Basil the Great

Cappadocian Father · Bishop of Caesarea · c. 329–379

Basil was born at Caesarea in Cappadocia. Gifted and confident, he set out on a public career until his sister Macrina persuaded him to seek God rather than worldly honor. With his brother Gregory of Nyssa and his friend Gregory of Nazianzus he formed the trio known as the Cappadocian Fathers, who carried on Athanasius’s defense of Christ’s equality with the Father.1

When the followers of Arius went on to deny the deity of the Holy Spirit, Basil answered them in On the Holy Spirit, the first whole book on the person of the Spirit. With the Cappadocians he taught that God is one ousia in three hypostases, the faith confirmed at Constantinople in 381. He also cared for the sick and poor, and his communities offered healing and education.2

Against those who pleaded their custom, Basil appealed to Scripture:

Therefore let God-inspired Scripture decide between us; and on whichever side be found doctrines in harmony with the word of God, in favor of that side will be cast the vote of truth.3 Basil of Caesareaas quoted by Nathan Busenitz

His Legacy

Basil drew up the rule that became the pattern for monasticism in the East, moving the ascetic life from solitary hermits to communities under the authority of a bishop. Rome honors him as one of its eight great Doctors of the Church. For Protestants, his insistence that Scripture is the umpire over custom is an early witness to sola Scriptura.4

Church Fathers

Notes

  1. Michael J. Vlach, “Historical Theology I: A.D. 100–1600” (course notes, TH 507, The Master’s Seminary, Fall 2007), “Basil the Great”; Nathan Busenitz, Forerunners of the Faith Teacher’s Guide: 13 Lessons to Understand and Appreciate the Basics of Church History (Chicago: Moody, 2020), 73. Summarized. ↩
  2. Busenitz, Forerunners of the Faith Teacher’s Guide, 73; Vlach, “Historical Theology I,” “The Trinity.” Summarized. ↩
  3. Busenitz, Forerunners of the Faith Teacher’s Guide, 21. ↩
  4. Busenitz, Forerunners of the Faith Teacher’s Guide, 21; James G. McCarthy, The Gospel According to Rome (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1995), on the Doctors of the Church. ↩