Basil as exemplar for reading pagan texts: The spirit, the church, and a sacramental ontology

Abstract

In To Young Men, Basil of Caesarea asserted that pagan literature could be read discerningly for the pursuit of virtue. As a professor of English, I recognize Basil as an exemplar pedagogue in my own insistence that Christian students read secular texts. Not a scholar of Greek, I rely on patristic scholarship to understand Basil’s assumptions giving him confidence in students’ discernment. Pagan literature can be read discerningly because reading and faith are collective ventures, seeking virtue is practiced best in dependence on the Holy Spirit, and truth is unified based on a Platonist-Christian synthesis—a sacramental ontology.