UNDERSTANDING OUR FATHER IN THE CONTEXT OF HUMAN PERFECTION PREACHED IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT, ACCORDING TO ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA’S HOMILIES ON THE LORD’S PRAYER

Adrian  PODARU

doi:10.24193/subbto.2019.2.05

Authors

Adrian PODARU Priest, lecturer, Faculty of Orthodox Theology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Email: apodaru2000@yahoo.com. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2275-6701

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbto.2019.2.05

Keywords:

Lord’s prayer, St. Gregory of Nyssa, asceticism, perfection, parrhesia, the perfect prayer

Abstract

It is not by chance that the prayer Our Father is recommended by Jesus Christ during the so-called Sermon on the Mount. All that has been said in this Sermon aimed at perfection: Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5, 48). Viewed in this light, the Lord’s prayer is also the prayer which is properly uttered only in a state of perfection, and even if it may be used as a mean to achieve perfection, nevertheless it is perfectly uttered only in a state of perfection; therefore, in a way, the Lord’s prayer is the aim of the Christian life. This is the view of St. Gregory of Nyssa and this is what this article tries to argue by using the texts of this Cappadocian Father.

References

A. Gregory of Nyssa’s works

Bas = In Basilium fratrem, ed. Gunterus Heil, Johannes P. Cavarnos, Otto Lendle: GNO X, 1

Or. dom. = Oratio domenica, ed. Christian Boudignon et Matthieu Cassin: SC 596.

In Cant = In Canticum Canticorum, ed. Hermanus Langerbeck: GNO VI.

Perf = De perfectione, ed. Wernerus Jaeger, Johannes P. Cavarnos, Virginia Woods Callahan, GNO VIII/1.

B. Other Patristic sources

John Chrysostom. De sacerdotio, ed. Anne-Marie Malingrey: SC 272.

Maximus the Confessor. On the Lord’s Prayer, in Philokalia II, ed. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, Kallistos Ware. London-Boston, Paperback Edition, 1990.

C. Secondary Literature

Behr John. “With boldness and without condemnation.” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 51, no. 4 (2007): 359-69.

Brown, David. Discipleship and Imagination: Christian Tradition and Truth. Oxford, 2000.

Daniélou, Jean. Platonisme et Théologie Mystique. Essai sur la doctrine spirituelle de Saint Grégoire de Nysse. Paris, 1944.

Larchet, Jean-Claude. Saint Silouan the Athonite (Romanian edition). Sophia, 2001.

Turcescu, Lucian. “ ‘Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they will be called Sons of God’ (Matt. 5, 9): Does Gregory of Nyssa have a Theology of Adoption?” In Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on the Beatitudes. An English Version with Commentary and Supporting Studies. Proceedings of the Eighth International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa (Paderborn, 14-18 September 1998), edited by Hubertus R. Drobner and Albert Viciano: 397-406. Brill, 2000.

D. Websites

http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/0330-0395,_Gregorius_Nyssenus,_On_Perfection,_EN.doc

http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2013/12/an-encomium-to-st-basil-great-by-st.html

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/19224.htm

http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/wonderful.aspx