The preacher as teacher. Gregory of Nyssa as an educator of faith and behaviour through his homilies

Abstract

The corpus of homilies by Gregory of Nyssa that has survived presents him as preaching in a number of different contexts: on the occasion of important feasts such as Christmas and Easter, on the feast days of saints, in funerals, during Lent, in synods and on unspecified occasions. The content of said homilies includes commenting Scripture, explaining dogmatic issues, correcting people for misbehaving and instructing them on eternal life. In this chapter I propose to present and discuss the main themes related to the Christian faith as presented in these different contexts. Attention will be given to the examples and narratives he uses in order to pass on his teaching – which at times deals with complex issues – to his audience presumably made up of people coming from all strata of society. The study will focus on the language Gregory uses to educate his congregation on the basic tenets of the Christian faith, namely belief in the triune God, the incarnation of the Son and life after death.