in Jesus Christ Our Lord".[49] Christ's incarnation, death and resurrection results in "total salvation for human nature".[50]
Gregory also described God's work this way: "His [God's] end is one, and one only; it is this: when the complete whole of our race shall have been perfected from the first man to the last—some having at once in this life been cleansed from evil, others having afterwards in the necessary periods been healed by the Fire, others having in their life here been unconscious equally of good and of evil—to offer to every one of us participation in the blessings which are in Him, which, the Scripture tells us, 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,' nor thought ever reached."[51] That this is what Gregory believed and taught is affirmed by most scholars.[52][53][54][55][56] A minority of scholars have argued that Gregory affirmed only the universal resurrection.[57]
In theLife of Moses, Gregory writes that just as the darkness left the Egyptians after three days, perhaps redemption [ἀποκατάστασις] will be extended to those suffering inhell [γέεννα].[58] This salvation may extend not only to humans; followingOrigen, there are passages where he seems to suggest (albeit through the voice of Macrina) that even thedemons will have a place in Christ's "world of goodness".[59] Gregory's interpretations of 1 Corinthians 15:28 ("And when all things shall be subdued unto him ...")[60] and Philippians 2:10 ("That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth")[61] support this understanding of his theology.[59]
Nevertheless, in theGreat Catechism, Gregory suggests that while every human will beresurrected, salvation will be accorded only to thebaptised, although he also states that others driven by their passions can be saved after being purified by fire.[62] While he believes that there will be no more evil in the hereafter, it is arguable that this does not preclude a belief that God might justly damn sinners for eternity.[63] Thus, the main difference between Gregory's conception of ἀποκατάστασις and that of Origen would be that Gregory believes that mankind will be collectively returned to sinlessness, whereas Origen believes that personal salvation will be universal.[63] This interpretation of Gregory has recently been criticized, however.[64][65] After all, at the end of chapter XXXV of theGreat Catechism Gregory writes that those who have not been purified by water through baptism "must needs be purified by fire" so that "after long succeeding ages, their nature may be restored pure again to God".[66]
Attempting to reconcile these disparate positions,Eastern Orthodox theologian Dr. Mario Baghos notes that "when taken at face value the saint seems to be contradicting himself in these passages; on the one hand he asserted the salvation of all and the complete eradication of evil, and, on the other, that the fire needed to purge evil is 'sleepless', i.e. everlasting. The only solution to this inconsistency is to view any allusion to universal salvation in St Gregory as an expression of God's intention for humanity, which is in fact attested to when his holy sister states that God has "one goal ... some straightway even in this life purified from evil, others healed hereafter through fire for the appropriate length of time." That we can choose either to accept or ignore this purification is confirmed by the saint's many exhortations that we freely undertake the virtuous path."[67] Dr.Ilaria Ramelli has made the observation that for Gregory free will was compatible with universal salvation since every person would eventually accept the good having gone through purification.[64] Nevertheless, some interpret Gregory as conceding that Judas and similar sinners will never be completely purified when he wrote, "that which never existed is to be preferred to that which has existed in such sin. For, as to the latter, on account of the depth of the ingrained evil, the chastisement in the way of purgation will be extended into infinity".[68][69] However, Ramelli renders the original Greek "εἰς ἄπειρον παρατείνεται ἡ διὰ τῆς καθάρσεως κόλασις" as "the punishment provided for the purpose of purification will tend to an indefinite duration."[70]
Gregory'santhropology is founded on the ontological distinction between thecreated and uncreated. Man is a material creation, and thus limited, but infinite in that hisimmortal soul has an indefinite capacity to grow closer to the divine.[71] Gregory believed that the soul is created simultaneous to the creation of the body (in opposition to Origen, who believed inpreexistence), and thatembryos were thus persons. To Gregory, the human being is exceptional, being created in theimage of God.[72] Humanity istheomorphic both in having self-awareness andfree will, the latter which gives each individual existential power, because to Gregory, in disregarding God one negates one's own existence.[73] In theSong of Songs, Gregory metaphorically describes human lives as paintings created by apprentices to a master: the apprentices (the human wills) imitate their master's work (the life of Christ) with beautiful colours (virtues), and thus man strives to be a reflection of Christ.[74] Gregory, in stark contrast to most thinkers of his age, saw great beauty inthe Fall: from Adam's sin from two perfect humans would eventually arise myriad.[74]
Gregory was the first voice in the ancient world known to write against all forms of slavery, declaring the institution inherently sinful.[75][76][77]
If [man] is in the likeness of God, ... who is his buyer, tell me? Who is his seller? To God alone belongs this power; or rather, not even to God himself. [...] God would not therefore reduce the human race to slavery, since [God] himself, when we had been enslaved to sin, spontaneously recalled us to freedom. But if God does not enslave what is free, who is he that sets his own power above God's?
