From Achilles to Christ

The title of this post is the title of a book I just got for my Classical Literature class. It arrived in the mail last week, and I started reading it Friday while I was overseeing a study hall (a one-person study hall, I might add, so I really have no distractions and it's like a free period!). I LOVE IT! Suddenly I was experiencing the handed-to-me-on-a-silver-platter intellectual stimulation which was such a daily occurence in college, but it so hard to come by these days. I kept interrupting my hard-working student in order to exclaim on the latest! (Poor kid.)

Anyway, the premise of the book is that the ancient pagan cultures, created by God with eternity in their hearts, were seeking after truth and, although they did not have God's special revelation, did have aspects of truth. Therefore, we can read the pagan classics looking for those glimmers of truth. The author even suggests that there are elements in the classics that foreshadow the coming of Christ, just as Abraham and Isaac foreshadowed it. Cool, huh?

I had noticed this repeatedly the first year I taught this class - this foreshadowing thing. The prime example is probably the Centaur (who had commited no wrong) giving up his life so that Prometheus (whom Zeus was punishing) could go free. It's all over the Greeks' writing. And this book finally gives me an understanding of why this is. It's SO COOL! This book is really going to help my teaching.

Oh, and then the author discusses the fact that Jesus and Paul both used the Greeks' own writing to point them to the truth. You know the verse about "except a grain (or corn) of wheat fall to the ground...?" Well, the author hypothesizes (though he says there's no definite proof) that Jesus used those specific words to point out to a Greek audience that was caught up in the Demeter cult (she was the goddess of corn and a vague idea of resurrection) that He was the true fulfillment of what they were seeking. Cool, eh?

Here are a few quotes to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about:

"If it is the living Messiah...that is the source of truth, then it is possible for that truth (albeit in a lesser, fragmented form) to appear throughout the imaginative literature of the ancient pre-Christian world."

"Those timeless works of ancient Greece and Rome that record the musings of humanity's greatest seekers and yearners will contain traces, remnants and intimations of that wisdom which made us."

"The Greco-Roman understanding of virtue was, in its purest form, not antithetical to but prophetic of the biblical Christian virtues of faith, hope and love."

"Were we not all created in God's image, and though we are all fallen from our original state, does not a spark of divine fire remain in each of us?"

AHHHHH! This stuff is SO down my alley:) Hurrah for someone who is smart, and can express it better than I can!

Okay, the coolest news of all in this is that Markos has written another book, and that one is about TENNYSON my all time favorite poet! That one's more expensive, and I'm not teaching it this year so I couldn't really justify spending the money. But it sure is on my Christmas list, boy howdy!

Can you believe that this is part of my job?! What a life...

(Katie - you should definitely read this book...)