Festal Orations Book

Impressive collections of sermons from Gregory. Gregory has such an incredible mind that he is able to quote a large number of Scriptures in his sermons and is able to traverse a wide range of topics in his sermons. While this is largely beneficial, sometimes it is difficult to follow him in his sermons. Compared to his own Theological Orations in "On God and Christ" and Basil's sermons, these sermons are a bit more cumbersome.

This does not negate the brilliance of the sermons. My favorite sermons were "On Pascha and His Slowness" and "On Pentecost." Gregory's sermons are all christocentric and explicitly Trinitarian. One of his strengths is how he eloquently and simply explains the Trinity in terms that a typically congregant or catechumen would destroy.

It is also interesting to see how Gregory relates to his culture. He is not afraid to distinguish himself and the Christian feasts from pagan festivals. He takes pain to demonstrate the one true God over the pantheon of the Greek gods.

Gregory's theology of baptism is all over the place. After hearing his and Basil's testimony of being baptized as adults, I have been eager to call them the "Baptist church fathers" tongue-in-cheek. However, Gregory's theology definitely would not be considered credobaptist (although it would not be paedobaptist either).

I would probably only recommend these sermons to someone who belonged to a sacramental tradition (full disclosure: I'm not). There is a lot of beautiful preaching and helpful material, but they are a bit cumbersome to read. Plus, Basil's sermons were soooooo good, so you should check them out first.