Gregory of Nazianzus
Cappadocian bishop whose orations supply this corpus’s strongest patristic anti-monad / anti-dyad rationale, and the formula “each God because consubstantial, one God because of the monarchy.” Lossky reads him as not trying to prove the Trinity to unaided reason.
Gregory of Nazianzus, "the Theologian" in Eastern usage, is the Cappadocian whose orations are this corpus's strongest patristic source for why not a monad, why not a dyad, and how consubstantiality plus monarchy can both be said. Oration 40.41: "each God because consubstantial; one God because of the monarchy." Oration 23.8 is the anti-diffusion rationale OTC-002 steels.
Lossky's reading, which this Library takes as a serious internal EO voice rather than a concession extracted from outside, is that Gregory is not vindicating the trinity of persons before unaided reason. Bray's specialist control treats the anti-Eunomian argument as historically serious and not knock-down. Exact-three necessity remains OPEN. Gregory is a source, not a proof.
The mistaken everyday reading is that "the Church already proved three in the fourth century." What Nicaea and Constantinople settled is the Son's relation to the Father, and a vocabulary. The counting argument is later, and in this corpus still incomplete.
Where this comes up
Sources
- Gregory of Nazianzus, Orations 23.8, 25.15, 40.41; Debby packets OTC-002 and OTC-007