The Shepherd, October 2008
THE FOLLOWING WORK, by the Great Church Father of the fourth century, St Basil the Great, the Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, was kindly submitted by its translator, Rev’d Dr Nick Needham, a pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church in Inverness. His translation is fresh, and happily lacks the ponderous “ecclessiasticalese” of the nineteenth century translations of the Fathers. Were it not for the fact that St Basil addresses the piece to Young Men only, rather than to men and women, to whom it is equally pertinent, one might think that it had been written in our own generation, so exactly does it address the temptations that young people face today. Indeed people of our generation of any age can read it with great benefit, especially as it has become the custom in our day for people only to put their teens behind them as they approach their seventies! There is also a tendency among some Orthodox Christians, particularly converts, to consider only that which is “orthodox” (usually as defined by their own limited understanding) as good, and everything “outside” as of no worth or harmful. St Basil shows us that such narrowness is unsound and itself un-Orthodox. We would only add one caveat for the contemporary reader: St Basil, in speaking of Pagans and Paganism, is, naturally, speaking of the classical Paganism, known in his time, which in many ways was a striving towards the truth, and thus to Christ. His words should not be applied to the reconstructed New Age Paganism of our own days, which rather than being a striving, oftentimes perhaps misguided, toward what is right, is more often a rejection of the Christian message and a deliberate and devilish attempt to obscure or defile it.
TO YOUNG MEN:
ON HOW THEY MIGHT DERIVE
PROFIT FROM PAGAN LITERATURE
By St Basil the Great of Caesarea
Introduction. St Basil’s fatherly advice to his spiritual children: we should accept what is useful in Pagan literature, & disregard the rest.
MY CHILDREN, many things persuade me to give you the following advice. I would advise you about matters I judge to be of the greatest importance, which will surely be to your advantage, if you accept them. I am of a ripe age; I have now been taught by many experiences; I have had my full share in the ups and downs of good and bad fortune, and these have made me well-acquainted about human affairs. So I am equipped to point out the safest path to those who are just starting out in life.
To add strength to my advice, consider that, next after your parents, I stand closest to you in natural relationship. Indeed, I love you as much as your own fathers do. And unless my judgment fails me, I am sure that you love me as much as you love your parents. So if you gladly hear me out, you will be like those praised by Hesiod - “he is good who listens to a good adviser.”1 But if you will not listen to me... Well, I would not wish to say anything unpleasant; you may, however, remember the whole of what Hesiod says - “The best man is he who immediately sees for himself what ought to be done; he is also good who listens to a good adviser; but whoever fails either to think for himself, or to follow good advice, is utterly useless.”
Every day you listen to various teachers. You study the writings of the famous men of ancient times. Now then, do not think it strange that I myself have found out something of special benefit to you! In fact, this is the very advice I wish to offer you: do not blindly surrender your minds to these men, and follow them wherever they might lead you. Rather, accept from them what is useful, but disregard the rest. How to distinguish between the two is the lesson I will be teaching you from this point on.
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