Patristics - Examerão - Vol. 26

Ambrose of Milan's doctrine forms a surprising system of Christian truths, well-balanced and complete in the essentials. His texts are of great literary beauty, often poetic, inspired above all by the descriptions. The Hexaemeron, that is, the account of the six days of the creation of the world, narrated in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, is inspired by Basil's work of the same name. In his Hexaemeron, composed of 9 homilies around 387/388, Ambrose endorses the literal interpretation that each 24-hour day corresponds to one or more of God's creative actions, who finally rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath. His straightforward reading of creation conforms to the general intention of the Fathers to undo the contradiction between spirit and matter, absolute Being and contingent beings, a characteristic of Hellenistic philosophy. His approach to Scripture is always humble and simple. Ambrose's methodology in the Hexaemeron almost always consists in starting from the literal sense of Scripture and drawing theological and moral inferences from it. The work was completed in the perfection of man; in him God rested, because, being mercy, he had someone to forgive sins; thus was prefigured the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ, who rested on the cross, redeeming humanity.