The fourth century was a period in which writers increasingly showed keen interest in understanding the nature of creation and the relationship between a creator God and the material world. Driven by doctrinal battles, philosophical dilemmas, political philosophies, and a sea change in the relationship between the church and the state, the writers explored issues that pressed upon them by interpreting Genesis 1-3 wrestling with relating God, cosmos and humanity. Often more than mere exploration, exegesis of Genesis and the study of nature was pursued for apologetic purposes.
These churchmen, including notably the Cappadocians, Ephrem, Ambrose, and Augustine, built upon (or separated themselves from) two sources: 1. Origen; and 2. middle and neo-Platonism. Less certain as a direct source, but perhaps quite important was Athansius’s Contra Gentes and de Incarnatione. Of critical import is the genre used in many cases to explore Genesis: sermons. Those works, which were distributed as sermons were arguably bound to have greater and more diverse influence on the thought life of the communities. They also are a genre distinct from dogmatic writings and so need to be studied in an appropriate manner, treated distinctly from other writings.
Investigating Ambrose’s Hexameral sermons (which were based on Basil’s), this paper will explore his view of created nature and his descriptions of the natural world noting the parallels to Athanasius’ view of nature and corruption; it will also consider the extent to which the notions in the sermons can be said to present the full extent of his understanding as they were sermons meant for broader consumption and not dogmatic works (many commentators have compared these unfavourably with commentaries others wrote). These sermons bear more investigation, as they were influential, on Augustine not the least, and contributed to the formation of Christian understandings of the natural world.
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