CAPPADOCIAN FATHERS

CAPPADOCIAN FATHERS. While in theory this phrase could include other Church Fathers (q.v.) such as Gregory the Wonderworker (late 3rd c.) or Amphilocius of Iconium (late 4th c.), it is normally reserved for three of the most important ecclesiastical figures of the 4th c.: Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa (qq.v.). It is difficult to exaggerate the significance of the contribution these three made to the following areas of Orthodox thought: the theology of the Trinity, Christology, anthropology (qq.v.), creation, soteriology, liturgy (q.v.), asceticism/monasticism (qq.v.), and mysticism. Theirs was the leadership, both intellectual and ecclesiastico-political, that enabled the final defeat of the challenge to all of the above categories-especially the Trinity-mounted by 4th-c. thinkers such as Arius and Eunomius (qq.v.). Their thought provided the foundations for the correction of Origen, the synthesis of Maximus the Confessor (perhaps the principal theologian of later Byzantium), and of Gregory Palamas (qq.v.).