On Christian Doctrine and Practice #47

Publication Data: Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2012
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 324
Dimensions (l × w × h): 18.4 cm × 12.7 cm × 2.3 cm
ISBN: 978‒0‒88141‒458‒5

   
St Basil the Great
Translated, with Introduction and Annotations, by Mark DelCogliano

Number 47 of Popular Patristics Series

“As a presbyter, Basil must have delivered hundreds of homilies and then hundreds more when he succeeded Eusebius as bishop of Caesarea in 370. Only about fifty of his homilies are extant. While this is undoubtedly a small fraction of his total output, it is not inconsiderable and affords us the opportunity to get a sense of Basil as a preacher. His goal in preaching first and foremost seems to have been to benefit his audience. Though Basil was a skilled rhetorician and one of the best theologians the church has ever produced, his homilies were not intended to be oratorical showpieces or theological treatises, however much they turned out to be so. Just as Scripture was written for our benefit, so too must the preacher strive to benefit his audience with his words. Basil’s hope was that each member of his audience would hear something in his homily that he or she could use to make further progress in the Christian life: insight into overcoming a particular vice or acquiring a particular virtue, a greater desire to help the poor and needy, a deeper understanding of the Trinity, and so forth.”
—“General Introduction”

CONTENTS

Preface
Abbreviations
General Introduction
   The Moral Homilies as a Collection
   From Greek to English
   A Note to the Reader
Homily on the Beginning of Proverbs (Prov 1.1–5)
   Introduction
   Translation
First Homily on Psalm 14 (Ps 14.1–4)
   Introduction
   Translation
Homily on Humility
   Introduction
   Translation
Homily on Envy
   Introduction
   Translation
Homily on Detachment from Worldly Things, and on the Fire that Occurred Outside the Church
   Introduction
   Translation
Homily delivered in Lakizois
   Introduction
   Translation
Homily on Psalm 115 (Ps 116.11–19 MT)
   Introduction
   Translation
Homily on Faith
   Introduction
   Translation
Homily on the Beginning of the Gospel of John (Jn 1.1–2)
   Introduction
   Translation
Homily on Not Three Gods, Against Those Who Calumniate Us, Claiming That We Say That There Are Three Gods
   Introduction
   Translation
Homily against the Sabellians, Anomoians, and Pneumatomachians
   Introduction
   Translation
Appendix 1: The Traditional Numbering of the Moral Homilies
Appendix 2: English Translations of the Moral Homilies
Bibliography
Index of Scripture