“When I hear ‘grass’, I think of grass”

Language and nature in Basil of Caesarea’s Hexaemeron, set against the realism of Quentin Meillassoux

“When I hear ‘grass’, I think of grass.” This statement by Basil of Caesarea (4^th century), from his Homilies on the Hexaemeron, is the starting point of my current research in systematic theology. I study how Basil connects language, sense perception and the reality of the created world, and what this connection implies for a theology of creation.