The Great Catechism (Oratio Catechetica Magna)
Saint Gregory of Nyssa · c. 385 AD
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Roberts–Donaldson), Roberts, Donaldson, and Coxe (eds.), Ante-Nicene Fathers, Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing, 1885–1887; digitized by CCEL.
Younger brother of St Basil the Great and St Macrina; Bishop of Nyssa. The most speculative and mystical of the Cappadocians. His Against Eunomius continues and completes his elder brother's defence of the Nicene faith; his Great Catechism is the foundational dogmatic catechesis of the Eastern Church; his Life of Moses and Commentary on the Song of Songs are pivotal texts of patristic mystical theology and the Eastern doctrine of epektasis (perpetual progress into God).
Contents
- Summary.
- Prologue.
- Chapter I
- Chapter II
- Chapter III
- Chapter IV
- Chapter V
- Chapter VI
- Chapter VII
- Chapter VIII
- Chapter IX
- Chapter X
- Chapter XI
- Chapter XII
- Chapter XIII
- Chapter XIV
- Chapter XV
- XVI
- XVII
- XVIII
- Chapter XIX
- Chapter XX
- Chapter XXI
- Chapter XXII
- Chapter XXIII
- Chapter XXIV
- Chapter XXV
- Chapter XXVI
- Chapter XXVII
- Chapter XXVIII
- Chapter XXIX
- Chapter XXX
- Chapter XXXI
- Chapter XXXII
- Chapter XXXIII
- Chapter XXXIV
- Chapter XXXV
- Chapter XXXVI
- Chapter XXXVII
- Chapter XXXVIII
- Chapter XXXIX
- Chapter XL