‘Divine deceit’ or the ‘devil's delusion’? Gregory of Nazianzus on Christ's defeat of the devil
This essay considers Gregory of Nazianzus’ allusion to ‘divine deceit’, a motif related to the so-called ‘Christus Victor’ theory of atonement. This allusion is curious when we recall that for Gregory, the devil, not God, is the master of deception. When we treat On the Lights (Or. 39) as a literary...
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| 格式: | 電子 Article |
| 語言: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | 載入...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| 出版: |
2024
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| In: |
Scottish journal of theology
Year: 2024, 卷: 77, 發布: 3, Pages: 211-223 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Gregorius, Nazianzenus 329-390
/ 和好教義
/ 欺騙
/ Jesus Christus
/ 魔鬼
/ 柏拉圖主義
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| IxTheo Classification: | KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity NBF Christology NBH Angelology; demonology NBK Soteriology VA Philosophy |
| Further subjects: | B
Christus Victor
B Salvation B Devil B Gregory of Nazianzus B Jesus Christ |
| 在線閱讀: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| 總結: | This essay considers Gregory of Nazianzus’ allusion to ‘divine deceit’, a motif related to the so-called ‘Christus Victor’ theory of atonement. This allusion is curious when we recall that for Gregory, the devil, not God, is the master of deception. When we treat On the Lights (Or. 39) as a literary unit - which commentators have yet to do - we see that Gregory makes several doctrinal affirmations before alluding to what is known as ‘divine deceit’. In this doctrinal discussion, Gregory draws upon the Platonic distinction between the orders of being and becoming as described in the Timaeus. He then alludes to ‘divine deceit’ with respect to the order of ‘becoming’, which bears the possibility of being misapprehended because it is ‘grasped by opinion’. The devil's ‘opinion’ of himself and of Christ, therefore, is suspect. Death - or rather, Christ's vanquishment of it - is the moment of reckoning. Since God alone can defeat death, Christ's putting death to death is the only certain way for the devil to recognise that the ‘Son of Man’ is, after all, the ‘Son of God’. The ‘devil's delusion’, then - not ‘divine deceit’ - best summarises Gregory's understanding of this moment in the history of salvation. |
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| ISSN: | 1475-3065 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Scottish journal of theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0036930624000346 |
