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REDEEMER SEMINARY TO MAKE THE HEARER A PARTICIPATOR SUBMITTED TO DR. STEPHEN BAGBY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF CH211: ANCIENT CHURCH BY JOHN PETERSON DECEMBER, 6, 2013 1 Every time we look back to those who went before us it gives us an opportunity to be thankful. The church fathers helped blaze the trail of tradition we now follow. As we look back in gratitude, we should also consider what we can build upon the foundation others have laid. We should look for insights that can be gathered and what actions we should take based on what the church fathers helped establish by God's grace. I argue that Basil's use of rhetoric is to draw us in as participants to the life of Christ by describing settings people are familiar with. Basil's abundant and effective use of metaphors and rhetoric provide us an inspiration and guide to follow today. St. Basil helps pastors uncover the value of rhetoric in ministry, for both moral exhortation and praise.1 Through his use of rhetorical techniques such as vivid metaphors, Basil invites us to stand with eyes wide in amazement at our God through the marvel of creation. Before we launch out onto our journey we should survey relevant history along with terms that will anchor us as landmarks. What we speak of as “rhetoric” can be defined as “the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.” 2 Rhetoric aims to persuade you. A rhetorician wants to so vividly describe a truth or event so that you can see it in your mind's eye. One of rhetoric's techniques is that of metaphor, “a comparison made by referring to one thing as another.” 3 From his youth, Basil would have been surrounded by a rhetorical environment as his father was a noted rhetorician. St. Basil's father, Basil the Elder, began his son's initial training personally. The younger Basil later traveled to Caesarea for formal training in rhetoric.4 Basil grew in his skills as a rhetorician so that he was able to become a teacher in rhetoric in Caesarea 1 I am grateful to Bouteneff who pointed out the moral and doxological implications of Basil's writings. 2 Definition of “rhetoric” n.p. Accessed 3 December 2013. Online: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/rhetoric 3 Gideon O. Burton, “Metaphor” n.p. Accessed 6 December 2013. Online: http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm 4 C. Paul Schroeder, Introduction to On Social Justice by St. Basil, ed.& trans C. Paul Schroeder; (Crestwood NY.; St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2009), 16-17. 2 in 356. 5 Basil's role within the church grew as he moved from his retreat as a monk to become a priest in 365. He was eventually appointed as a bishop in 370, a position he held until his death in 379. 6 It was his early training in rhetoric where Basil would make effective use of it throughout his writings and homilies. To begin our journey of how Basil employed his rhetorical skills, we jump to the end of Basil's ministry to listen to him offer us what acts as an effective focusing lens of his thoughts on using the world to point us to God. “You will finally discover that the world was not conceived by chance and without reason, but for a useful end for the great advantage of all beings, since it is really the school where reasonable souls exercise themselves, the training ground where they learn to know God.” 7 This statement comes from Basil's Homilies on the Hexaemeron. Hexaemeron is the Greek term used to refer to the account of the six days of creation, from hexa-, meaning "six", and (h)emer(a), meaning "day". 8 When Basil speaks of a “training ground” he is telling us that God has made the world in such a way that it teaches us about himself. Basil believed that God has embedded moral lesson's that teach us about obedient behavior that leads us to God within the created nature. Peter Bouteneff describes one portion of Basil's Hexaemeron by saying, “Natural phenomena frequently invite comparison with human situations and bring moral lessons.” 9 One way humans learn is through observation. God shows his generosity to us in how he allows us to make analogical jumps between things we can touch, see and hear, to drawing conclusions about him. The principal that Basil draws on to conclude this comes from Romans 5 Schroeder, On Social Justice, 18. 6 Schroeder, On Social Justice, 20, 34. 7 St. Basil, “Hexaemeron” 1.6 in The Patristic Understanding of Creation, (Eds William Dembski, Wayne J. Downs, and Fr. Justin B. A. Frederick; Riesel, TX: Erasmus Press, 2008), 288. 8 Definition of “Hexaemeron” n.p. Accessed 4 December 2013 Online http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hexaemeron 9 Peter C. Bouteneff, Beginnings: Ancient Christian Readings of the Biblical Creation Narratives. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008) 136. 3 1:19–20 (ESV) 10, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Paul illustrates that God depicts aspects of his character in creation and Basil follows suit, putting this into practice in his rhetorical skills such as metaphors. Other church fathers have wrestled with the role of nature as a teacher. Maximus the Confessor pondered the issue of using the world as a type of Scripture when he said, “In an analogous way the author of existence gives himself to be beheld through visible things.” 11 St. Athanasius also implicitly describes creation as a type of Scripture. “The knowledge of God...can be also reaching from the visible things...given that by its order and harmony...creation points to, and loudly declares, its Lord and Creator, as though through letters...” 12 It is clear that the church fathers built on Paul's example in Romans to use the world as teaching ground to help us to know God. One example of how Basil used vivid metaphors from the world around us is in his homily “To the Rich.” Basil wants his hearers to consider that one day they will be dead after a greedy life stockpiling possessions, he makes them consider, “what good will all those things be then?” But he doesn't directly speak of “death” which can have an intangible and abstract quality to it. Instead, he speaks about the place you'll be when you're dead. “Is not all that awaits you a six-foot plot of earth?” 13 It is easy to visualize a hole in the ground that matches my size. Many people have already seen one. I have a hard time imagining what it means to be dead, but I can 10 Bouteneff, Beginnings 135. 11 Maximuss the Confessor, Maximus the Confessor ed. & trans. Andrew Louth, (NY.; Routledge, 1996), 110. 12 Athanasius, “Against the Pagans” 34 PG 25, 69A quoted in Doru Costache, Christian Worldview: Understanding from St. Basil the Great. (Phronema 25 (2010): 21-56. Accessed December 2, 2013. https://www.academia.edu/attachments/6595938/download_file) 32. 13 Basil, On Social Justice, 51. 4 see what it means to be buried under a boulder's worth of dirt. Basil uses a tangible place, a physical location, to depict a reality rather than an abstract concept. This is a methodology modern pastors should seek to imitate. This vividness was emblematic of his vocabulary. 14 Vividness, or in Greek enargeia, was a common term within rhetoric helping to explain Basil's regular use of it as a trained rhetorician. Enargeia is “the technical term that ancient critics employ to describe how language creates a vivid, visual presence, bringing the event described, and all the emotions that attend its perception, before the reader's eyes.” 15 It is almost as if the speaker is using words to hold up a snow globe in your mind's eye to allow you to see the scenery he is describing. It is the difference between hearing the word “death” and trying to think about what means not to think compared to calling up an image in your mind of your burial plot surrounded by people crying over your departure. That was Basil's goal in his uses of such metaphors. Death is the end we all face 16 and it brings us face to face with what matters most. Modern, secular thinkers have recognized this as well such as Steve Jobs. In a commencement address he once said, “Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.” 17 Steve Jobs was driven to greatness in part by his recognition of his limited time on this earth. He pursued what he thought most important by leaving a legacy of technological innovation. Basil evoked a six-foot plot of earth in a setting 14 George L. Kustas, “Saint Basil and the Rhetorical Tradition” in Basil of Caesarea: Christian, humanist, ascetic: a sixteen-hundredth anniversary symposium. ed. Paul J. Fedwick; Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1981), 252.