Basil

basil of caesarea called accessory and because that's where he's from,

but because that's where he became bishop somewhat reluctantly uh in in late,

late in life.

Now, what's significant about that date of his death, 3 79

is that the first

The Council of Constantinople happens two years later,

381 and that's the one that that writes the version

of the creative Neisseria that would continue to use.

Um

So we've talked about the fourth century as

this time of turmoil within doctrinal term turmoil

along with jurisdictional turmoil among bishops and priests

um

throughout the mediterranean throughout the the world,

the greek world of the church,

basil of caesarea takes a leading role

uh in um the debates now

he is the the eldest actually, no, he's the elder brother, but he's not the oldest of,

but he is one of three

uh theologians that we call the Cappadocia in Father's.

That refers to base to basil himself himself,

his little brother Gregory of Nisa

and close friend Gregory of naciones is to Gregory's

is about to be three Gregory's. I'll tell you about that in a second.

The outcome from Cappadocia, which is in what is in present day Turkey.

And these three are really the the

uh after Athan ASIS,

they are the most significant voices of the century and as this

is the century in which the nicene creed is being authored,

they are

really the three giants of greek theology

for with a tenacious,

because of the timing as much as anything.

Um

Athanasius is sort of the grand old statesman of the Nicene party at this point. Um

he is, has more or less cloistered himself away in in Egypt

um Baselitz said, wrote letters to him, tried to sort of get his patronage,

tried to sort of

Fanboy him a little bit,

but Athanasios wasn't interested um and then Athanasios ultimately

dies and basil emerges as the most important um

um as part of a team of the most important theological voices,

he's from what I call the first family of Nicene orthodoxy,

I told you had a little brother named Gregory Vanessa,

we're going to talk about Gregory

um Their oldest sister was Macarena.

Uh we're going to read a bit about Macarena

ah

the the the theological teacher,

Gregory says, she's the one that go to um for discussions about um

the soul discussions about the nature of christ, it may be that Macarena had some

some sort of

broadly construed Aryan tendencies that seem to be uh something interesting

sort of in the family dynamics as they sit around the,

the dinner table from time to time.

McQueen is one of the very first um inhabitants of um female monastic,

of female monastic communities.

She has a lot to do with the formation of those communities.

The writing is a rule for those communities and this is big within the family.

Um this sort of sense of this is the highest calling

and theologian is to form a community

of theologians and contemplate ear's and prayer

prayers.

Um and there is a community did form,

I've forgotten where because basil went and explored

one in Egypt but I believe came back

uh and found that a double community um well read about this in our

readings for the for for this week a double community of men and women

which is

sister was involved, his mother was involved a grandmother was a holy woman.

I'm also named Macarena

and the heritage of the capital.

Ocean theologians really comes from the the founder,

the founding preacher and theologian of

Christianity in that part of the world.

So now we're back into the two hundreds with someone named Gregory Thermometer gis.

Uh he was supposed supposed to have been thought to have been

a disciple of origin.

So he leaves alexandria or Palestine where he studied under

origin and then comes to Cappadocia and founds the churches there

and the theological communities there and this really is the,

is the source of their theology.

Gregory and Gregory and uh Nancy Lanza so the friend

and they still collaborate on a collection

of origins works called the Phil O'Cealleagh.

This is the ancient,

physically not to be confused with the one

written in Russia in the early modern years

that the little book the way of the pilgrims about there actually to fill Scalia's.

That was just a big collection of church fathers but also spiritual masters

of the eastern church through the through the centuries.

The original philo colleague of the O. G. Of phyllo Kollias. That was a collection of

origins work written collected by

basil and his friend Gregory.

So they're known for the monastic orders as I said,

based especially is known for um the research he did on

how to found a monastic order on founding monastic orders,

pulled away into the entry work of theological argumentation

um

and um ultimately to be bishop of caesarea,

also known for their charitable work. Um

And that's a very famous sermon

um on giving it one more than one but

one especially favorite serpent on giving to the poor.

Um They're writing and doing their

ecclesiastical work and their theological doctrinal work

during the time of a great famine it hits in the fourth century.

So

calling us to speak well of christ and the spirit is of a piece for them

with calling us to be generous with our wealth.

Um So much as we might happen to have.

Uh Doctor as I mentioned, the Council of Constantinople 3 81.

They are so the the importance of these folks is that they're coming in between 3 25.

1st Council of Nicaea

3 81 at First Council of Constantinople and Gregory especially is championing that

term of from Athanasius and from the original nice scene statement creed,

homo

ideas

and there are particular

um

Aryan Ish voices. There's there's lots of varieties I've mentioned Ovarian ism

particular one that he's dealing with comes from as bear tells us 80 s and you know,

Meus.

So he writes his first great doctrinal text is against, you know,

mia several volumes of work.

Uh and you get a long history of that long sort of

uh

synopsis of that, of that text in bear a couple of things in notes about it. Um

the the the the sort of the key to the fight here is what the term un begotten means

um

un begotten according to, you know, meus is in the essential name of God, its name.

It's it's it's what it means to be God.

And of course, once you say that anything that God, if God begets

if God, the father begets the son,

well then the sun is not essentially God because the son is begotten.

