Rationale for the "Great Books"

Using my mind's eye, I probably need to address the unspoken wonderings and hidden questions that (at least some) of you are entertaining. For those of you who are secretly harboring questions about the wisdom and spirituality of investing this much in time, energy and money into such an endeavor as sitting around and reading and discussing archaic and boring books, let me attempt to put some of your secret questions to rest.


1. Buiding Depth in Understanding Western Culture. Back in the day, I first heard a Mennonite preacher say it very well. He preaches with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. His job was to use the eternal truths of Scripture to illuminate the present culture with its characters, conflict, drama and outcomes. I suspect that if one only reads "The Wakarusa Tribune" our understanding would be quite shallow. And should we add a reading of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times as well as a number of other publications, blogospheres, and "infosmears" ..our understanding would broaden and deepen. But tracing the development of society down through the past 3-4 millenia takes us to a new dimension. I anticipate an understanding of 'where my fellow Americans are coming' from a bit more clearly, and more importantly, I deeply desire the capacity to connect confidently and intelligently with most any American I meet. I am eager to gather around the book of Romans with non-believers and to understand where they are coming from. As well, potentially, students of history have a greater reference point in the bank of ideas: ideas that are not worth hanging onto, letting go of or fighting for. I would hope for that as well.

2. Better Understanding of God. This one is easy. The God that created me is also the God of History. He was involved in the affairs of man for all of time past. While students around the table at St. John's will probably be not so inclined, I will most likely read the texts,not through the criticisms of gender, class, race or sexism,.....( how boring).... but through the eyes of faith. I simply am curious about what God was up to with the Greeks, the Romans, before, during and after the birth of Christ, and with the early church fathers,and down through the ages of the Medieval, Renaissance, Enlightment, and Modernity. On this blog, if I am not too dense, I hope to chart/trace "God sightings" Maybe after all this,I will deeply get it. How does postmodernity represent the greatest cut and deepest shift away from Christian worldview issues? My obligation to you.... my readers..is to shed some light on the difficulty of evangelizing in postmodern America today.. moral relativism is an incredible challenge for the American church. If I can strengthen even one person outside of myself to confidently stake out and make the claims of Christ, then my endeavors will have been successful. So admittedly, in this round I am not studying the Scriptures so much as 'the newspaper' in the other hand. Make sure you know that I know... the difference between myself and many (I hope not all )of those sitting around the table at St.Johns see the Bible quite differently. For them, it is just another text that has profoundly shaped and influenced the West... which stands in stark contrast with the Eastern hemisphere. For me the Bible is God breathed- the eternal 'logos' the Holy Spirit uses to penetrate the human heart and shake up society. I would hope that my picture of God would simply be ENLARGED and that this process will lift me (and perhaps you)out and beyond all matters that are puny and petty.

3. "SO WHAT?" A third reason I need to do this is to answer the question "why do I need to know this? for all former students and any future students I may have. If reading classic literature is a futile endeavor then I can lay it down and let it go and move on to other endeavors. I need to find this out.

Responses anyone? Is it fair to suggest that our sphere of influence for Christ is directly contingent upon our understanding of culture? What about the early disciples and Paul? Who understood the Greek and Roman culture best? Was it effective? Or unnecessary? Explain.