All thinkers
Theologian · Patristic
St. Basil the Great
c. 330–379 · Cappadocian theology
Doctor of the Church
Byzantine
Doctor of the Church; one of the Three Holy Hierarchs; patriarch of Eastern monasticism.
Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, brother of Gregory of Nyssa and friend of Gregory Nazianzen. He fixed the Trinitarian language of one ousia and three hypostases, defended the divinity of the Holy Spirit by appeal to the Church's unwritten tradition, wrote the rules that still govern Eastern monks, founded the first great Christian hospital, and preached fiercely that the surplus of the rich belongs to the poor.
Why he matters: The Divine Liturgy that bears his name, the monastic Rule that shaped St. Benedict, and his doctrine that the Church's liturgical tradition is a source of dogma make him a pillar of both lungs of the Church.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.
Settled teaching
Its center
Open question
Beyond teaching, not condemned
Condemned error
I
God and Being · What is, and whence it is.
Can reason know that God exists?
Natural theology
Fideism or agnosticism
Natural theology
How is God related to the world?
Creation from nothing
Pantheism or emanation
Creation from nothing
Is the world governed by purpose?
Providence and final causes
Chance and mechanism
Providence and final causes
Do natures and essences really exist?
Realism
Nominalism
Realism
God's essence and His energies
Essence–energies distinction
Essence–energies distinction
Absolute simplicity
How should we speak of God?
Apophatic (negative) way
Apophatic (negative) way
Cataphatic (analogical) way
How does creation speak of God?
A book of signs and vestiges
Natures studied in their own right
A book of signs and vestiges
II
Faith, Reason and Truth · How we know, and whom we trust.
Faith and reason: who has the last word?
Between
Rationalism
Fideism
Is truth objective?
Objective truth
Relativism and pragmatism
Objective truth
Who interprets revelation?
Living Tradition and Magisterium
Private judgment
Living Tradition and Magisterium
How should Scripture be read?
Fundamentalist literalism
Critical reductionism
Fundamentalist literalism
What is theology for?
A wisdom ordered to loving
A science ordered to knowing
A wisdom ordered to loving
Does doctrine develop?
A living development
Always the same, in the same words
A living development
Are the world's learning and arts a danger or a gift?
A gift to be baptized
A danger: Athens has nothing to do with Jerusalem
A gift to be baptized
III
The Human Person · Soul, body, freedom and the Fall.
Is there a spiritual soul?
Immortal spiritual soul
Mind is brain
Immortal spiritual soul
Is the body really you?
Body–soul unity
Dualism
Body–soul unity
Are you free?
Free will
Determinism
Free will
How fallen is human nature?
Basically good
Totally depraved
Basically good
The body and its desires
Contempt for the flesh
Contempt for the flesh
Desire as its own law
Person and community
Collectivism
Individualism
Collectivism
Marriage, sex and the body's meaning
Given by nature and grace
Given by nature and grace
Defined by consent and identity
What is suffering for?
A share in the Cross
An evil to be relieved
A share in the Cross
IV
The Moral Life · Law, virtue, conscience and the good.
Is morality objective and knowable?
Natural law
Relativism
Natural law
Why is the good good?
Eternal law (intellectualism)
Divine command (voluntarism)
Eternal law (intellectualism)
Are some acts always wrong?
Intrinsically evil acts
Consequentialism
Intrinsically evil acts
Rules or character?
Morality of virtue and beatitude
Morality of obligation
Morality of virtue and beatitude
What is conscience?
Conscience bound to truth
Autonomous conscience
Conscience bound to truth
In doubtful cases
Rigorism
Rigorism
Laxism
What is happiness?
Beatitude in God
Earthly flourishing
Beatitude in God
V
Grace and Salvation · How God saves, and whom.
How does grace move the will?
Molinist
Thomist (Bañezian)
Molinist
How are we made right with God?
Infused, transforming grace
Forensic imputation
Infused, transforming grace
What is salvation for?
Deification
Pardon and escape
Deification
Hell and hope
The many are lost
The many are lost
All will be saved
Where does your eye rest in Christ: His divinity or His humanity?
The eternal Word made flesh
The eternal Word made flesh
The man Jesus of Nazareth
VI
Church and Society · Authority, the state, wealth and the nation.
Church and state
Social kingship of Christ
Laicism
Social kingship of Christ
Reform or tradition?
Guided by tradition
Remake by reason
Guided by tradition
May a Christian take up the sword?
Between
Never: the way of the Cross is nonviolence
Yes: war can be just and sometimes a duty
VII
Worship, Prayer and the Two Lungs · Liturgy, icons, the Spirit, and the See of Peter.
Liturgical development
Receive and develop organically
Reconstruct and innovate
Receive and develop organically
Icons and images
Veneration of images
Iconoclasm
Veneration of images
The way of prayer
Stillness and the Jesus Prayer
Stillness and the Jesus Prayer
Discursive meditation
The procession of the Holy Spirit
From the Father through the Son
From the Father through the Son
From the Father and the Son (Filioque)
The office of Peter
Between
Conciliarism
Universal and immediate primacy
What do the sacraments do?
Efficacious ex opere operato
Signs only
Efficacious ex opere operato
Holy Orders and the Church's constitution
A clerical Church
A clerical Church
Reformable by the people
Should the faith take the forms of each culture it enters?
The Gospel in each people's own forms
One form everywhere
The Gospel in each people's own forms
What are the Eastern Catholic Churches?
Sister Churches with their own rights and theology
Rites of the one Roman Church
Sister Churches with their own rights and theology
Contemplation or action?
Contemplation: the one thing needful
Action: the apostolate and the works of mercy
Contemplation: the one thing needful