Hexameron of Saint Basil the Great and cosmological views of his time

  1. Lemma
  2. Hexameron of Saint Basil the Great and cosmological views of his time
  3. English
  4. Tampakis, Kostas
  5. Cosmology- Anthropic principle - Patristic studies
  6. 2006
  7. Hexameron of Saint Basil the Great and cosmological views of his time
  8. Science and Orthodoxy, a Necessary Dialogue
  9. Homilies on the Hexaemeron - Saint Basil the Great

    1. The paper attempts to discuss the cosmological views of St. Basil the Great, by focusing on his Homilies on the Hexaemeron (which the authors translate to Speeches, instead of the more widely used Homilies). After briefly discussing St. Basil’s life and studies, the authors discuss St. Basil ‘s cosmological considerations. They identify his views as a harmonic match of ancient Greek, Babylonian and Egyptian views. St. Basil appears aware of the shape and orientation of Earth, of the various astronomical cycles and of Aristotelian egocentricity, without however proposing such knowledge as his own. The authors then identify a passage from the Homilies as suggesting that there was something before the Universe and propose several ways that St. Basil could have acquired such cosmological knowledge. They consider Alcman, Tertullian and Hermogenes as influences, pointing out that such views were not yet opposite to the Nicene Creed, which received its final form after the death of St. Basil. In the next part of the paper and until its end, the authors discuss the notion of time in St. Basil. They show that St. Basil has an opposite view that St. Augustine, who thought that time was created along with the Universe. They also show that St. Basil does not identify time with motion, but also that the universe was born achronally. Finally, the authors cite a passage where St. Basil seems to consider the creation of multiple universes and that the universe could have an end, the same way it had a beginning.