— St. Gregory of Nyssa, Homilies on Ecclesiastes, The evils of slave-owning; Hall and Moriarty, trs., de Gruyter (New York, 1993) p. 74.
Gregory used Plato's definition of virtue as ‘something that admits of no master [ἀδέσποτον]’ in the service of his own theological arguments against slavery: (1) each human is an image of God and therefore free, (2) the equality of all humans reflects the equality of the divine Persons and (3) just as the divine nature cannot be divided into slavery (δουλεία) and mastery (δυναστεία, κυριότης), neither can human nature; the whole creation is a slave but of God alone.[78]
Although the stoicSeneca had criticized cruel slave masters andadvised slave masters to treat slaves with kindness (or at least those of good character), thestoics never questioned the institution of slavery, which was considered an ordinary part of daily life in the ancient world; and other ancient philosophers such asPlato andAristotle also supported slavery.[79] Gregory of Nyssa's critique was the first and only sustained critique of the institution of slavery itself made in the ancient world.[75]
There are many similarities between Gregory'stheology andNeoplatonism, especially that ofPlotinus.[80] Specifically, they share the idea that the reality of God is completely inaccessible to human beings and that man can come to see God only through a spiritual journey in which knowledge (gnosis) is rejected in favour of meditation.[81] Gregory does not refer to any Neoplatonist philosophers in his work, and there is only one disputed passage which may directly quote Plotinus.[82] Considering this, it seems possible that Gregory was familiar with Plotinus and perhaps other figures in Neoplatonism. However, some significant differences exist between Neoplatonism and Gregory's thought, such as Gregory's assertion that beauty and goodness are equivalent, which contrasts with Plotinus' view that they are distinct qualities.[83] However Plotinus does say, "And Beauty, this Beauty which is also the Good", implying theMonad which is the Good is also Beauty in Enneads 6:1, Beauty:6.
Eastern Orthodox theologians are generally critical of the theory that Gregory was influenced by Neoplatonism. For example,Hierotheos Vlachos argues inLife After Death that Gregory opposed all philosophical (as opposed to theological) endeavour as tainted with worldliness.[84] This view is supported byAgainst Eunomius, where Gregory denounces Eunomius for placing the results of his systematicAristoteleanism above the traditional teachings of the Church.[36]
Gregory is revered as a saint. However, unlike the other Cappadocian fathers, he is not aDoctor of the Church. He is venerated chiefly in the East. Hisrelics were held by theVatican until 2000 when a portion of them were transferred to theGreek Orthodox church of St. Gregory of Nyssa,San Diego,California.[87]
Professor of theology, Natalie Carnes wrote: "One reason Gregory was not taken up into the theological stream in the West is that he was little translated into Latin.John Scotus Eriugena (c. 800–c. 877) should be greatly credited for the influence Gregory did have. Not only was Eriugena himself influenced by Gregory, but he also translatedOn the Making of the Human into Latin."[88]
Gregory's work received little scholarly attention in the West until the mid-twentieth century, and he was historically treated as a minor figure in comparison to Basil the Great or Gregory of Nazianzus.[89] As late as 1942,Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote that his work was virtually unknown.[90] However, the 6th-century Latin translation ofDe opificio hominis byDionysius Exiguus was very widespread in the Medieval period, and Francisco Bastitta Harriet argues that Nyssen's conceptions of indeterminate human nature and ontological freedom were among the core influences on Renaissance anthropology, particularly on the works ofNicholas of Cusa andGiovanni Pico della Mirandola.[91] "The renewed enthusiasm of 15th-century philosophers and humanists for classical antiquity also led to a revival of the study and translation of Greek patristic works. Against this background, some of Gregory of Nyssa’s works which remained unknown to the West during the medieval centuries received their first Latin translations by leading representatives of Italian and Byzantine culture."[92] These include the early Renaissance translations ofDe vita Moysis byGeorge of Trebizond in 1446, ofDe vita Macrinae andDe anima et resurrectione byPietro Balbi between 1465 and 1473, and ofDe oratione dominica by the Byzantine scholar Athanasius Chalkeopoulos around 1465.[93]
