Western Thought 1 Syllabus - Amazon S3...Western Thought 1 Syllabus Goals and Expectations By the end of the school year students should be able to discern worldview issues relating

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Western Thought 1 Syllabus Goals and Expectations

By the end of the school year students should be able to discern worldview issues

relating to the period of the Greco-Roman through the Middle Ages. We explore God’s

Word and discover what it has to say about the issues we confront during this class.

Students will: 1. Have a good understanding and ability to define and describe a Biblical worldview. 2. Analyze ideologies and philosophies based on the Seven Worldview Questions. 3. Recognize the progression of key ideas during the Greco-Roman period. 4. Follow the impact of thought and philosophy from the Greco-Roman into the Middle

Ages and be able to discuss its causes and key ideas. 5. Recognize and be able to discuss the impact of these two movements on the culture

through the arts and literature. 6. Construct, articulate, and defend their personal worldview.

Summer reading: Homer’s Odyssey. Complete the portions of the Western Civilizations

Workbook for the Odyssey.

All coursework should be completed BEFORE students attend class.

➡ Coursework for that week is due and checked on Tuesdays. ✓ This is given a grade based on the amount of work you have completed. ✓ It is worth 25 points each week. ✓ Your coursework must be evident in your workbook by taking good and thorough

notes in the spaces provided.

➡ Late assignments will be discounted by one letter grade every class they are late.

➡ Quizzes or in-class writing assignment are given periodically to test your level of

preparedness.

➡ Essay assignments are due on Thursdays.. ✓ Essays and other typed assignments must follow the MLA Handbook for

Composition classes. ✓ Essays must all be turned in to turnitin.com. ✓ The next class after essays have been graded, the commented essays must

be printed and brought to class for 10 points.

➡ Grades will be based on class participation, completion of coursework in book, essays,

projects, reading and other written assignments.

“But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense

to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness

and respect…” -1 Peter 3:15

WESTERN THOUGHT 1

First Quarter Syllabus—dates subject to change

➡ When questions in the workbook cover the viewing of a video, we will watch it in class. ➡ Tuesdays: Your books will be submitted during class or at study hall.

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➡ Thursdays: if an essay is due, post them to turnitin.com on the due date. ➡ Either day: Expect an in-class writing assignment.

DATE ASSIGNMENT DUE

Week 1

8/23-25

• Read: “On the Reading of Old Books,” C. S. Lewis ➡

**SEE APPENDIX B** 8/25 Thur

•

•

•

•

Read: The Universe Next Door, James Sire o Chapter 1

Read: The God Who Is There, Francis Schaeffer o Appendix A:

The Question of Apologetics [pg. 175-187] o Finding the

Point of Tension [pg. 129-136] o From the Point of Tension to the Gospel [pg. 137-142] o Applying the Gospel [pg. 143-148]

Read: [Quine; Introduction 19-20] Read: Daniel 2

8/30 Tues • Complete: [Quine; Introduction 5-6] The Universe Next Door

• Complete: [Quine; Introduction 10-16] Schaeffer

• Complete: [Quine; Introduction 19] Daniel 2

Week 2

8/30-9/1

•

•

•

•

•

•

Read: [Quine; BWV 3-11] How to study the Bible Read: Genesis 1-11 Read: Gen. 1:1; Psalm 90:2; John 17: 5, 24; Eph. 1:4; 1 Peter 1:18-20; Titus 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:9 Read: Gen. 1:2, 26; Gen. 2:22; Isaiah 6:8; John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:10; Col. 1:26, 17; 1 Cor. 8:6; Jeremiah 10:10; Rev. 4:11; Hebrews 11:3; 2 Peter 3:5; Psalm 33:6, 9; Psalm 148:5 Read: Psalm 136 Read: Genesis in Space and Time, Francis Schaeffer o

Chapter 1: Creation

9/08 Thur

• Complete: [Quine; BWV 3-11] How to study the Bible

First Quarter Western Thought 1

DATE ASSIGNMENT DUE

Week 3

9/06-08

Labor Day (celebrated): No classes Tuesday

• Read: [Quine; BWV 17-18, 21] No Final Conflict • Read: Genesis 1, 2 and 5:1,2 • Read: The God Who is There [pg. 102-105] • Read: Genesis in Space and Time o Chapter 2: Differentiation

and the Creation of Man o Chapter 3: God and His Universe

9/13 Tues

• Complete: [Quine; BWV 13-23] Creation

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➡ Review: [Quine, GRWV 97-106] Odyssey books 1-4

