[DeweyCA]

This overly-long article is a book review of Tom Holland's book, Dominion. Holland is an atheist, but he recognizes that ideas have consequences. He sees that Judeo-Christian ideals are the foundation of western civilization. These ideals don't naturally occur in societies. Judeo-Christian morality comes from a unique worldview and is very distinct from the pre-Christian morality that Greeks, Romans, aborigines, Egyptians and Chinese had. As America loses its Christian worldview, the consequences could become quite grim.

[11th_VA]

Looks like a good book -

[Stosh]

A long read, but really quite intriguing. What I’ve always found most interesting is that those intellectuals, so much smarter and more sophisticated than the rest of us, that those very same members of the elite who deride Western Civilization and the Christianity that provides it roots and life force almost never relocate to societies that are non-Western and have little in the way of Christian influence. There are after all no shortage of such places, yet the folks who do the most pissing and moaning about our shortcomings seldom bother to leave them behnd - hell, some go to great lengths to become part of them.

[wbarmy]

Romans thought and did things that would be unthinkable to us, he realized.

I do not believe that most people really understand what Patria Potestas really meant in the Roman world. And my kids think I am an overlord.

[Buttons12]

Wish I had time for this. I don’t.

But I’ll say this, the “ancient Greek novel” came about long after what we generally regard as “ancient Greece.” It was already the time of the Roman Empire. Its authors, had they produced their works in the days of Aristotle, would have been run out of town. Nor do “pretty women, valiant men, all upper class” or “victories” make a work “superficial;” if they did, we could all pretend to depth by discoursing endlessly on ugly women, cowards, wretches and failures.

The author might also want to give more consideration to the syncretism of Judeo-Christian culture and Hellenism, without which Western civilization as we know it would never have come into being. Parallel tracks they were not.

[Dr. Thorne]

Just silly. He gives credit to Christianity, but not to Christ our Savior and Redeemer who governs in the affairs of men. He misses the forest for the trees.

[lightman]

After these novels, our class read "The Acts of Paul and Thecla." Though contemporaneous with the Ancient Greek novels, this two-thousand-year-old-document, like a mustang broken free from the corral, galloped into an entirely different mental and spiritual horizon. Thecla, a young girl, overturns her entire surround: her parents, her arranged fiancé, the entire Greco-Roman Pagan world. She hears the Christian Gospel, and explodes: I am a human being, because God made me so, and no mortal bosses me around

Orthodox Ping!

Save Thy people, O Lord,
and bless Thine inheritance.
Grant victory to Thy Church over her enemies,
and protect Thy people by Thy Holy Cross!

All aflame with love for your Creator,
from the teachings of the sacred preacher,
you disregarded as fleeting all things mundane.
And being bold in the face of the penalties,
you gave yourself as a beautiful gift to God.
Thekla, glorious companion of the Apostle Paul,
we pray you entreat your Bridegroom, Christ,
and ask Him to grant us His great mercy.