Christians Reading Classics: An Introduction to Greco-Roman Classics from Homer to Boethius
Can Christians today read the great classics of Greco-Roman pagan literature for spiritual formation and growth in the virtues?
Classical scholar Nadya Williams responds with an unequivocal "Yes!" Even in the Late Roman Empire Christian readers, like Augustine and Boethius, did just this. But reading the classics this way requires reading differently than, perhaps, most people today are used to doing.
This is a book about reading the Greco-Roman classics as Christians--the why, the how, and to a lesser extent, the when. This exercise, equal parts intellectual and spiritual, is timely. Just as our bodies are what we eat, so are our minds what we consume. The past few years have seen the appearance of books on the value of literature in nourishing our minds and souls--developing the practice of reading not just the Bible but all that we read for spiritual formation. Most such books have focused largely on medieval and modern literature, involving antiquity only occasionally.