This morning, get your coffee and walk back into the UCLA lecture hall where Prof Eugen Weber’s Lectures on Early Christianity in the Roman Empire ,(you may to follow the links out to the video). Roman culture begins to fail, the Stoics lose their grip over the ruling class. The people in these hard times look for ‘salous’- the health of the soul aka: salvation instead of the ascetic rationality of stoicism that valued virtue, wisdom, and strength. The more the disorder in the Empire grew the less relevant rationality was.
Meanwhile, the Hellenistic and Jewish influence act on Early Christianity while Christianity grows and acts to change the contemporary world from 100-400AD.
Do feel free to get caught back up if you missed the earlier lectures on the Rise of Rome and the Engineering of Rome. Professor Weber ‘s main point is that Early Christianity spread despite contempt and persecution from Rome.
In a new poll released by Gallup, 53% of Americans have an unfavorable view of Islam and 42% (Progressives, I bet) have a favorable view. This is in contrast to a 71% favorable view for Judaism, 91% for Christianity and 58% for Buddhism. Clearly the issue isn’t American intolerance, the problem is Islamic Imperialist Aggression against us. It doesn’t help either that people from the Dar AL Islam don’t immigrate, they colonize and seek to impose their way on us. They always make excuses and blame others for their troubles. If it’s not Christian Racism, they blame Israel and Zionists for all their problems. It’s making Americans tired of their whining hence the low poll ratings for their movement.
In a separate question asking Americans to express their overall view about each of the four religions evaluated, Islam is the most negatively viewed. Nearly one-third of Americans (31%) say their opinion of Islam is “not favorable at all” versus 9% who say their opinion is “very favorable.” This stands in contrast to Americans’ views of Christianity and Judaism, which are far more likely to be “very favorable” than “not favorable at all,” while Buddhism draws almost equally positive and negative opinions at the extremes. Gallup conducted the nationwide U.S. survey between Oct. 31 and Nov. 13, 2009, spanning the Fort Hood shooting in which a U.S.-born Muslim military doctor killed 13 people on the Army base on Nov. 5.
This is no shock to me. When I’m out at bars and the subject of Islamo-Imperialism comes up, the anger expressed by the people is deep. Americans are a mellow easy going people who could care less what God a person worships. The problem is Islam is not just a religion, it is a Political movement based on Arabization and exterminations of other cultures. I should know, the Arab Muslim tried to exterminate my Spaniard ancestors. Luckily we resisted and after a 700 year war, the invaders were driven out. I am proud for the brave resistance to Islam my Ancestors did.
Americans are at a breaking point and one or a few more attacks and this nation will erupt like a volcano. A tolerant people can only take so much before that have had it. The Gallup Poll proves that the Islamo-Imperialists are on thin ice.
Thank G-d: once again it is Friday, and accordingly for Jews this means the beginning of the Holy Shabbat. Every week, Jews read a portion of the Torah and study it. Highly pertinent to many on this blog, this week we are reading a highly contentious portion around some parts called Bereishit (“In the beginning”) (Genesis 1:1-6:8).
The Creation of the World, and Adventures of the First Humans
Dateline: December 1968
From his window he could watch the blue orb of planet earth getting smaller and smaller. Looming in front of him in all its detail was a giant moon. Astronaut Frank Borman of Apollo 8 was filled with emotion, as he drew closer and closer to the fulfillment of one of man’s greatest dreams of landing on the moon. As the lunar module orbited, the crew could perceive the moon in its pristine state, untouched by human hands, exactly as it left the hands of its Creator. (One could imagine Adam opening his eyes for the first time and viewing a pristine Earth with the same awe.)
Borman wanted to convey this feeling to everyone glued to their TVs and radios, just so they could in some sense share the experience of this milestone in history. What text could express this feeling? What human poet or author could capture in words that awesome feeling of the smallness of man and the vastness of the universe?
To the ears of billions of earthlings, Borman declared, “In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth!” The first chapter of Genesis was read on that historical day to all mankind. (In contrast to the Cosmonauts who orbited the Earth in Sputnik and proclaimed, “We went to Heaven and didn’t find God!”) This is the beginning of the story of man and his world.
Despite false claims to the contrary, Creation is deeply rooted in Torah. The following are a few exceptionally general, and basic statements of Jews regarding Creation.
“IN THE BEGINNING” – INTRODUCTION TO THE TORAH
Judaism believes that the Bible is a Divine book. Just as a human author generally writes about topics that interest him, we can similarly assume that the Divine Author of the Torah writes about things that interest Him. Here’s a bird’s eye view of the opening chapters of the Torah:
(1) “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth” (Genesis 1:1). What a contrast between the vast endless heaven containing countless stars, and one tiny speck in the universe called Planet Earth! Yet the following verse begins, “And the Earth was…” and the rest of the book focuses on Earth. Conclusion: God is interested in Earth!
(2) The six days of creation are described in detail. The trees and grass, the animals, fish, birds, and insects. Then was created one human. What a contrast between the vast expanse of planet Earth, and one individual person! Yet from this point on, the Torah focuses exclusively on humans (and NOT on the trees or insects). Conclusion: God is interested in humanity!
