A Review of Kopecek

Kopecek opens the body of his essay showing the elder Gregory’s civic patriotism by the grand church he had built during his time as bishop. Kopecek points out that the reason the building is sign of his civic duty is not he building itself, but rather the means by which it was funded. Rather than asking church patrons or raising money, Gregory the Elder paid for the amazing structure almost entirely out of pocket. Kopecek continues saying that in some societies this would still not be considered civic patriotism, however in Cappadocia its was very common for the curial class, which was what Gregory belonged to before becoming pope, to buil

d a public building with their own money out of a sense of patriotic duty. Keeping this in mind suddenly the charity shown by the Bishop is easily viewed just “as much curial and patriotic as Christian” (295).

The last example Kopecek presents of the Fathers using their position to gain civic ends comes with Basil of Caesarea. At the time he was in power the emperor had divided Caesarea into two individual provinces rather than the one it had formerly been. However, Basil was away at the time of the separation and came home to find that he had lost half of his power. Basil wrote three letters supposedly in aid of the people of Caesarea, however Kopecek makes it apparent that he might have had his own political goals in mind. In one of the letters to a Cappadocian countryman named Aburgius, Basil uses his spiritual authority to threaten him into compliance. At one point Basil even promises a “reward from God” in return for the union of the two provinces. In this letter Kopecek proposes that Basil moved out from simply civic patriotism to an action for his own political gain.

Kopeck’s next example of a Cappadocian fat

Some topics in this essay:
Aburgius Basil, Nazianzus Gregory, Gregory Elder, Basil Caesarea, Thomas Kopecek, Bishop Nazianzus, Kopecek Gregory, Caesarea Kopecek, Kopecek Fathers, civic patriotism, cappadocian fathers, Gregory Bishop, clerical positions kopecek, gregory bishop, actions cappadocian, clerical positions, basil caesarea, gregory elder, bishop gregory, actions cappadocian fathers, positions kopecek, curial class,