Sin as the Moral Sickness in St. Basil the Great’s Homily "Quod Deus non est auctor malorum"
Ewa Osek
Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski , PolandAbstract
This paper concerns literary sources of the homily Quod Deus non est auctor malorum, written by St. Basil the Great in 369 AD. St. Basil never named his sources, but lexical analysis shows both influences of the philosophical writers (Plato, Stoics, Plotinus) and the Alexandrian theologians (Clemens of Alexandria, Origen). This homily deals with four problems: 1) the cause of evil, 2) two different kinds of evil: sin (injustice) and misery, 3) the Divine therapy of the ”curable” sinners, 4) the State of „incurable” sinners (the Heli). Ali these items imply the Platonic allegory rendering injustice (that is, sin) as a corporeal sickness or illness.
Keywords:
Basil the Great, sin, Plato, Stoicism, Plotinus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, cause of evil, kinds of evil, sinner, Quod Deus non est auctor malorumReferences
Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski
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