383 and After

This chapter shows how developments outlined in previous chapters informed Gregory’s later works, focusing especially on On the Deity of the Son and the Holy Spirit and the Catechetical Oration. In particular, it demonstrates connections between To Ablabius and On the Deity, as well as links between Epistle 3 and the anti-Apollinarian works on the one hand and the Catechetical Oration on the other. It shows how the economic theology developed there reflects Gregory’s sense of liturgical time and examines the Catechetical Oration’s two Trinitarian sections. One of these treats the doctrine under the topic of the baptismal mystery, while the other detaches it from this context, offering an analogy for the Trinitarian unity meant to persuade Greek and Jewish interlocutors, but in fact treating them as stand-ins for Christian heresies. Thus the chapter claims that Gregory’s notion of Trinitarian orthodoxy is strongest when framed as an account of baptism.