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Examined Doctrine

Basil the Great on Election & predestination

C.330 – 379 · GREEK FATHER
NOT LOCATED IN A SOURCENO POSITION FOUND°
NO STANCE — AND WHY

No position located in this corpus

Searched in the sources read for this figure and not found. A limit of the reading rather than a claim about the figure — a source not yet read could settle it.

THE POSITION

Not addressed in the texts read. His account of the will points away from unconditional election, but that is inference from a different question rather than a position.

WHAT OTHERS HOLD HERE

Unconditional — grounded in God's free choiceAQUINAS · AUGUSTINE · VODDIE BAUCHAM · CALVIN · JONATHAN EDWARDS · TIM KELLER · SECOND LONDON BAPTIST CONFESSION · LUTHER · JOHN MACARTHUR · GAVIN ORTLUND · JOHN OWEN · JUSTIN PETERS · JOHN PIPER · R.C. SPROUL · CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON · WESTMINSTER CONFESSION · ZWINGLI
Conditional — grounded in foreseen faithJACOBUS ARMINIUS · CHRYSOSTOM · PHILIP MELANCHTHON · WESLEY
Affirmed, held alongside real human responsibility, treated as non-dividingJOSH HOWERTON
See all 26 figures on election & predestination →

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Bishop of Caesarea and monastic legislator. Supplied the Trinitarian vocabulary the church still uses — one ousia, three hypostases — and argued the Spirit's deity in De Spiritu Sancto while deliberately never calling him God outright.

7 OF 11 POSITIONS QUOTED
Everything Basil the Great holds →
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"Basil the Great on Election & predestination", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/basil/election (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/basil/election).

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