Week 4

9/13-15

• Read: Genesis 3

• Read: Genesis in Space and Time o Chapter 4: The

Point of Decision o Chapter 5: The Space Time Fall and Its Results

• Read: Genesis 3 and 4

• Read: Genesis in Space and Time o Chapter 6: The

Two Humanities • Read: Genesis 5-7

• Read: Genesis in Space and Time o Chapter 7 Noah

and the Flood

9/20 Tues

• Complete: [Quine; BWV 24-28] Evil & Suffering • Complete: [Quine; BWV 29-35] Separations, Splits, Schisms

➡ Review: [Quine; GRWV 107-110] Odyssey books 5-8

Week 5

9/20-22

• Read: Genesis 8:1-12:3 • Read: Genesis in Space and Time o Chapter 8: From

Noah to Babel to Abraham 9/27 Tues

• Complete: [Quine; BWV 37-41] A New Beginning


Week 6

9/27-29

• Read: Job 1-3 • Read: Job 4:1-7:21 • Read: Job 8:1-10:22 • Read: Job 11:1-14:22

10/04 Tues • Complete: [Quine; BWV 54-55] Job -The Greatest of the Men of

the East • Complete: [Quine; BWV 61-63] You Call This Comfort?


10/06 Thur

❖ Due Wednesday: [Syllabus Appendix A] Essay #1

First Quarter Western Thought 1

DATE ASSIGNMENT DUE

Week 7

10/04-06

•

•

•

• •

Read: Job 15:1-17:16 Read: Job 18:1-19:29 Read: Job 20:1-21:34 Read: Job 22:1-24:25 Read: Job 25:1-26:14

10/11 Thur • Complete: [Quine; BWV 67-69] Cracked Teapots

• Complete: [Quine; BWV 73-74] Moral or Amoral Universe

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Week 8

10/11-13

•

• •

Read: Job 27:1-31:40 Read: Job 32:1-37:24 Read: Job 38:1-42:17

10/18 Tues • Complete: [Quine; BWV 81] Content? ... Discontent?

• Complete: [Quine; BWV 93-100] The Bible & God Speaks with

Job


Second Quarter Western Thought 1

➡ Plan ahead! Don’t get caught with a lot of reading one week and no reading another

week! Spread out your reading!

➡ All assignments are due on Tuesdays, unless specified by the tutor.

DATE ASSIGNMENT DUE

Week 1

10/18-20

•

•

Read: [handout] “Introduction to Philosophy”

Read: Sophie’s World o Chapter

2: “The Top Hat” o Chapter

7: “Socrates”

10/25 Tues

• Complete: [Quine; GRWV 156-157] Socrates

➡ Look for this information as you read and complete the

section of the chart pertaining to the appropriate

philosopher. ✓ In-class Exam

‣ Monday: Objective portion & Essay portion ‣ Wednesday: Essay portion

➡ Essay question: #2 [Syllabus Appendix A]

Second Quarter Western Thought 1

DATE ASSIGNMENT DUE

Week 2

10/25-27

•

•

Read: Sophie’s World o Chapter 9: “Plato"

Read: Republic o

Books 1 & 2

11/01 Tues

• Complete: [Quine; GRWV 158-159] Plato



philosopher.

• Complete: [Quine; GRWV 203-208] Plato’s Republic Books 1 & 2

Week 3 11/01- 11/03

•

•

Read: Sophie’s World o Chapter 11: “Aristotle”

Read: Republic o

Books 3 & 4 11/08 Tues

5

• Complete: [Quine; GRWV 158-159] Aristotle



philosopher.

• Complete: [Quine; GRWV 209-213] Plato’s Republic Books 3-4

Week 4

11/08-10

• Read: Republic

o Books 5-8 11/15 Tues • Complete: [Quine; GRWV 215-219] Plato’s Republic Books 5-8

Week 5

11/15-17

• Read: Republic o

Books 9 & 10 11/29 Tues

• Complete: [Quine; GRWV 225-226] Plato’s Republic Books 9 & 10

Week 6

11/29-

12/01 • No homework due.

