My dissertation deals with three Greek sermons dating from the 4th century A.D. on the creation of man and Paradise. These texts are handed down under the name of Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa and have only been studied in a limited way, focusing on the problem of authorship, mostly by looking at the manuscripts. In this presentation, I will present the conclusions of my research on this problem and focus on one of the three texts.
The main part of this paper covers the sermon De Paradiso, which has not been studied before. Most of the manuscripts containing the sermons De creatione hominis do not include the sermon on Paradise, often because of doubts with regard to its authenticity. Most manuscripts that contain the sermon attribute it to Basil of Caesarea, but on what grounds? I will examine the (theological) ideas present in the text, most of which the author adopted from other patristic fathers – such as Origen – and pagan authors – such as Plato and Stoic philosophers. I will try to answer the following questions: (1) how did the author combine references with a diverse background? (2) Did his approach to the sources differ depending on the religious background and are their origins still recognizable? (3) Did he introduce new interpretations of sources or did he alter existing interpretations? (4) Did he express ideas not found in previous sources? And (5) can the ideas be linked to the line of thinking of (one) of the Cappadocian Fathers?
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