Gregory of Nazianzus

An interesting snippet from one of Gregory of Nazianzus' Theological Orations. Enjoy!

"So far as we can get to them, then, 'He who is' and 'God' are in some special way names of his being. 'He who is' has the superiority here. He used it of himself, in delivering his oracles to Moses on the mountain, telling Moses, who asked what he should be called, to say to the people: 'He who is sent me.' But this is not the only reason; we find it to be a more distinctively full and apt name. 'God,' according to bright students of Greek etymology, is derived from words meaning 'to run' or 'to burn'--the idea being of continuous movement and consuming of evil qualities hence, certainly, God is called a 'consuming fire.' Nevertheless, it is a relational, not an absolute term. The same applies to the word 'Lord' which is also used as a name of God. 'I am the Lord thy God,' he says, 'this is my name,' and, 'The Lord is his name.' But we are making deeper inquiries into a nature which has absolute existence, independent of anything else. The actual, personal being of God in its fullness is neither limited nor cut short by any prior or any subsequent reality--so it was and so it will be."

Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 30.18