Dimensions of Baptism Biblical and Theological Studies

THE DOCTRINE OF BAPTISM IN

GREGORY OF NYSSA'S ORATIO CATECHETICA

Everett Ferguson

Gregory of Nyssa calls his work known as the Oratio Catechetica (GNO)

a Xoyos KCXTriXTioecos or simply a KCXTTIXTIGIS. l As a 'word of catechesis'

or 'catechesis' is, the work not only expounds Christian teaching but also

is concerned to answer objections to that teaching and so has an apologetic

character.^2 In answering questions about baptism, Gregory sets the doc-

trine of baptism firmly in a theological context, basing it on Christology

and soteriology.^3 He relates baptism to the incarnation of Christ that

occurred for the sake of salvation, to the death and resurrection of Christ

that effects salvation, and to eschatology that consumates salvation.

Gregory introduces his discussion of baptism by referring to the divine

economy or plan (oiKovonia) in regard to the bath (Xouxpov) as part of

1. GN05.1 (PG,xlv,col.9A); 102.6 (PG,xrv, col. 101B). I cite the page and lines
   of Ekkehard Miihlenberg, Gregorii Nysseni Oratio Catechetica, Opera Dogmatica
   Minora, Pars IV'in Gregorii Nysseni Opera, III, Pars IV (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1996) sup-
   plemented with reference to the columns of Migne's Patrologia Graeca, xlv. My trans-
   lations are from Miihlenberg. The major study of the work is now Reinhard Jakob Kees,
   Die Lehre von der Oikonomia Gottes in der Oratio Catechetica Gregors von Nyssa
   (VCSup, 30; Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1995).


2. Kees, Lehre, notes that the work is intended for catechists (p. 6), but as aiming
   for conversion has an apologetic character (p. 7), and so keeps the ones to be instructed
   in view (p. 10). William Moore places the work in the category 'Apologetic' writings
   in NPNF, 2.5, p. 47. For the association of catechesis with apologetics, see my 'Irenaeus'
   Proof of the Apostolic Preaching and Early Catechetical Instruction', StudPat 18
   (1989), pp. 119-40.


3. The thesis of Kees, Lehre, is that Gregory's Oratio Catechetica is the first work
   in which the methodological distinction between theologia and oikonomia is clearly
   worked out in its structure: the nature of God (chs. 1-4), and then God's saving activity
   in creation (chs. 5-8), in Christ (chs. 9-32.10), and in the sacraments (chs. 32.11-40).
   The individual themes are closely linked to one another (pp. 64-66, 91, 318-22).