Video from pangeaprogressredux
The Decline of Academic America - How The Greek & Roman Classics Teach Us History/How to Think
To add further evidence to the dumbing down of American culture we add the recent decision by Howard University to close its Classics Department. What do we today being the high-tech post-moderns gain from the Classic Greek and Roman Literature? America was built among other things on the wisdom and culture of the Greeks and Romans. God did not allow these people, these cultures to develop as a fluke. They were a part of his plan and what they contributed among other things was the road systems and cultural connections that promoted Christianity out into the world. I believe in classics for the people – that ideas from the ancient Greeks should be taught to everybody, not just the privileged few.
Right now I am reading The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle's best-known work on ethics.
So I present to you excerpts from several articles that discuss the issue in depth.
"Judaism gave birth to Christianity in a Greco-Roman world where Christianity’s Jewish roots merged with the Roman imperial culture and Greek philosophical ideas to mold Christianity into the institution it became in the early Church and through the Middle-Ages. Some of this Greco-Roman influence can be seen in the following ways:
Plato’s philosophy greatly influenced the early Christian debate regarding the nature of God,
Aristotle’s philosophy was the basis for much of the scholastic movement in the Church during the late Middle-Ages,
Pilgrimages to Greek oracles paved the way to monasticism, and
The Roman magisterial structure influenced the Church organization." from the article: The Greco-Roman World
"One prominent Oxford-trained journalist, Harry Mount, in an article lamenting the decline of Greek in schools, recently described classical civilization qualifications as “intellectual baby food” with which students are spoon-fed, and as “classics lite”. from the article: Classics for the people – why we should all learn from the ancient Greeks
"Long after Douglass’s encounters with these ancient thinkers, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would be similarly galvanized by his reading in the classics as a young seminarian — he mentions Socrates three times in his 1963 “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” from the article: Opinion: Howard University’s removal of classics is a spiritual catastrophe
Video from Jean Bookishthoughts
There are still young people interested in the classics as this young ladies' video will attest.
"When Camille Ross arrived at Howard University in the fall of 2019, she thought her passion was in computer engineering. But after what she called a “scheduling fluke,” she ended up in Howard’s classics department, studying Latin. Ross loved the class and her professor so much she switched degree tracks, opting instead to pursue an interdisciplinary humanities degree with a specialization in ancient and modern history. “I was really taken with the department,” Ross said about the classics division."
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