JOURNAL ON ORIGEN, BASIL, GREGORY THE GREAT 1

JOURNAL ON ORIGEN, BASIL, GREGORY THE GREAT

Alberto Hadad
University of Dallas
The Art of Reading
Professor: Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson
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Introduction

Reading the Bible is different than reading literature not only because it is “inspired by

the Spirit of God” (Origen, De Principiis, 1) but because of the broad array of topics and literary

genres it encloses. Normally, when one approaches literature, there is one specific message

within a determined context and time frame in which a message is transmitted through words.

The author is normally one and therefore the work may be seen from a specific perspective.

Another topic discussed in Monday´s class discussion was that, in general, literature is classified

in a specific literary genre and therefore it can be analyzed within a specific framework. On the

other hand, the Holy Scripture is a “book of books” that has a single author in the Holy Spirit

who inspires many different human authors that write both fiction and non-fiction stories in

different historical contexts (professor remark during Monday´s discussion). What unifies the

whole book is the Story of Salvation of which the people of Israel are protagonists in pursuit of

the final encounter with Jesus Christ as the Alpha and Omega.

Sanctified Vision

From a broader perspective, what Reno and O´Keefe (2005) describe as the Sanctified

Vision being the way the Fathers of the Church read the Bible is a perspective that can be applied

to the reading of secular literature. This doesn´t mean that the reader is trying to force any type

of literature to have some kind of Divine message but to understand through the lens of the faith

that everything that is done or in this case written is permitted by the Holy Spirit. This way of

understanding is that of a person of faith as happened with the Church Fathers who had a rule of

faith (Reno and O´Keefe, 118) from which they interpreted the Holy Scriptures. A reader who is

a person of faith and is used to reading the Bible will develop a world view that allows to

approach any type of reading from the perspective of the faith. For example, a faithful reader
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could perceive in any reading certain “seeds of the word” in the virtuous actions of characters or

in the message the author is trying to communicate which, in a sense, if it is good, true, and

beautiful to some extent, will have its final origin in the Holy Spirit even though the author is not

fully aware of this action of even if he or she is not a person of faith. This standpoint of the

reader could also be described as that of a person open to the mystery of how God works in the

human heart through different ways.

Practices of reading the Bible applied to reading literature

Basil the Great in his letter to “young men, on how they might derive profit from pagan

literature” says that the purpose of the human life on earth is to prepare for the other life.

Therefore, he says that whatever contributes to that life (including pagan literature by

implication) must be loved and pursued with all our strength (Basil, p. 183). He describes the

Holy Scripture as the guide for eternal life while pagan literature serves as training during this

life through which a person “must associate with poets and writers of prose and orators and with

all men from whom there is any prospect of benefit to the care of our soul” (Basil, p. 183). In

other words, one could say that a person of faith who reads pagan literature should always search

for virtue to imitate and vice to reject as in the example about the writer Prodicus who presents

the election between the good and the bad way by Heracles (Basil, p. 186). In another passage

Basil indicates “not to give attention to all they write without exception” (Basil, p. 184) but to

that of which one can bear fruit as the bees that store that with benefit their needs for producing

honey.

There is another advice by Basil who invites the reader to contrast the examples of virtue

in secular literature with Cristian virtue like in the case of offering the other cheek (Basil, p.

187). Using this example, it can be concluded that the outlook of the Christian when reading
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literature has to be always his own set of values to contrast with what the author presents. This

will allow the reader to extract not only literal significance of the reading but also spiritual

through allegory and even from the typological perspective by encountering prefiguration of

Christ in different scenarios that, without being revelated Word, point to the Eternal Truth

present in the Logos.

Conclusion
Reading pagan literature through the lens of virtue is a fantastic way to bear fruit in terms

of nurturing the soul according to Basil the Great. Extending his idea, it is also very fruitful to

read from the perspective of the fullness of Revelation in Jesus Christ. In other words, everything

that is human (true, beautiful, good) although not perfect, points out to its higher end or model in

the Incarnate Word. In this sense, it is correct to say that one can read almost any type of

literature from the typological perspective and therefore apply the different strategies applied by

the Fathers of the Church when reading the Holy Scripture. The “art of reading” is to encounter

meaning through a dialogue between the reader, the text and the author with the guidance of the

Holy Spirit.