Saint Basil the Great

Readers are invited to the second book in the series “Holy Fathers of the Church and Church Writers in the Works of Orthodox Scholars,” dedicated to the life, personality and ecclesiastical writing of the famous father and teacher of the Church, St. Basil the Great (330–379). Most of the published works (14 in total) were written by pre-revolutionary scientists and theologians and published in various domestic church periodicals. About the events of the life of St. Basil, his personality, the era in which he lived, is told in the voluminous work of Archimandrite Porfiry (Popov) “The Life of St. Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea of ​​Cappadocia.” Theological teaching of St. Basil, and in particular his invaluable contribution to Orthodox triadology, is discussed in such small but significant works as the articles by N. I. Sagarda “The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity of St. Basil the Great” and A. A. Spassky “The Doctrine of the Cappadocians on the Unity of the Holy Trinity.” I would like to draw the reader’s special attention to works devoted to insufficiently studied aspects of the teachings of St. Basil about God, - S. M. Zarina “The Teaching of St. Basil the Great about the Holy Spirit” and Archbishop Vasily (Krivoshein) “The Problem of the Cognizability of God: the Essence and Energy of St. Basil the Great.” In the first of these works, the famous Russian theologian, biblical scholar and pathologist examines the pneumatology of St. Basil, both in its independent and comprehensive form, and in the context of the polemics between the Orthodox and Roman Catholics on the issue of the procession of the Holy Spirit. S. M. Zarin convincingly shows that those expressions in the works of St. Basil the Great, to which Catholic theologians have referred for centuries to confirm the doctrine of the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit not only from the Father, but also from the Son, in fact, have not a Western, but a completely Orthodox meaning. The second work is no less significant due to the so-called Palamite or hesychast disputes that arose in the 14th century between the Orthodox and the “Latin wise” in Byzantium, in particular regarding the recognition in God of the distinction between essence and energies. A prominent hierarch, theologian and patrolologist of the Russian Abroad, based on an analysis of numerous statements of St. Basil shows that already in the 4th century St. Basil, in his polemic against Eunomius, made this important distinction, which is practically a “common place” among many ancient and later fathers of the Orthodox Church. The topic of theodicy, no less relevant for theology and global ideological issues, is raised in P. Smirnov’s work “The Essence of Evil according to the Teachings of St. Basil the Great.” The contribution of St. Basil as the theorist and practice of monastic life in the moral and ascetic Tradition of the Church are devoted to the articles by N. Primogenov “The Rule of Monastic Life of Basil the Great and Comparison of It with the Rule of St. Pachomius” and the unknown author (P.P.) “What is asceticism?”, as well as the work of S. Runkevich “On the virtues and exploits according to the works of St. Basil the Great”. Description of the life of St. We meet Basil and his era again in the review work of A.V. Vadkovsky “St. Basil the Great, his life and preaching works,” which, in addition, touches on the homiletical content of his work. The same topic is continued by A. Derevitsky’s article “Plutarch of Chaeronea and Saint Basil the Great.” The teaching of St. Vasily about the Church is important in an era of turbulent social and church life and the development of inter-Christian contacts and dialogue. Various aspects of this teaching are discussed in the following works: Archbishop Vasily (Krivoshein) “Ecclesiology of St. Basil the Great”, T. Nalimov “Causes of divisions in the Church according to the view of St. Basil the Great”, M. Vasiliev “The power and position of Roman bishops in the Church according to the teachings of Basil the Great”. The advantage of the proposed book (as well as other books in this series) is that references to the works of the holy fathers of the Church are given in accordance with the pages of the publication PSTSO (Complete collection of the works of the holy fathers of the Church and church writers in Russian translation). To prepare these links, the editor S. L. Zharov did a very voluminous work, thanks to which certain patristic statements can be easily identified and their context checked, which is important for the use of this collection of articles in educational, student and scientific theological work. Therefore, this book, as the editors hope, can be actively and fruitfully used as an auxiliary teaching aid for the study of material from the 4th century in courses in patrolology, theology, Church history (in religious educational institutions), as well as religious studies in secular educational institutions, and will simply be interesting for all readers seeking spiritual edification.