Christian education and pagan literature

“Basil of Caesarea (ca. 330–79) is probably best known for his many contributions to Christian theological discourse in the second half of the fourth century. Basil’s writings on trinitarian theology were instrumental in helping to resolve the Arian controversy about the nature of Christ, offering a vigorous defense of Nicene theology and paving the way for its triumph at the Council of Constantinople in 381, just two years after his death. Basil is also celebrated for his works on asceticism and monasticism; his life and ministry, which were deeply informed by these perspectives, would pave the way for later ascetical bishops in his mold such as John Chrysostom and Gregory the Great. As Basil’s thoughts on the ascetical life matured, he came to organize one of the first monastic communities in the Greek-speaking world, earning him the title of Father of Eastern Monasticism. As with the other church fathers examined in this book, Basil’s asceticism serves as an important background theme for rightly interpreting his work, and we will engage with it throughout this chapter.

“Most relevantly for this book, Basil provides us with a new lens for considering the formational impact of what we teach in the classroom. Over the course of the fourth century, church leaders such as Basil wrestled with the place of traditional pagan literature within Christian education. On the one hand, Christian scholars would come to identify the Scriptures as an alternative body of literature that could serve as the foundation for a more distinctively Christian education, even as the basic exegetical and rhetorical practices of the Greco-Roman schools were adapted for the new context. On the other, though, familiarity with the classics of Greek literature was such a long-ingrained part of classical education that it was difficult to conceive of dispensing with them all together. Even John Chrysostom, who as we saw in the previous chapter of this book seemed to suggest setting aside pagan literature in its entirety in favor of an exclusive focus on the Scriptures, nevertheless drew extensively on his own classical education in rhetoric for both his style and content. It was, however, Chrysostom’s younger contemporary, Basil of Caesarea, who in his ‘Address to Young Men’ would most famously and influentially articulate a mediating view on the role of pagan literature that might be as close to what would come to be the consensus position on the issue as we can find in early Christianity.

“To set this text in its proper context, it helps to understand the specific political and cultural forces that shifted this issue from being a largely theoretical discussion about education to one that in fact had profound real-world consequences. In 362, the pagan emperor Julian (known to history as ‘the Apostate’), determined to stop the rising influence of Christianity on Roman society and restore paganism as the religion of the empire, issued an edict banning Christians from teaching classical literature, costing Christian teachers their jobs at traditional schools of rhetoric and denying Christians the ability to make use of the pagan classics for apologetic purposes. While Julian’s program of religious reformation came to a quick end with his abrupt death the following year, his reign illustrates how continued tensions between Christianity and paganism were often centered on matters of education, which should not be surprising, given the classical world’s universally agreed-upon understanding of education as essentially formative in nature.”

— from Kyle R. Hughes, Teaching for Spiritual Formation: A Patristic Approach to Christian Education in a Convulsed Age (Cascade Books, 2022). Kyle Hughes talked about this book on Volume 160 of the Journal.