Read Like a Bee
Introduction#
Many of the earliest Church Fathers borrowed terminology from Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics while simultaneously criticizing the presuppositions and conclusions of these same philosophers.
Basil’s Honybee Analogy#
Saint Basil the Great, the erudite bishop and theologian from Cappadocia, described this process by analogy in his Oration to Young Men when he pointed to the activity of the honeybee:
“Just as the bee goes from flower to flower taking only what is most beneficial from each, so should the Christian read secular literature with discrimination, gleaning only what is most useful from such writers.”1
— St. Basil the Great, Address to Young Men on the Right Use of Greek Literature
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St. Basil the Great, Address to Young Men on the Right Use of Greek Literature, in Letters, vol. 4, trans. Roy J. Deferrari, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934), 391. Alternate translation available at Tertullian.org (F.M. Padelford, 1902), §IV. ↩︎