St. Basil

He is well known as an early church father and doctor of the church. He was born around 330AD. He received the best education in pagan and Christian culture available in his day, studying in his native Cappadocia, Constantinople, and Athens.

However, his life changed course decidedly when he forsook a worldly career to embrace the monastic life. He lived a life of prayer and tranquility, far from the turbulence of city life until his bishop. Eusebius, called upon St. Basil in 364 to help defend orthodox Christianity against the Arian emperor, Valens. In addition, in 370, he was chosen to succeed Eusebius as bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. He found himself in the thick of the fray between those Orthodox, Catholic who confessed ChristÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їs full divinity and the various Arian parties who taught that Jesus was not equal to God and Father.

Moreover, he was one of the most influential of the Greek Fathers of the Church during the Ð'ÐŽÐ'oGolden Age of the FathersÐ'ÐŽÐ'± (the 4th and 5th centuries). Essentially, his rule for monks set the tone for religious life in the East and his book, On the Holy Sprit laid the groundwork for the clarification of the SpiritÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їs full divinity that was defined by the first Council of Constantinople in 380AD. He finally died in 379AD, the year before the First Council of Constantinople finished the Creed.

Among his noticeable writings, On the Holy Spirit is one of BasilÐ'ÐŽÐ'Їs remarkable writings. Rather than various reflections come up in my mind, I would say that this book is full of quotes that I desire to keep in mind and to share with others who have been read this book. Basically, this book consists of 30 chapters which have each subtitle. It is very helpful to get information of main idea and what would be in advance. Rather than factors in surface, this book seems valuable because it was written at the time when