"The 'pagans' know the examination of conscience, [which] consists
in scrutinizing oneself in the light of norms, [an] exercise that
permits, in fact, a correction and a therapy of the passions of the soul (anger,
pride, . . .). But that 'practice of
self' is envisaged by Basil of Caesarea through a parable of Scripture, which
imparts a new dimension to the examination of conscience: 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' The appeal to the divine mercy is unknown in
such spiritual exercises among the pagans, the 'me' of whom is, in a sense, the
seat of salvation, of self-justification, [the seat] of a pardon that one
offers oneself [(pardon auto-addressé)]. One would
do well to compare the paragraph from Basil [(above)] with another from Seneca: 'I avail myself of this privilege, and
every day I plead my cause before the bar of self. When the light has been removed from sight,
and my wife . . . has become silent, I scan the whole of my day and retrace all
my deeds and words. I conceal nothing
from myself, I omit nothing. For why
should I shrink from any of my mistakes, when I may commune thus with
myself? "See that you never do that again;
I will pardon you this time"' (De
ira III.36.3-4[, trans. Basore]).
The Christian here takes leave of the habits of the [pagan] philosopher,
in order to take up those of the publican of the Gospel, who awaits the pardon
of a God who transcends the 'self'. For,
for Basil and his coreligionists, the tribunal of conscience is no longer the
temporary jurisdiction of this world, which has not in itself the means of
salvation. If the orator [of the Basilean homily
on Dt 15:9] is [a] debtor to the culture of the schools, and to its modes of
discourse, one cannot for that reason neglect the important inflections imparted
by him to this motif of profane origin.
The prosochè is integrated by
Basil of Caesarea into a new context, which is no longer at all that of Stoic self-transfiguration. This effort of the soul to be in conformity
with itself, to compel itself [(se laisser)] to be guided by norms, takes
on a renewed meaning in [the context of] a life conceived of and experienced henceforth
as [one] fought over between God and the devil.
The prosuchè takes the shape of [a] technique of moral survival
in fear of the [Last] Judgment and the hope of salvation. . . . One has therefore to do with an assimilation
on many levels: Deuteronomy is read
through profane philosophy to be sure, but profane philosophy is itself
recontextualized within the framework of the Christian drama and eschatology.
". . . In the
ethical order as in the gnoseological, Basil of Caesarea de-centers the prescription
of the narrow frame of the little theatre of the 'self' by [means of] a superior
comprehension of what the self is: a
creature who owes himself to [(se doit à)] God, whom he can know and
love as his Creator and Benefactor, and whom he must fear [(redouter)] as his
Judge."
Arnaud Perrot, "L'attention
à soi-même chez Basile de Césarée," Communio: revue catholique internationale 40, no. 5
(sep-oct 2015): 35-37 (27-37).
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