Darren Sarisky - Theological Exegesis and Theological Anthropology in Basil of Caesarea's Hexaemeron 1: What is Required to Listen to Sermons on Genesis?

In Basil of Caesarea’s Hexaemeron 1, he introduces his first sermon on Genesis, and indeed his entire cycle of homilies on the creation narrative, by indicating that listening properly to his preaching requires one to be a certain kind of person.  More specifically, members of the Cappadocian’s audience need to have undergone purification.  The paper explicates what Basil means by purification and demonstrates how this requirement sets up key theological moves that he makes in Hexaemeron 1 and the rest of his sermon series on Genesis 1.  Modern readers of Basil’s text are bound to find his purity stipulation odd, used as we are to the notion of a universal rationality, i.e., the assumption that rational thought does not require any sort of formation or background but is something in which all can engage.