So what is that word on the UN begotten doing

in our in our trinity, Terrien

crystal logical vocabulary,

that's really where the where the where the center of this argument is,

and basil is going to push hard to say one begotten is what he calls a property

uh that within the divine, within the divine oneness.

That can be distinct from other properties within the witness.

Is that it's a funny way that he's got here

and it's not the part that's not the way that sticks

by the time we get the gregor of nancy.

Lanza's and especially leading up into the fifth century,

this property is not going to be the common way of,

of distinguishing the persons of the trinity

and going persons we're gonna call the hypotheses

term, that he tends to migrate to his properties.

And he says properties are what allows us to

um

maintain, maintain distinctions or otherness within unity.

So it is a property of God to be begotten and a property of God to be un begotten.

But neither one of those

disrupt the union of essence.

That's what he wants to say back to to, you know, Mia's.

So it's again it's a sort of

it's a funny way of talking about it.

It's not a part that especially in the way that it comes to our ears,

it's not a part that sounds particularly persuasive with, you know,

the father is a property, he was, his fatherhood is a property,

He allows that to be distinct properties.

Um

But the language is gonna need some work,

the thing that he is along with the anti, you know, meus uh

treat us,

um which is really the last um

Well, that's that's not quite true because Greg Lisa Rights one by the same name,

but it's we're beginning to sort of come to an end of the arian controversies,

other controversies are going to take over in the next century.

So we're coming to the end of the great texts that are written to ensure that um

to ensure that uh

Christianity maintains a unity of essence between father and son.

That's what all of this is about.

He then moves into the, at the end of anti you know, Meus.

And then in a separate work, he writes a treatise that continues to be very popular.

This second one, especially the final one on the Holy Spirit.

So he writes on the Holy Spirit twice, once at the end of that Anti, you know,

Mia's and then once in a in a separate book just called on the Holy Spirit,

which you can find in a little green edition like mine.

Um,

and this begins with a liturgical question. Let me read it to you here.

So, remember, this is a bishop

who serves in in in a diocese and goes from church to church.

So writing liturgies,

composing liturgical prayers as part of what he does and

he's showing us that this is where some of the

um

some of the controversy comes from lately.

While I pray with the people, we sometimes finish the docks ology to God,

the Father with the form Glory to the Father with the Son,

together with the Holy Spirit.

And in other times we use glory to the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit.

So, he writes a big portion of this text is like what's up with those prepositions,

what's the right preposition to use when we talk about the Holy Spirit and what

he ultimately gets that he sort of wanders around in this for a bit,

but what he's trying to get at is the spirit is is God with us.

The spirit is

is divine,

the divine presence among us.

And so all the prepositions, he said,

bringing its God sending the work that has done in christ

out into the church through the prayers and to us.

One of the lines from here I think is particularly interesting and I

want to take the last couple of minutes and talk about this.

Um everything that partakes of the spirit's grace

is filled with joy according to its capacity.

Everything that partakes of the spirit's grace is

filled with joy according to its capacity.

What's interesting about this to me

is, first of all, um the way that the he has a sense of the spirit as meeting us,

where we are meeting us as who we are as the creatures that we are

the capacity.

So you can even say sort of what defines a thing is the capacity it has for Joy

Joy here as a kind of deifying term.

The capacity has to enjoy God.

And the spirit then, is the presence that

fills that, that ignites that joy,

not ignites it more a rock doesn't have the

same capacity for joy and God's presence as a

cat and the cat maybe doesn't as much as I do or differently than I do for sure.

But the spirit knows the nature of the

spirit knows those capacities and can ignite them.

And I think this is really exciting. I actually think there's also a link here

to the way that he

talks about scripture.

So, one of the things that that that bear points out is that in uh

and you know me as his reading of scripture, he says,

what the scripture gives us our names of God's essence,

it gives us information about who God is.

And we find again this question of knowledge and what's knowledge supposed to do.

And basil is not going to say scripture doesn't give us knowledge,

He doesn't think that, but he says,

nature doesn't give a scripture doesn't give us knowledge

like facts about God,

scripture lets us know God.

And so for that reason,

scripture really tells us the truth. In a funny way, it tells us the truth.

I'm using the word, it's not baseless word.

Um, but he tells us it's scripture tells us the truth and ago jik lee,

it tells us the truth by changing us by lifting us up into truth itself.

Um, scripture is not, he says, giving us literal facts.

It's it's allowing us to be participants in the truth.

And so I think that there's something here about the Holy Spirit

to this is sort of the sense of his the spirit inhabits

the text of scripture.

Think about the way paul talks about the spirit and the letter here,

the letter and the spirit,

there's a kind of analogy to be made that I'm trying to draw

if you can see what I'm saying in the same way that the cats

has. It is what it is because of a capacity for joy.

And then the spirit fills it with joy and it it becomes the fullness of itself.

Scripture is that to scripture is like

word's literal words that are capacities

uh that that capacities for desertification and when the spirit fills them,

either reader sort of ride that wave into the presence of God.

I think it's something beautiful here.

Um,

final thing I want to say then is his little brother Gregory at

his death in 379 writes an encomium that's still used as one of the

great examples of classical rhetoric and the thing that

he says in there is just like in scripture,

just like with the apostle paul, just like with the profits when we needed basil,

the most God sent him to us.

It's really quite beautiful

Basil

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