Gregory of Nyssa

Cappadocian Father · Bishop of Nyssa · c. 335–395

Gregory of Nyssa was the younger brother of Basil the Great and, with Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the three Cappadocian Fathers who stood with Athanasius for the Nicene faith. He became bishop of Nyssa.1

Gregory was the most philosophical of the three. To explain how God can be one substance and three persons, he used the example of Peter, James, and John, who share one humanity and yet remain distinct persons. With Gregory of Nazianzus he answered the charge of tritheism.2 Against the Arians, he refused to let custom settle doctrine:

Let the inspired Scripture, then, be our umpire, and the vote of truth will surely be given to those whose dogmas are found to agree with the Divine words.3 Gregory of Nyssaagainst the Arians

Gregory was also, with Origen, one of the chief early developers of the ransom theory of the atonement, in which Christ’s death was the price paid to Satan for captive souls. He taught that the deity of Christ was hidden from the devil like a hook beneath the bait of flesh.4

His Legacy

Busenitz cites Gregory as a witness that “Scripture alone must be the determiner” of doctrine, and that “no council or church tradition would suffice”: the principle the Reformers called sola Scriptura. His ransom theory, however, prevailed until Anselm and Abelard set it aside, and the Reformers taught instead that Christ’s death satisfied the justice of God.5

Church Fathers

Notes

  1. Nathan Busenitz, Forerunners of the Faith Teacher’s Guide: 13 Lessons to Understand and Appreciate the Basics of Church History (Chicago: Moody, 2020), 59. Summarized. ↩
  2. Michael J. Vlach, “Historical Theology I: A.D. 100–1600” (course notes, TH 507, The Master’s Seminary, Fall 2007), “The Trinity.” Summarized. ↩
  3. Busenitz, Forerunners of the Faith Teacher’s Guide, 55, quoting Gregory of Nyssa. ↩
  4. Vlach, “Historical Theology I,” “Christ’s Atonement,” quoting Gregory of Nyssa, Great Catechism. Summarized. ↩
  5. Busenitz, Forerunners of the Faith Teacher’s Guide, 55. ↩