In part due to the scholarship of Balthasar andJean Daniélou, by the 1950s Gregory had become the subject of much serious theological research, with a critical edition of his work published (Gregorii Nysseni Opera), and the founding of the International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa.[89] This attention has continued to the present day. Modern studies have focused on Gregory'seschatology rather than his more dogmatic writings, and he has gained a reputation as an unconventional thinker whose thought arguably prefigurespostmodernism.[94] Major figures in contemporary research includeSarah Coakley,John Zizioulas and Robert Jenson.[95][96] In 2003, theologianDavid Bentley Hart published a book seemingly influenced by Gregory.[97]
Let us then, consider who were the venerable doctors and indomitable champions of the Church [including] Gregory Primate of Nyssa, who all have called the father of fathers.[98]
Among the Christian Fathers the movement towards a partly naturalistic interpretation of the order of Creation was made by Gregory of Nyssa in the fourth century, and was completed byAugustine in the fourth and fifth centuries. ...[Gregory] taught that Creation was potential. God imparted to matter its fundamental properties and laws. The objects and completed forms of the Universe developed gradually out of chaotic material.[99]
Anthony Meredith writes of Gregory's mystical and apophatic writings in his bookGregory of Nyssa (The Early Church Fathers) (1999):
Gregory has often been credited with the discovery of mystical theology, or rather with the perception that darkness is an appropriate symbol under which God can be discussed. There is much truth in this....Gregory seems to have been the first Christian writer to have made this important point.[100]
J. Kameron Carter writes about Gregory's stance on slavery, in the bookRace a Theological Account(2008):
What interests me is the defining features of Gregory's vision of the just society: his unequivocal stance against 'the peculiar institution of slavery' and his call for the manumission of all slaves. I am interested in reading Gregory as a fourth century abolitionist intellectual....His outlook surpassed not only St. Paul's more moderate (but to be fair to Paul, in his moment, revolutionary) stance on the subject but also those of all ancient intellectuals -- Pagan, Jewish and Christian - from Aristotle to Cicero and from Augustine in the Christian West to his contemporary, the golden mouthed preacher himself, John Crysotom in the East. Indeed, the world would have to wait another fifteen centuries -- until the nineteenth century, late into the modern abolitionist movement -- before such an unequivocal stance against slavery would appear again.[101]
Catholic theologian and authorHans Urs von Balthasar, describes Gregory in his bookPresence and Thought: An Essay on the Religious Philosophy of Gregory of Nyssa (1988):[102]
Less prolific than Origen, less cultivated than Gregory Nazianzen, less practical than Basil, Gregory of Nyssa nonetheless outstrips them all in the profundity of his thought.
The following are editions of English translations of Gregory's writings:
Gregory of Nyssa,Homilies on Ecclesiastes: An English Version with Supporting Studies. Proceedings of the Seventh International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa (St Andrews, 5–10 September 1990).Link.
^Prokhorov, Aleksandr Mikhaĭlovich (1982).Great Soviet encyclopedia, Volume 7. Macmillan. p. 412.OCLC417318059.One of the most prominent Greek patristic figures. Gregory of Nyssa was the brother of Basil the Great and a friend of Gregory of Nazianzus, and with them, he formed the so-called Cappadocian circle of church figures and thinkers.
