As you leave seminary behind, as you move into your calling as servants of Christ, please, I beg you, take care what you aim for. Think hard about the goal, the target at which you are aiming your life. You want goals for your work and your ministry of course, but think, more importantly, about the […]
Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 2 — Humility, Integrity, and Calling
Gregory closes out his oration considering the things that drove him from ministry and those that drew him back to it. He makes a tour of biblical texts that make this line of work scary–think of Paul’s litany of his suffering and various prophets’ declarations of God’s judgment on faulty shepherds and priests. The things […]
Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 2 — The Physician of Souls
Gregory uses any number of metaphors for the minister and the work of ministry, at least in passing. As well as the soul of the body he mentions the shepherd of the flock, the silver or gold coin, and the painter, or even the animal trainer. Other kinds of metaphors apply to the Christian’s (and […]
Gregory of Nazianzus: Oration 2 — Perspectives and Patterns
While Gregory defends his integrity he presents his theology of ministry. You might say he presents ministry as such a weighty responsibility that anyone in their right mind would have run away from it. If he were talking to a candidate for ordination today, the conversation would probably sound something like that between Frodo and […]
On Gregory of Nazianzus’ Oration 2: ‘In Defense of his Flight to Pontus…with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office’
Those who study Gregory of Nazianzus seem to agree that he was a bit prickly, and that it might be more fun to have the company of his books than to have him in person. His books are very good to have around. I met one scholar who decided to master Patristic Greek (far […]