12/06 Tues

Week 7

12/06-08 • ✓

Monday: Overflow for discussion Wednesday:

Review Game for exam 12/13 Tues

Week 8

12/13-15

✓

➡

In-class Exam Tuesday: Objective portion & Essay portion

Thursday: Essay portion Essay question: #3 [Syllabus Appendix A]

➡ END OF FIRST SEMESTER

Third Quarter Western Thought 1

➡ Plan ahead! Don’t get caught with a lot of reading one week and no reading another

week! Spread out your reading!


DATE ASSIGNMENT DUE

Over Christmas

Break

•

•

Read: Sophie’s World o Chapter 12: Hellenism

➡ Start at the subsection “Hellenism.”

➡ Stop at subsection “Mysticism.” Do NOT read

“Mysticism.” Read: Great Political Theories Vol. 1 o Hellenism

and Roman Stoicism [pg. 102-105] o Seneca [pg.

106-113]

1/10 Tues

• Complete: [handout] Hellenism and Roman Stoicism study guide

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Week 1

1/10-12

• Read: Great Political Theories Vol. 1 o

Marcus Aurelius [pg. 113-19] 1/17 Tues • Complete: [handout] Marcus Aurelius study guide

Week 2

1/18-20

• Read: Great Political Theories Vol. 1

o Rome [pg. 120-25] o Cicero

[pg. 131-39] 1/24 Tues

• Complete: [handout] Cicero study guide

Week 3

1/24-26

•

•

• •

Read: [Quine; BWV 133-135] Christianity: The Core of Western

Civilization Read: Matthew Read: [Quine; GRWV 236-239] Aeneid

Read: Aeneid o

Books 1 & 2 1/31 Tues • Complete: [Quine; BWV 136-139] Matthew

• Complete: [Quine; GRWV 240-242] Aeneid Books 1 & 2

Week 4 1/31- 2/02

•

•

Read: Mark

Read: Aeneid o

Books 3 & 4 2/07 Tues • Complete: [Quine; BWV 141-144] Mark

• Complete: [Quine; GRWV 243-244] Aeneid Books 3 & 4

Week 5

2/07-09

•

•

Read: Luke Read: Aeneid

o Books 5-6 2/14 Tues • Complete: [Quine; BWV 145-148] Luke

• Complete: [Quine; GRWV 245-248] Aeneid Books 5-6

Week 6

2/14-16

•

•

Read: John

Read: Aeneid o

Books 7-8 2/21 Tues • Complete: [Quine; BWV 149-150] John

• Complete: [Quine; GRWV 249-250] Aeneid Books 7-8

Third Quarter Western Thought 1

DATE ASSIGNMENT DUE

Week 7

2/21-23

•

•

Read: Aeneid o

Books 10 & 12 END OF THIRD QUARTER

2/28 Tues • Complete: [Quine; GRWV 251-252] Aeneid Books 10 & 12

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✓ In Class: Mock Trial of Rome v. Jesus of Nazareth

Week 8 2/28 -3/02

Do over Spring Break

•

•

•

•

Read: [Quine; BWV 185-194] “The Early Church: Creeds, Councils, Canon” Read: Sophie’s World o

The Middle Ages

➡ Start with the sentence: “St. Mary’s Church lay on

the outskirts of the old part of town.”

➡ Stop at the line break. “Sophie followed him; she felt

she had no other choice.” Read: [Quine; BWV 195-99] “St. Augustine”

Read: The City of God o

Books 1-3 3/21 Tues • Complete: [Quine; BWV 188] The Councils

• Complete: [Quine; BWV 223-233] City of God Books 1-3

Fourth Quarter Western Thought 1


DATE ASSIGNMENT DUE

Week 1

3/21-23

• Read: The City of God

Books 4-5 3/28 Tues


Week 2

3/28-30

• Read: The City of God

Books 6-8 04/04 Tues • Complete: [Quine; BWV 241-249] City of God Books 6-8

Week 3

4/04-06

• Read: The City of God o

Books 9-10 4/11 Tues


Fourth Quarter Western Thought 1


DATE ASSIGNMENT DUE

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Week 4

4/11-13

•

•

Read: Sophie’s World, Chapter 12 o

“Hellenism” o Finish the subsection “Mysticism.”

Read: The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism

o “Introduction” [pg. iiix-xviii] o “Love and

Knowledge” [pg. 251-52] o “Union with God” [pg.

