Notes of a Christian Sophist on Greek Literature: The Ad adulescentes of Basil the Great
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/emerita.2018.04.1733Keywords:
Basil the Great, Third Sophistic, rhetoric, theology, Paideía, Greek literatureAbstract
The Cappadocian Basil the Great, one of the most influential of the Church Fathers, wrote a work on the educational value of Greek literature. The contents of the work suggests that the author aimed to establish a clear border between Christianity and paganism; nevertheless, the formal analysis of the text clearly reveals that its author can be considered as a Christian sophist, or as a Christian among sophists. The aim of this paper is to analyse how Basil dialogues with the Greek literary tradition, understood as an unquestionable store of knowledge wich he can imitated, and even criticize, and to observe the formal resources he uses to adapt the greek paideia to the cultural environment of the fourth century AD, placing it at the service of this theological convictions.
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