Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Volume 5

Gregory of Nyssa.

Historical English Source Edition

The reader presents the historical English source wording below.

Title: NPNF2-05. Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises, Etc. Creator(s): Gregory of Nyssa Schaff, Philip (1819-1893) (Editor) Print Basis: New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1892 Rights: Public Domain CCEL Subjects: All; Proofed; Early Church; LC Call no: BR60 LC Subjects:

Early Christian Literature. Fathers of the Church, etc.

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH WITH PROLEGOMENA AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.

PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK.

GREGORY OF NYSSA: DOGMATIC TREATISES, ETC.

These translations from the works of St. Gregory of Nyssa have involved unusual labour, which the Editor hopes will be accepted as a sufficient apology for the delay of the volume. The difficulty has been extreme of conveying with correctness in English the meaning of expressions and arguments which depend on some of the most subtle ideas of Greek philosophy and theology; and, in addition to the thanks due to the translators, the Editor must offer a special acknowledgment of the invaluable help he has received from the exact and philosophical scholarship of the Rev. J. H. Lupton, Surmaster of St. Paul's School. He must renew to Mr. Lupton, with increased earnestness, the expression of gratitude he had already had occasion to offer in issuing the Translation of St. Athanasius. From the careful and minute revision which the volume has thus undergone, the Editor ventures to entertain some hope that the writings of this important and interesting Father are in this volume introduced to the English reader in a manner which will enable him to obtain a fair conception of their meaning and value.

Kings College, London, 6th November, 1892.

Translated, with prolegomena, notes, and indices,

Fellow and librarian of Magdalen College, Oxford.

That none of the Treatises of S. Gregory of Nyssa have hitherto been translated into English, or even (with one exception long ago) into French, may be partly due to the imperfections, both in number and quality, of the mss., and by consequence of the Editions, of the great majority of them. The state of the mss., again, may be owing to the suspicion diligently fostered by the zealous friends of the reputation of this Father, in ages when mss. could and should have been multiplied and preserved, that there were large importations into his writings from the hands of the Origenists--a statement which a very short study of Gregory, whose thought is always taking the direction of Origen, would disprove.