256-61] o “SerTUESs on the Song of Songs 83,” Bernard of

Clairvaux [pg. 427-29] o “On Loving God,” Bernard of

Clairvaux [pg. 434-37]

4/18 Tues

✓ Complete In-Class: [Quine; The Middle Ages 6-7] Schaeffer

Middle Ages video.

• Complete: [handout] Medieval Mysticism & Bernard of Clairvaux

study guide

Week 5

4/18-20

• Read: The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism o

“Encountering Christ” [pg. 221] o “Revelations of Divine

Love,” Julian of Norwich [pg. 238-45] o “Vision, Contemplation, and Rapture” [pg.

309-10] o “The Fire of Love,” Richard Rolle [pg. 341-

46] o “Contemplation and Action” [pg. 519-20] o “The

Dialogue,” Catherine of Siena [pg. 540-44]

4/25 Tues

• Complete: [handout] Julian of Norwich & Richard Rolle study

guides

Week 6

4/25-27

•

•

•

Read: Sophie’s World Chapter 15 “The Middle Ages”

➡ Begin at the line break. “The sun had not yet broken through

the morning clouds.” Read: [Quine; Middle Ages 18-21] The Summa Theologica, St. Tomas Aquinas

5/02 Tues

❖ Due Thursday: [Syllabus Appendix A] Essay #4 5/04

Thur

Week 7

5/02-04 ➡ No homework, study for final exam.

5/09 Tues

Week 8

5/09-11

✓ ✓

Tuesday: In-class Review Thursday: In-class Objective Exam: Medieval Thought

➡ END OF SECOND SEMESTER

WESTERN THOUGHT 1 SYLLABUS

APPENDIX A Essays

➡ Dates subject to change. All Essays are due on Thursdays.

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➡ Students must print the commented version of their papers from turnitin.com. ✓ It must be turned in the next class after the papers have been returned. ✓ A parent must sign it. ✓ This is a 10-point grade.

ESSAY PAGES EXPLANATION

#1 10/05

Quine BWV

43-50

Biblical Worldview #1

Explain the Biblical Worldview addressing: 1. The nature and character of God

a. Unlike man: uncreated, holy, infinite b. Like man: personal, good (before the Fall)

2. The nature of the universe a. Created out of nothing by God, separate from

God’s being b. Sustained by God actively

3. The nature of man. a. Made good in the image of God b. The effects of original sin

➡ Use the Bible, the Sire readings, the Schaffer readings, and

your class notes as sources to support your explanations

➡ Remember that you are EXPLAINING these concepts, so do

NOT assume your audience knows ideas like “sin,” “the

Fall,” ect. You must explain each concept.

#2 10/19

“Man is the measure of all things.” Using specific examples from the Odyssey, explain what the

quote above tell us about the Greek views of man and the

gods. Be sure to address: 1. The purpose of epic poetry 2. The view of the gods based on their actions and how they

are described 3. The view of man based on the actions and descriptions of

Odysseus

WESTERN THOUGHT 1 SYLLABUS

APPENDIX A Essays

➡ Dates subject to change. All Essays are due on Thursdays.

ESSAY PAGES EXPLANATION

10

#3 12/14

In-class

Essay

Prompt

You may

bring an outline

and quotation

s for textual

support.

Greek Philosophers’ Worldview

Explain the Greek worldview as expressed by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Begin with a discussion of their views on the role of the philosopher. Be sure to address their views on:

1. Epistemology: How we know. 2. Ontology: The nature of existence. 3. Ethics: How we should

➡ You may want to structure your essay by the three topics and compare and contrast each philosopher’s views on that topic.

➡ Use the Sophie’s World readings, the “Intro. to Philosophy”

essay, the Republic, and your class notes for support.

#4 5/03

Personal Confession

Write a 3-5 page personal narrative telling how you have come to believe what you believe today. ➡ Pick one narrative thread in your life that has led to what you

believe.

➡ This is an informal essay. You may use first person.

➡ You should explain what you do believe within the context of

your narrative

APPENDIX B

“On The Reading of Old Books,” C. S. Lewis

There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be

read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the

modern books. Thus I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average

student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of

doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He

would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about "isms" and

influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. The error

is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet

one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he

will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his

greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest

student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but

hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always

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therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that

firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but

is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.

