unlike Arians, Eunomians had to be baptized in order to reenter the Church (Canon VII at the Second Ecumenical Council).
have St. John's command of rhetoric. Yet his skill as an orator is matched by his unique prophetic authority. Such authority can come only from the struggle to live the life With pastoral discernment, in Christ – a struggle that, for St. St. John waited for an opportune John, counted slothfulness and vanimoment to address the error. Rather ty as its two chief opponents. than seek another confrontation, he waited for his opponents to engage The zeal for Christ, love of him. Soon enough, they did, and his Scripture, and defense of the response centered on God as defenseless that we see in John's described in the anaphora of the Divine Liturgy that goes by his name: “ineffable, inconceivable, “There is a knowledge eternally existing, yet ever the same.” which men can have Man's limited reasoning power prevents him from fully knowing himof God, but it is not self and the created world around him – so how much can he expect to knowledge of His know the One Who is infinitely above the created order?
essence, but knowl-
John's confident preaching in defense of the Orthodox faith was enough to guard most of his flock; as the heresy appealed to a number of the intellectual elite, however, a greater level of theological sophistication was needed. To dispel criticism that this mystery of God made Christianity irrational, St. John replied that “there is a knowledge which men can have of God, but it is not knowledge of his essence, but knowledge that he exists and knowledge of his action in the world” (Kelly, p. 62). This is an early suggestion of God's essences and energies, a concept which was not clarified until the fourteenth century by St. Gregory Palamas. The statement cannot be taken as a concise definition, yet it testifies not only to St. John’s ability to speculate, but in his wisdom to do so only in service of the Church.
edge that he exists and knowledge of His action in the world.” homilies cannot help but remind us of Isaiah or Ezekiel. Florovsky's summary is worth quoting here: “Chrysostom was a powerful preacher. He was fond of preaching, and regarded preaching as the duty of a Christian minister. Priesthood is authority, but it is authority of word and conviction. This is the distinctive mark of Christian power. Kings compel, and pastors convince” (p. 79).
All Christians, since they are baptized into the royal priesthood, share this duty and authority of “word and conviction.” However, Very few Christians will ever few people want for words in this
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age, and, no matter how subjective our world-view has become, there is no lack of conviction. The Arians and Eunomians of John's time, and the orators with whom he was often confused, prove that conviction and rhetoric are not, in themselves, enough to make a real, lasting, worthwhile impact on the history of God's chosen people. This can only be accomplished by undertaking the struggle to know Christ Himself, the One Who gives true authority. It was not only with ecclesial and pastoral authority that St. John led his flock to salvation, though both define him and his place among the Church's Saints. He was, primarily, a man of God, and thus was able to speak with boldness from the pulpit, not only in holy anger, but in love. In fact, his pastoral discernment is more remarkable in light of his fearlessness; it shows the incredible lengths to which his love, condescension and `considerateness' – a term he used often in his homilies to describe God's providential ordering of the world – stretched. The vocation shared by all Orthodox Christians – not only those called to the priesthood – is a life of holiness. Such a life vouchsafes the humble authority that becomes a compelling witness to the world. This witness, grounded in the true experience of the life lived in Christ, is distinguished by humility, courage, and love. The Church celebrates St. John and his legacy as “Chrysostom” as the embodiment of these gifts precisely because he still speaks to us today – by his preaching, his defense of Orthodoxy, and, ultimately, his final words of thanksgiving to God.