^McGuckin, John Anthony (2017). "Theodore Balsamon". In Witte, John Jr.; Hauk, Gary S. (eds.).Christianity and Family Law: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press. pp. 100–115.doi:10.1017/9781108233255.009.ISBN978-1-108-41534-7.Gregory of Nyssa regarded the liberative force of law as a mark of the proper application of the evangelical spirit. He is the only church father, for instance, who completely denounces the institution of slavery as an indefensible evil.
^"Only a very small number of initiates have read and are aware of Gregory of Nyssa, and they have jealously guarded their secret" - Hans Urs von Balthasar,Presence and Thought: An Essay on the Religious Philosophy of Gregory of Nyssa (1942), as quoted in Maspero & Mateo Seco, p.170
^Natalie, Carnes (2014).Beauty: A Theological Engagement with Gregory of Nyssa. Eugene, Oregon.ISBN9781630876678.OCLC903899756.The same year Coakley's book was published, one of the contributors to that volume released his own book drawing considerably on Gregory: David Bentley Hart published The Beauty of the Infinite. Hart writes systematic theology in the tradition of Gregory, yet in conversation with contemporary thinkers. He writes Nyssen theology in the same way theologians for years have written Augustinian theology.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^The Seventh General Council, the Second of Nicaea, Held A.D. 787, in which the Worship of Images was Established: With Copious Notes from the "Caroline Books", Compiled by Order of Charlemagne for Its Confutation, Council of Nicea, Translated by Mendham, John, Published by John. W.E. Painter, 1850, page 382
^Meredith, Anthony (1999).Gregory of Nyssa (The Early Church Fathers). Psychology Press. p. 100.ISBN9780415118408.
^Carter, J. Kameron,Race a Theological Account, Oxford University Press, 2008, Page 231
^von Balthasar, Hans Urs (1995).Presence and thought : essay on the religious philosophy of Gregory of Nyssa. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.ISBN0898705215.OCLC32457802.
Ene D-Vasilescu, Elena (2021). "Chapter 6: "Gregory of Nyssa's fourth century water organ (a reconstruction) and the elements of Creation in his texts: water, air, fire, and earth"". In Ene D-Vasilescu, Elena (ed.).Glimpses into Byzantium. Byzantine and Modern. Oxford: Indep. pp. 127–140.ISBN978-1-80049-880-8.
Ene D-Vasilescu, Elena (2021). "Chapter 7: "Theepektasis [ἐπέκτασις] and the exploits of the soul (ἡ ψυχή) in Gregory of Nyssa'sDe anima et resurrectione/On the Soul and the Resurrection"". In Ene D-Vasilescu, Elena (ed.).Glimpses into Byzantium. Byzantine and Modern. Oxford: Indep. pp. 140–158.ISBN978-1-80049-880-8.
Ene D-Vasilescu, Elena (2017). "Chapter 55: Gregory of Nyssa". In Esler, Philip F. (ed.).The Early Christian World. Routledge - Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 1072–1987.
Hart, David Bentley (February 2001). "The 'Whole Humanity': Gregory of Nyssa's Critique of Slavery in Light of His Eschatology".Scottish Journal of Theology.54 (1):51–69.doi:10.1017/S0036930600051188.
Meredith, Anthony (1995).The Cappadocians. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press.ISBN0-88141-112-4.
Mateo-Seco, Lucas Francisco; Maspero, Giulio, eds. (2010).The Brill Dictionary of Gregory of Nyssa. Leiden: Brill.
Stephen T. Davis; Daniel Kendall; Gerald O'Collins, eds. (2002).The Trinity: an interdisciplinary symposium on the Trinity. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-924612-0.
Pfister, J. Emile (June 1964). "A Biographical Note: The Brothers and Sisters of St. Gregory of Nyssa".Vigiliae Christianae.18 (2):108–113.doi:10.2307/1582774.JSTOR1582774.
Raymond Van Dam (2002).Kingdom of snow: Roman rule and Greek culture in Cappadocia. University of Pennsylvania Press.ISBN978-0-8122-3681-1.
Raymond Van Dam (2003).Becoming Christian: the conversion of Roman Cappadocia. University of Pennsylvania Press.ISBN978-0-8122-3738-2.