In this article, I am looking at the citations used most often by Roman Catholic apologists to assert that Gregory Nazianzen denied sola Scriptura and held to a more papist view of Scripture, tradition, and church authority.
Letter 101 (first Letter to Cledonius)
"But since our faith has been proclaimed, both in writing and without writing, here and in distant parts, in times of danger and of safety, how comes it that some make such attempts, and that others keep silence?" (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3103a.htm)
This is similar language to that of 2 Thess. 2:15 (a common proof-text used by RC apologists). It does not refute sola Scriptura as I have demonstrated in other articles on this website. We don't deny that preaching is one of the means by which God communicates the faith to people.
Oration 2
"[T]he wiser of the Hebrews tell us that there was of old among the Hebrews a most excellent and praiseworthy law, that every age was not entrusted with the whole of Scripture, inasmuch as this would not be the more profitable course, since the whole of it is not at once intelligible to everyone, and its more recondite parts would, by their apparent meaning, do a very great injury to most people." (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310202.htm)
This is cited to suggest that Gregory didn't hold to the perspicuity or plainness of Scripture. However, notice he is describing a rule among the Hebrews (Jews), not among Christians. A person might respond by saying that Gregory calls this rule "a most excellent and praiseworthy law". Yet notice what he says in the next section:
"Among us, however, there is no boundary line between giving and receiving instruction, like the stones of old between the tribes within and beyond the Jordan: nor is a certain part entrusted to some, another to others; nor any rule for degrees of experience; but the matter has been so disturbed and thrown into confusion, that most of us, not to say all, almost before we have lost our childish curls and lisp, before we have entered the house of God, before we know even the names of the Sacred Books, before we have learned the character and authors of the Old and New Testaments: (for my present point is not our want of cleansing from the mire and marks of spiritual shame which our viciousness has contracted) if, I say, we have furnished ourselves with two or three expressions of pious authors, and that by hearsay, not by study; if we have had a brief experience of David, or clad ourselves properly in a cloaklet, or are wearing at least a philosopher's girdle, or have girt about us some form and appearance of piety— phew! How we take the chair and show our spirit! Samuel was holy even in his swaddling clothes: 1 Samuel 2:11 we are at once wise teachers, of high estimation in Divine things, the first of scribes and lawyers; we ordain ourselves men of heaven and seek to be called Rabbi by men; Matthew 23:7 the letter is nowhere, everything is to be understood spiritually, and our dreams are utter drivel, and we should be annoyed if we were not lauded to excess. This is the case with the better and more simple of us: what of those who are more spiritual and noble? After frequently condemning us, as men of no account, they have forsaken us, and abhor fellowship with impious people such as we are."
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