classics digests, reflections and reviews
The Sacrificial Death of Marcus Curtius That same year, whether owing to an earthquake or to some other violent force, it is said that the ground gave way, at about the middle of the Forum, and, sinking to an immeasurable depth, left a prodigious chasm. This gulf could not be filled with the earth which everyone brought and cast into it, until admonished by the gods, they began to inquire […]
Read moreIt was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. –Hebrews 2:10 Historical Background Christianity historically has not taught the “prosperity gospel”. On the contrary, it might be properly called the Suffering Gospel. Jesus was not prosperous in this life, but suffered and died on the cross. His disciples made it […]
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Augustine had great respect for the Roman statesman and orator Cicero, whose writings inspired him to pursue philosophy, especially Platonism. What Augustine writes about the death of Cicero and Fall of the Roman Republic (Bk III, 30) is a sobering historical lesson for all idealists who aspire to and engage in politics. After Gaius Julius Caesar had conquered Pompey, he was suspected of aiming at royalty, and was assassinated by […]
Read moreTwo Contrasting Conceptions of Human Dignity In Book I of the City of God, Augustine contrasts Greco-Roman (pagan) and Christian conceptions of dignity. Cato the Younger and Lucretia are paragons of pagan virtues, of man and woman, respectively. They committed suicide out of a strong sense of dignity. Lucretia killed herself to protest her innocence as a rape victim; Cato the Younger, a Stoic, would rather die as a free […]
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Sanctuary in Our Time According to a NPR report today, a Protestant Church in the Hague Netherlands has kept a nonstop service since Oct. 26 to protect an Armenian immigrant family from deportation, for what New York Times refers to as “an obscure Dutch law” forbids police from disrupting a church service. This reminds me of Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, in which “sanctuary” protected Esmeralda from the gallows. […]
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In Preface of Book I, Augustine writes, “I treat of [City of God] both as it exists in this world of time, a stranger among the ungodly, living by faith, and as it stands in the security of its everlasting seat.” Augustine’s conception of time underlies his view of history. In his Confessions, his writes that time exists only within the material world as God’s creation, which is subject to […]
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I created an interactive map locating all New Testament manuscripts dated to the first four centuries, based on geographical data provided by Leuven Database of Ancient Books and OpenStreetMap. All the earliest New Testament manuscripts were found in Egypt, except one in Greece and another in Italy. It is interesting that locations of provenance (marked in blue and purple) are generally populous and accessible to travellers. For example, in Egypt […]
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