Articles

“Smoothing the Irregularities of Nature”: Reading Gregory of Nazianzus’s Oration 14 With Maximus the Confessor

John Gavin, SJ

Abstract

John Gavin, SJ, examines Gregory of Nazianzus’s Oration 14 alongside Maximus the Confessor’s Ambigua 6–8, demonstrating how Maximus’s clarifications bolster Gregory’s call for Christian benevolence (philanthropia). By refuting Origenist misinterpretations that attribute poverty to pre-existent falls, Maximus provides a sound anthropology of shared embodiment and positive motion toward deification. This collaborative patristic vision grounds the mandate to love the poor in our common dignity as divine images and our collective eschatological end.