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The official attitude of Basil of Caesarea as a Christian bishop towards Greek philosophy and science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Emmanuel Amand De Mendieta
Emmanuel Amand De Mendieta*
Affiliation:
Winchester Cathedral
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Extract

In this paper I wish to deal with a rather specialised topic. But this specialised topic may partly explain what was in fact the official attitude of the Byzantine Church, of its patriarchs, bishops and monks, over the centuries, towards Greek philosophy and science. May I suggest that Greek philosophy and science were, and still are indeed, one of the component factors and inspirations of our renaissance and post-renaissance western civilisation?

In order to avoid misunderstanding, I must explain the title of this paper, so that the limitations or strict boundaries of this paper, and also its precise contents, its scope or design may be fully realised.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 13: The Orthodox Churches and the West , 1976 , pp. 25 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1976

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References

1 I wish to express my deep and friendly gratitude to Miss J. E. Bickersteth, MA, DPhil, university lecturer at the university of Hull, who carefully read this paper, kindly corrected my ungrammatical English prose, and suggested many useful and constructive criticisms. To her, my colleague in patristic studies, I am especially grateful.

la PG 31, cols 563C-90A, the Greek printed text is the text of the edition of C. A. F. Fremion (Paris 1819), published, with notes and a French translation. There is a good edition by Boulenger, Fernand, Saint Basile. Aux jeunes gens sur la manière de tirer profit des lettres helléniques. Texte établi et traduit (Paris 1935) 75 pagesGoogle Scholar. Photographic reproduction in 1952 (Collection des Universités de France publiée sous le patronage de l’Association Guillaume Budé).

2 A fair appreciation of this familiar address in: Puech, Aimé, Histoire de la littérature grecque chrétienne, 3 (Paris 1930) pp 276-8Google Scholar.

On the many allusions to the Dialogues of Plato, especially to the Republic, see the Introduction of F. Boulenger to his edition of this essay (Paris 1935) p 31, and also the footnotes and the notes complémentaires, pp 63-71.

3 A characteristic quotation from this address (in French translation) is to be found in my book: Amand, David, L’ascèse monastique de saint Basile. Essai historique (Maredsous 1949) pp 194-8 (the contempt for the body)Google Scholar.

4 For a first orientation in this difficult and subtle matter, I may refer the reader to pages 384-9 of my book Fatalisme et liberté dans l’antiquité grecque, Amand, David (Louvain 1945)Google Scholar.

5 I have good reasons to believe that Basil delivered these homilies during Lent 378, namely the last year of his life. He died on 1 January 379.

6 PG 29 (1857) cols 3A-208C; accurate reproduction of the in-folio edition of Julien Garnier, I (Paris 1721) pp 1-88.

7 [Stanislas] Giet, [Basile de Césarée, Homélies sur l’Hexaéméron], texte grec, introduction et traduction (Paris 1950)=SCR 26. A second revised edition (with complementary notes) was published in 1968, SCR 26b; in both volumes, the pagination is the same for text and translation.

8 PG 29, cols 5C-8A; Giet p 92, translation. I refer only to the Greek text in Giet’s edition, not to the French translation which is printed on the opposite page.

9 PG 29, cols 25D-8A; Giet pp 132, 134.

9a The names in parentheses (Aristotle and his disciples, and further: Zenon or Chrysippus) are not in the Greek. I have added them for the sake of clarity.

10 PG 29, cols 73BC; Giet p 234. Compare also another text on the same subject: homily III, cap 3. PG 29, cols 57AB; Giet p 198 (the Greek philosophers who assert that it is only one heaven and no other; and other philosophers who assert that there are many or innumerable heavens).

11 PG 29, cols 9C-12A; Giet pp 98, 100. Compare also another text or passage on the same subject: homily I, cap 7. PG 29, col 17BC; Giet pp 114, 116. Among those who have imagined that the world co-exists with God from all eternity, many have denied that it was created by God, but have said that God is only the involuntary cause of it, as the body is the cause of its own shadow.

12 PG 29, cols 56C-7B; Giet pp 196, 198.

13 PG 29, cols 57BD; Giet pp 200, 202.

14 Plato, Republic, X, 3, 616C-17D.

15 Aristotle, De Caelo, bk II, cap 3,290 b 12-29.

16 PG 29, cols 168AB; Giet p 436.

17 PG 29, cols 12AC; Giet p 102.

18 PG 29, cols 188C-9A; Giet pp 480, 482.

19 PG 29, cols 20C-1A; Giet pp 118, 120.

20 PG 29, cols 21AB; Giet pp 120, 122.

21 PG 29, cols 21D, 24AB; Giet pp 124, 126.

22 PG 29, cols 24D-5A; Giet pp 128, 130.

23 PG 29, col 73B; Giet pp 232, 234.

24 PG 29, cols 120D-1A; Giet pp 332, 334.

25 I have omitted many other passages and allusions.

26 Tertullian, , Apologeticum, ed crit Hoppe, H., CSEL, 69 (1939) pp 109-12Google Scholar.

27 Augustine, , De civitate Dei, ed crit Hoffmann, E., CSEL, 40 (1900) pp 331-5Google Scholar.

28 This topic is extensively developed by Augustine, , De Genesi ad litteram liber secundus, cap X: ed crit by Zycha, I., CSEL, 28 (1894) pp 47-8Google Scholar. De caeli motu, PL 34, cols 271-2.