Of all the writers of the earlier period, Gregory of Nazianzus was the one the later Byzantines turned to with most respect for his combination of high style, theological acumen, and philosophical 'sobriety'. Gregory was, as priest and philosopher, concerned with a Christian account of the nature of the First Principle. Gregory is not only the supreme articulator of the hypostatic relations of the Father and Son, but he is one of the most influential theoreticians of the Trinity in all Greek patristic writing. In other words his vision of the Supreme Monad is complex and rich. He is seeking to address both common Christians, who embraced Trinitarian acclamations in their liturgical doxologies, as well as sophisticated religious philosophers of his day and this with a view to facilitating the attraction of the literate pagan upper classes into Christianity at the imperial capital, where a large body of thinkers still required convincing of the intellectual respectability of the new religion.