Christianity/Classical Culture

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

What's Athens got to do with Jerusalem? That's a question early Christian writers asked, suggesting that the new religion meant a total rupture with the idolatrous past. But we are taught to speak of "Western civilization" as a happy synthesis of Greek, Roman, and Christian (or Judeo-Christian) contributions. So who really are "our" cultural ancestors? Augustine of Hippo, the most learned, prolific, and influential early Christian writer after Paul and the evangelists, will be our guide. We will read his City of God and explore its context, meaning, and influence, while discussing as well the place of such classic texts in the modern age of 140-character profundity; each student will write a research paper exploring issues raised by the course.