Hexaemeron

Hexaemeron, from a Greek word meaning six days, refers in one sense to the Genesis creation narrative itself, and in a second sense to the didactic genre of Jewish and Christian literature that the Genesis narrative inspired, in which an individual work of commentary, homily or treatise on the six days of creation is itself also called a hexaemeron. The first Christian example of the genre is the Hexaemeron of Basil of Caesarea, and later authors who wrote in the form include Augustine of Hippo, Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Edessa and Bonaventure. These works commonly range across cosmology, science, theology and the nature of God, and interpreters within the genre generally split between a literal mode associated with the School of Antioch and an allegorical mode associated with the School of Alexandria, while still agreeing on points such as God's primacy as creator and the created rather than eternal nature of the world.