Christ and the Greeks

The Greeks are arguably the fountainhead of Western culture. Contributions to that culture were made by Near Eastern peoples before the Greeks, by the Romans who followed the Greeks, and also by the Christians who took up the legacies of Greece and Rome and creatively reshaped them in the context of biblical revelation.

This course aims to acquaint you with the providentially-arranged, and astonishingly fruitful, Greek contribution to our Christian heritage. We will explore the history, philosophy, literature, politics, ethics, and religion of the Greeks in order to illuminate how Christ both used them and corrected and transcended them for the advancement of His kingdom.

This 32-week course consists of four eight-week quarters. Each quarter students will be assigned a weekly pre-recorded lecture, reading appropriate for the week, relevant reading questions, a weekly 1.5 hour live recitation, one 1200-1500 word essay, and a quarterly exam. In the course of the year, the students will read all the texts listed below, listened to 32 lectures, write four essays and attended a minimum of 30 (ideally 32) live recitations to discuss the texts in Socratic fashion.

Course Objectives:

1. To develop the skill of closely reading a variety of texts, seeking to allow them to suggest and refine the interpretive questions we bring to them.
2. To synthesize themes and messages drawn from several types of writing about the same topic, so as to arrive at a more robust and considered view of the whole.
3. To engage with great characters and events of the past with a developing sense of their fundamental connectedness to and relevance for our own present and future.
4. To clarify and sharpen a distinctively Christian understanding of Ancient Greek culture, and refine awareness of the redemptive hope our Faith imparts to us as we strive to “think God’s thoughts after Him.”

Texts:

• Thomas R. Martin, Ancient Greece - ISBN: 0-300-08493-5
• Herodotus: The War for Greek Freedom - ISBN-10: 087220667X
• Thucydides: Justice, Power, and Human Nature - ISBN-10: 0872201686

The following sources will be provided in PDF format with the course. You may select and purchase other hardcover versions at your own discretion, though the translations and paginations may complicate live discussions.

• Homer, The Iliad
• Homer, The Odyssey
• Aeschylus, Oresteia
• Sophocles, Theban Trilogy
• Euripides, Medea, Hippolytus, Heracles
• Aristophanes, The Clouds
• Selections from Plato
• Selections from Aristotle
• Selected Plutarch’s Lives

Note: New sections of this course will open as needed. To discuss options, contact timothy.enloe@kepler.education.