(3) After expounding upon the first human, the Torah lists 10 generations with no events recorded. These generations evidently did not interest the author and are only included for the purpose of chronology. Finally we find the passage, “and Noah was a righteous man” (Genesis 6:9), followed by an entire section concerning Noah. Conclusion: God is interested in “righteous people”!
(4) This is followed again by a list of names for chronological purposes. Another 10 generations go by, until we come to Abraham our Father. Abraham is 75 years old at the time the Torah speaks of him (more details of his youth are found in the oral tradition). From this point on, the Torah records exclusively the story of Abraham’s life and then that of his descendents – right up until the emergence of the Jewish people. The rest of the Torah recounts God’s relationship with the Jewish people. Conclusion: God is interested in the Jewish people who undertake a unique mission, to be a “light unto the nations,” to teach the world about spirituality and our Creator. (Rabbi Avigdor Miller)
There is a lot covered in the above article (many debated issues) so, if interested, I highly recommend the above link.
An antidote on the subject of Creation from a Jewish source.
“A disbeliever once asked Rabbi Akiva, ‘Who created the world?’ ‘The Almighty,’ replied Rabbi Akiva. ‘Prove it,’ demanded the disbeliever. Rabbi Akiva replied, ‘Come back tomorrow.’
“When the man returned on the following day, Rabbi Akiva asked him, ‘What are you wearing?’ ‘A robe,’ replied the man. ‘Who made it?’ asked Rabbi Akiva. ‘The weaver,’ said the man. ‘I don’t believe you! Prove it,’ demanded Rabbi Akiva.
” ‘That is ridiculous. Can’t you tell from the fabric and design that a weaver made this garment?’ answered the man. Rabbi Akiva then responded, ‘And you – can you not clearly tell that God made the world?’
“After the disbeliever left, Rabbi Akiva explained to his students, ‘Just as a house was obviously built by a builder and a garment obviously sewn by a tailor, so was the world (which follows a natural order) obviously made by a Creator!’ ”
(Author Note: This Thread is not to a space for name-calling, personal attacks, angry vitriol, etc. I expect those who are small minded, and intellectually constrained on this issue to be discussed, but I encourage you to please do so politely, and factually! In short, this is a Thread about G-d – so act in His image!)
I wish the Jews a blessed Holy Shabbat, and to all else a meaningful weekend and day(s) of worship!
Since this question seems to be getting some play in the comments section below, I’ll provide a couple of links to some good sources that deal with the Alexandrian library, and with the treatment of classical literature by early Christians in general. First, the library at Alexandria as the question is addressed by a trained historian, since this one involves a good deal of anti-Christian myth-making. read the whole thing, because it’s actually quite interesting to see the sources involved. To make a long story, short, however, the most likely culprit behind the destruction of the main library at Alexandria appears to be Julius Caesar, whose capture of the city in 47 BC may have accidentally ignited a conflagration which burned the library. Sorry, but the Christians didn’t burn it down.
To address a couple of other modern myths that are usually entertained by historically ignorant secularists,
It can safely be said that the story of Christians destroying the Serapeum library was originated by Edward Gibbon in the late eighteenth century when he read too much into his sources and this story has been repeated ever since. Alexandria Rediscovered by Jean-Yves Empereur, Cosmos by Carl Sagan and From the Holy Mountain by William Dalyrymple are just three recent books to combine this myth with the earlier loss of the Royal Library while even scholars such as Luciano Canfora and Alfred Butler have tried to interpret the evidence to support Gibbon.
The sad part is, as seen elsewhere in the article, that Gibbon wasn’t even really being honest with his sources. Secular humanists such as Carl Sagan have merely been repeating historical rubbish uncritically because it suits their agenda. Another myth is also exploded,
Hypatia of Alexandria, the female mathematician, has become a romantic heroine, a feminist icon and an archetypal victim of religious intolerance. Charles Kingsley of The Water Babies fame published his novel, Hypatia, in 1853 and it was this that started her modern cult. However the sources for her life are scanty to say the least. Socrates is embarrassed to have to report her murder, John of Nikiou revels in it and the Suda gives a few more details that need to be treated with the same caution as everything else in that Byzantine encyclopaedia. The Christian bishop Synesius of Cyrene was a pupil of hers and despite her paganism wrote her adoring letters asking for advice. Modern myths about her include that she was a Librarian of the Great Library and that she worked at the Museum. Neither have any basis in fact or the sources and there is nothing to connect her to the Royal or Serapeum libraries at all.
Now, on to the question of the Christian treatment of classical literature in general. Glenn Miller does a quite good job of addressing this matter. Again, I encourage our readers to set some time aside and read the whole thing. A good general summary, however, is this,
This is a good and thoughtful question. And, as with many questions (still!), I was at first slightly ‘afraid’ of what my research might uncover. I am generally concerned about trying to defend the acts of the post-Constantine institutional church, and this sorta fell into that arena. I was frankly surprised to find out that the church–both East and West– actually was the main preserver of classical literature during these difficult times in world history.
That rather overturns the secular narrative, now doesn’t it?
Enjoy! And please, consider this to be a Sunday afternoon open thread.
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