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Daley Dose

Bryn Mawr Classical Review reviews Father Brian Daley’s Gregory of Nazianzus (in the Routledge Early Church Fathers Series).

This volume on Gregory of Nazianzus by Brian E. Daley, S.J., contains a well-balanced combination of scholarly reflections on Gregory’s life and works along with original translations that give the reader a direct appreciation of Gregory’s writings within the context of the man of faith behind them. Some readers may be familiar with Daley’s previous works such as The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology (Cambridge University Press, 1991; Hendrickson, 2003) and On the Dormition of Mary: Early Patristic Homilies (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997), or his studies on ancient Christology, Trinitarian theology and eschatology. Daley is a life-long patristic scholar whose knowledge of this field results in an insightful and clear study of an important early Christian figure. Readers who want an introduction to Gregory will find this book very useful and those looking for more detail will appreciate the many references provided. The sections complement each other very well and progress smoothly from one to the other. They are also organized in such a way as to be able to be read individually. This book appears in Routledge’s “The Early Church Fathers” series and follows its format, providing both an introduction and translations of the original texts. It is divided into five parts: 1) Introduction, 2) Orations, 3) Poems, 4) Letters, and 5) Gregory’s Will….

Hat tip: Rogue Classicism.

One thought on “Daley Dose

  1. As a fan of both Daley and of the Theologian I really liked this edition to the early Church Fathers series. I liked that he included not only Gregory’s orations and a ffew select letters but also some of his poetry. I am doing a paper for Dr. Craig Blaising here at school about some of his poetry. I think it is interesting how his theological poems were used for teaching. Daley makes a comment that the subjects poemata arcana correspond (at least roughly) to Origen’s Rule of Faith in the Preface to his de Principiis. Since they were used for teaching it makes sense. And I think it is an interesting link of how early Christians educated children and new converts and for studies on the ‘rule of faith.’ I had always assummed (I do not know why) that the use of the ‘rule of faith’ ended once there were creeds (even though in a sense it still being used today). But now I think that thought was too simplisitc.

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