Letter VII.41    Written from the retirement in Pontus.

To Gregory my friend.42    i.e. Gregory of Nazianzus.

When I wrote to you, I was perfectly well aware that no theological term is adequate to the thought of the speaker, or the want of the questioner, because language is of natural necessity too weak to act in the service of objects of thought.  If then our thought is weak, and our tongue weaker than our thought, what was to be expected of me in what I said but that I should be charged with poverty of expression?  Still, it was not possible to let your question pass unnoticed.  It looks like a betrayal, if we do not readily give an answer about God to them that love the Lord.  What has been said, however, whether it seems satisfactory, or requires some further and more careful addition, needs a fit season for correction.  For the present I implore you, as I have implored you before, to devote yourself entirely to the advocacy of the truth, and to the intellectual energies God gives you for the establishment of what is good.  With this be content, and ask nothing more from me.  I am really much less capable than is supposed, and am more likely to do harm to the word by my weakness than to add strength to the truth by my advocacy.

ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙῼ ΕΤΑΙΡῼ

[1] Οὐδὲ τότε ἠγνόουν ὅτε ἐπέστελλον τῇ λογιότητί σου ὅτι πᾶσα θεολογικὴ φωνὴ ἐλάττων μέν ἐστι τῆς διανοίας τοῦ λέγοντος, ἐλάττων δὲ τῆς τοῦ ἐπιζητοῦντος ἐπιθυμίας, διότι ὁ λόγος ἀσθενέστερόν πως πέφυκε διακονεῖσθαι τοῖς νοουμένοις. Εἰ οὖν ἀσθενὴς ἡμῶν ἡ διάνοια, ἐλάττων δὲ ταύτης ἡ γλῶσσα, τί ἐχρῆν προσδοκᾶν ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ τοῖς εἰρημένοις καὶ οὐχὶ πενίαν ἐγκληθήσεσθαι λόγων; Οὐ μὴν τούτου γε ἕνεκεν δυνατὸν ἦν σιωπῇ παρελθεῖν τὸ ζητούμενον. Κίνδυνος γὰρ προδοσίας ἐν τῷ μὴ προχείρως ἀποδιδόναι τὰς περὶ Θεοῦ ἀποκρίσεις τοῖς ἀγαπῶσι τὸν Κύριον. Ἐκεῖνα μὲν οὖν, εἴτε ἀρκούντως ἔχειν δοκεῖ, εἴτε καὶ ἀκριβεστέρας τινὸς προσθήκης δεῖται, καιροῦ ἰδίου πρὸς διόρθωσιν χρῄζει. Τὸ δὲ νῦν ἔχον παρακαλοῦμέν σε ὃ καὶ παρεκαλέσαμεν ἤδη, χρῆσαι σεαυτὸν ὁλοκλήρως τῇ συνηγορίᾳ τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ ταῖς παρὰ Θεοῦ ἐγγινομέναις τῇ διανοίᾳ σου ὁρμαῖς πρὸς τὴν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ σύστασιν, ταύταις ἀρκούμενον καὶ παρ' ἡμῶν μηδὲν ἐπιζητοῦντα πλέον, οἵ, πολλῷ ἐλάττους ὄντες τῆς ὑπονοίας, βλάπτομεν μᾶλλον τῇ παρ' ἑαυτῶν ἀσθενείᾳ τὸν λόγον ἤ τινα ἰσχὺν διὰ τῆς συνηγορίας τῇ ἀληθείᾳ προστίθεμεν.