Interpreting the motives of Basil's social doctrine

Abstract

The scene opens with a conversation between Basil and a young enquirer in the hospice for the poor in Caesarea, which he set up with funds for the poor collected during the great famine of 369-370. We ask the hermeneutic question: how may the motives of Basil's social doctrine and practice be justly interpreted? Inadequate descriptions of Basil's motives are discussed, using examples from three authors. A better approach may be gained, first by estimating the chronological sequence of the surviving four homilies from the time of the famine, and reinterpreting their doctrine in that light. Then the development of Basil's discourse, from his earliest days as an ascetic up to 369 is surveyed. This enables us to see a consistent pattern in which low, reductionist or patronising interpretations of Basil's motives miss the point seriously. To understand Basil rightly, the categories of Christian faith and practice need to be seriously taken into account. Thus if Basil was an opportunist at the time of the famine, it was so that he could try to bring home to the ordinary faithful in the towns and cities the same gospel imperatives that he proclaimed among the ascetic communities.