The answer
In studying the School of Alexandria, we saw that it mainly focused on the interpretation of the Holy Bible. But it also undertook studies in many of the scientific and philosophical fields of its time. In this same spirit, St. Basil presented his audience with a biblical interpretation of the creation of the world that included somewhat simplified philosophical and scientific concepts that his audience could easily follow. He could do this because of his own scholarly studies in Greek philosophy and science, which he used for biblical and evangelical purposes. He gave his congregation that which helped them to grow and find salvation, without neglecting the intellectual culture of his time. In this way, he strove to present them with a spiritual interpretation of the story of creation as it is found in the book of Genesis, that would enable them to encounter the Creator.
St. Basil used whatever he found useful from the writings of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and others. He accepted whatever was beneficial and useful for the building up of our souls.432 Many scholars have occupied themselves with studies to identify the influence of Greek philosophers on Basil’s views on cosmology (the study of the existent world).
It would be wrong to think that this saint’s reliance on biblical interpretation and his refusal to rely on purely human wisdom implies any kind of rejection of scientific knowledge, whether with regard to the creation or anything else. This is especially clear when we consider that in one of his writings, he explicitly exhorts the youth to accept whatever they may find to be useful in scientific and philosophical writings.433
The continuous and swift evolution of modern knowledge shows us that those who lived thousands of years ago had much progress ahead of them; and that God has given human beings a formidable mind that constantly thirsts for knowledge. The more we uncover about the secrets of nature, the more we thirst for greater and deeper knowledge, and realize that we are still just fossicking on the shores of the great ocean of knowledge.
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
432 St. Basil of Caesarea, Hexaemeron 9.1 (NPNF II/8:101–102).
433 See St. Basil of Caesarea, Letters IV and Address to the Young Men on Greek Literature, trans., Roy Joseph Deferarri and Martin R. P. McGuire, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934): pp. 363ff.