This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is

nowhere more rampant than in theology. Wherever you find a little study circle of

Christian laity you can be almost certain that they are studying not St. Luke or St.

Paul or St. Augustine or Thomas Aquinas or Hooker or Butler, but M. Berdyaev or M.

Maritain or M. Niebuhr or Miss Sayers or even myself.

Now this seems to me topsy-turvy. Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not

wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or

only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice

precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert

against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial

and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great

body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often

unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light. Often it cannot be fully

understood without the knowledge of a good many other modern books. If you join at

eleven o'clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real

bearing of what is said. Remarks which seem to you very ordinary will produce laughter

or irritation and you will not see why—the reason, of course, being that the earlier

stages of the conversation have given them a special point. In the same way sentences

in a modern book which look quite ordinary may be directed at some other book; in this

way you may be led to accept what you would have indignantly rejected if you knew its

real significance. The only safety is to have a standard of plain, central Christianity

("mere Christianity" as Baxter called it) which puts the controversies of the moment in

their proper perspective. Such a standard can be acquired only from the old books. It is

a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you

have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read

one old one to every three new ones.

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Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and

specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will

correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. All

contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook— even those, like

myself, who seem most opposed to it. Nothing strikes me more when I read the

controversies of past ages than the fact that both sides were usually assuming without

question a good deal which we should now absolutely deny. They thought that they

were as completely opposed as two sides could be, but in fact they were all the time

secretly united—united with each other and against earlier and later ages—by a great

mass of comTUES assumptions. We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of

the twentieth century—the blindness about which posterity will ask, "But how could they

have thought that?"—lies where we have never suspected it, and concerns something

about which there is untroubled agreement between Hitler and President Roosevelt or

between Mr. H. G. Wells and Karl Barth. None of us can fully escape this blindness, but

we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern

books. Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where

they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill.

The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our

minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any

magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as

many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors

we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not

endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but

because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of

the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately

we cannot get at them.

I myself was first led into reading the Christian classics, almost accidentally, as a

result of my English studies. Some, such as Hooker, Herbert, Traherne, Taylor and

Bunyan, I read because they are themselves great English writers; others, such as

13

Boethius, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Dante, because they were "influences."

George Macdonald I had found for myself at the age of sixteen and never wavered in

my allegiance, though I tried for a long time to ignore his

Christianity. They are, you will note, a mixed bag, representative of many Churches,

climates and ages. And that brings me to yet another reason for reading them. The

divisions of Christendom are undeniable and are by some of these writers most fiercely

expressed. But if any man is tempted to think—as one might be tempted who read only

con- temporaries—that "Christianity" is a word of so many meanings that it means

nothing at all, he can learn beyond all doubt, by stepping out of his own century, that

this is not so. Measured against the ages "mere Christianity" turns out to be no insipid

interdenominational transparency, but something positive, self-consistent, and

inexhaustible. I know it, indeed, to my cost. In the days when I still hated Christianity, I

learned to recognise, like some all too familiar smell, that almost unvarying something

which met me, now in Puritan Bunyan, now in Anglican Hooker, now in Thomist Dante.

It was there (honeyed and floral) in Francois de Sales; it was there (grave and homely)

in Spenser and Walton; it was there (grim but manful) in Pascal and Johnson; there

again, with a mild, frightening, Paradisial flavour, in Vaughan and Boehme and

Traherne. In the urban sobriety of the eighteenth century one was not safe—Law and

Butler were two lions in the path. The supposed "Paganism" of the Elizabethans could

not keep it out; it lay in wait where a man might have supposed himself safest, in the

very centre of The Faerie Queene and the Arcadia. It was, of course, varied; and yet—

after all—so unmistakably the same; recognisable, not to be evaded, the odour which is

death to us until we allow it to become life:

an air that kills

From yon far country blows.

We are all rightly distressed, and ashamed also, at the divisions of

14

Christendom. But those who have always lived within the Christian fold may be too

easily dispirited by them. They are bad, but such people do not know what it looks like

from without. Seen from there, what is left intact despite all the divisions, still appears

(as it truly is) an immensely formidable unity. I know, for I saw it; and well our enemies

know it. That unity any of us can find by going out of his own age. It is not enough, but

it is more than you had thought till then. Once you are well soaked in it, if you then

venture to speak, you will have an amusing experience. You will be thought a Papist

when you are actually reproducing Bunyan, a Pantheist when you are quoting Aquinas,

and so forth. For you have now got on to the great level viaduct which crosses the ages

and which looks so high from the valleys, so low from the mountains, so narrow

compared with the swamps, and so broad compared with the sheep-tracks.

