SOURCE: "Basil on the World Stage" in Basil of Caesarea, University of California Press, 1994, pp. 270-317, 365-87.

In the essay reprinted below, Rousseau describes Basil's efforts to mediate ecclesiastical schisms and doctrinal disputes beyond the boundaries of the see of Caesarea. The critic contends that Basil's attempts to construct a cadre of like-minded bishops who would support the cause of orthodoxy were frequently motivated as much by collegiality and personal vindication as by theological ideology.

'Lifting his head high and casting the eye of his soul in every direction, he obtained a mental vision of the whole world through which the word of salvation had been spread'.¹ So Gregory of Nazianzus described his friend. 'A trumpet penetrating the immensity of space, or a voice of God encompassing the world, or a universal earthquake resulting from some new wonder or miracle, his voice and mind were all of these'...