Some Additional Observations On St. Ambrose's Concept of Matter

article can be summarized as follows: 1. In contrast with his dependence on St. Basil in almost the whole Exameron, St. Ambrose goes his own way in his discussion of matter. He does not understand the term 'earth' literally but allegorically, as indication of matter. 2. In this respect he follows the trend of the exegesis which originated from the first contact between the explanation of the Bible and Greek philosophy, especially in the School of Alexandria. 3. The interpretation of matter as active cause, even to the extent that God is said to be an imitator or a disciple of matter, seems to be a contribution by St. Ambrose himself. As to the last conclusion, a correction has to be made. In his De natura boni, ch. 18, St. Augustine, treating on the origin of evil, says: neque enim vel illa materies, quam antiqui hylen dixerunt, malum dicenda est. Non eam dico, quam Manichaeus hylen appellat dementissima vanitate, nesciens quid loquatur, formatricem corporum : unde recte illi dictum est quod alterum deum inducat: nemo enim formare et creare corpora nisi deus potest: neque enim creantur nisi cum eis modus et species et ordo subsistit. Clearly Augustine is arguing here against a similar idea of matter as active cause, for the concept of God as a discipulus or imitator materiae is nothing but a further elaboration of the idea of matter as a formatrix corporum and a alter deus. Thus in both St. Augustine and St. Ambrose we find the same reductio ad absurdum of a strictly dualistic system-the formulation given by St. Ambrose only represents a further development of the argument: if matter is active and a form-giving cause, then God, for being d ependent on His material, can indeed be described as imitator or a

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