The present book is something of an experiment. The translation is intended for

the world at large, not only for theological students. If it succeeds, other translations of

other great Christian books will presumably follow. In one sense, of course, it is not the

first in the field. Translations of the Theologia Germanica, the Imitation, the Scale of

Perfection, and the Revelations of Lady Julian of Norwich, are already on the market,

and are very valuable, though some of them are not very scholarly. But it will be noticed

that these are all books of devotion rather than of doctrine. Now the layman or amateur

needs to be instructed as well as to be exhorted. In this age his need for knowledge is

particularly pressing. Nor would I admit any sharp division between the two kinds of

book. For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion

than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await

many others. I believe that many who find that "nothing happens" when they sit down,

or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they

are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a

pencil in their hand.

This is a good translation of a very great book. St. Athanasius has suffered in

popular estimation from a certain sentence in the "Athanasian Creed." I will not labour

the point that that work is not exactly a creed and was not by St. Athanasius, for I think it

15

is a very fine piece of writing. The words "Which Faith except every one do keep whole

and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly" are the offence. They are

comTUESly misunderstood. The operative word is keep; not acquire, or even believe,

but keep. The author, in fact, is not talking about unbelievers, but about deserters, not

about those who have never heard of Christ, nor even those who have misunderstood

and refused to accept Him, but of those who having really understood and really

believed, then allow themselves, under the sway of sloth or of fashion or any other

invited confusion to be drawn away into sub-Christian modes of thought. They are a

warning against the curious modern assumption that all changes of belief, however

brought about, are necessarily exempt from blame. But this is not my immediate

concern. I mention "the creed (comTUESly called) of St. Athanasius" only to get out of

the reader's way what may have been a bogey and to put the true Athanasius in its

place. His epitaph is Athanasius contra mundum, "Athanasius against the world." We

are proud that our own country has more than once stood against the world.

Athanasius did the same. He stood for the Trinitarian doctrine, "whole and undefiled,"

when it looked as if all the civilised world was slipping back from Christianity into the

religion of Arius—into one of those "sensible" synthetic religions which are so strongly

recommended today and which, then as now, included aTUESg their devotees many

highly cultivated clergymen. It is his glory that he did not move with the times; it is his

reward that he now remains when those times, as all times do, have moved away.

When I first opened his De Incarnatione I soon discovered by a very simple test

that I was reading a masterpiece. I knew very little Christian Greek except that of the

New Testament and I had expected difficulties. To my astonishment I found it almost as

easy as Xenophon; and only a master mind could, in the fourth century, have written so

deeply on such a subject with such classical simplicity. Every page I read confirmed

this impression. His approach to the Miracles is badly needed today, for it is the final

answer to those who object to them as "arbitrary and meaningless violations of the laws

of Nature." They are here shown to be rather the re-telling in capital letters of the same

message which Nature writes in her crabbed cursive hand; the very operations one

16

would expect of Him who was so full of life that when He wished to die He had to

"borrow death from others." The whole book, indeed, is a picture of the Tree of Life—a

sappy and golden book, full of buoyancy and confidence. We cannot, I admit,

appropriate all its confidence today. We cannot point to the high virtue of Christian

living and the gay, almost mocking courage of Christian martyrdom, as a proof of our

doctrines with quite that assurance which Athanasius takes as a matter of course. But

whoever may be to blame for that it is not Athanasius.

The translator knows so much more Christian Greek than I that it would be out of

place for me to praise her version. But it seems to me to be in the right tradition of

English translation. I do not think the reader will find here any of that sawdusty quality

which is so comTUES in modern renderings from the ancient languages. That is as

much as the English reader will notice; those who compare the version with the original

will be able to estimate how much wit and talent is presupposed in such a choice, for

example, as "these wiseacres" on the very first page.

http://jollyblogger.typepad.com/jollyblogger/2005/10/c_s_lewis_on_th.html

Lewis, C. S. “On the Reading of Old Books.” God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics.

Ed. Walter Hooper. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1970. 200-07.



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