Physics in the Hexameron of Saint Basil The Great

A book of Bojan Tomic Physics in the Hexameron of St Basil the Great  has been published in the edition of St Sava, upon the ordinal number 18, by the Diocesan administrative board of the Diocese of Zica,  with the blessing of Bishop Hrizostom o fZica.

The book represents a review of a physicist - a scientist on theological and philosophical themes of the creation of the world. We must emphasize that this work was being created for many years and finally was shaped under the mentorship of Professor Dr Ilija Maric from the Faculty of Sciences, mother faculty and the author itself.

The book is divided in three parts consisting of several chapters: the first part of the book, which comes after the Foreword, represents an introduction to Basil the Great (Life, Works, The Hexameron), the second partof the book consists of chapters: Time, Elements, Motion, Physics and the third part of the book consists of two chapters: Faith and reason. From the names ofthe themes we can see that the author let readers learn about theological and historical background of Basil the Great and his work, indicating that the theme of the book is the writing of  St Basil- the Hexameron (The Six Days of Creation). Other part of the book represents philosophical and physical treatise on the most important themes which were dealt by Basil the Great in his work.

A first category in the book is Time. The second category is Elements: Sky and Earth with special emphasis on various interpretations of sky by the Pre-Socratic philosophers and Aristotle, but particularly St Basil.  Then a concept of Earth is described, with very original conclusion, for scientist, on defining the term Invisible Earth. Also abouta term of water is discussed, beginning with Thales, to Aristotle and Basil; with an enumeration of physical characteristics of water: thickness of layer of water, transmittance of water, stillness of water, visibility and reflexivity. After water, the author talks about air, and starts with Anaximen, who taught of air as a principle of being, and then goes over Pitagoreans, Empedocles, Leucippos, to  Plato and Aristotle. The next element that Mr Tomic is talking about is fire, which has always inspired people, and therefore for Anaximander, the Sun is the purest fire, as the author points out, and further deals with relation between fire and eternity, warmth and eternity, fire and warmth.

Bojan Tomic, as a physicist, defines the subject of movement in a special section of a book.

The last chapter in this section of the book is simply called the Physics, where the author demonstrates one supreme thought power of St. Basil, after the great number of ,,wisdom theories" analysis, which were, by their logical conception, pretty fragile to prove. According to natural and unwritten laws, Mr Tomic asks two key questions, firstly as a scientist, and then as a Christian, what is the creation like and what happens to physics, and by answering he tries to provoke modern scientists and philosophers, which have already, in the West, accepted the conciliation between science and theologization. Author points out that physics of time directs our mind towards the idea of eternity.

In the conclusion, author stresses that thework was organised in order to process the concepts in the chapters, whichrepresent physics, and by going into further analysis he wanted to show thecharacteristics of Basil's physics in the essay The Hexameron. According to theauthor this book is a story of our world, relation between God and space, timeand being.

On the first page of the book is icon of Saint Basil the Great made by Darko Spajic. And this icon represents a wish of the author to make physics God-breathed and with its help to come to God.