On Christian Doctrine and Practice

As a priest and then bishop, Basil of Caesarea devoted sophisticated treatises to the Trinity and to articulating his vision of the Christian life. In his homilies Basil distilled the best of his moral and theological teachings into forms readily accessible to his flock – and now to us. During his lifetime, Basil was recognized as one of the foremost rhetoricians of his day – a man supremely skilled in the art of speaking, instructing, persuading, and delighting at the same time. These rhetorical skills are on full display in the eleven Moral Homilies translated in this volume, seven of which appear in English for the first time.