Category: The Autodidact
Learning a Dead Language I: The Basics
I just received a request from a friend who wants to study ancient Greek. I had previously recommended that she stay away from recent textbooks that tend to be too gimmicky–and overpriced–and from New Testament Greek texts. There is no such thing as New Testament Greek, which is nothing more than a rather simplistic form of the Koine which served as a common tongue in the Mediterranean world.
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Why Study the Classics?
Among the most frequent asked questions I get is: “Why should anyone in this day and age bother to study the classics?” Depending on the questioner or my temper, I give different answers. One of the past answers, however, has been given by an essay I just ran across. “On Classical Education” was written by William Hazlitt, the 19th century essayist, and he included it in his volume The Round Table.
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Surviving the Ivy League
Dr. Fleming answers: My son, a Christian and a conservative, is about to go to Harvard. Can you give him any advice on how to survive?
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Political Liberty and the Classical Tradition
When people ask me “Why study the classics?” I give same answer that has been given for past 2,500 years or more: So as not to be a stupid barbarian. As G.K. Chesterton remarked nearly 100 years ago, in any generation those who count will be talking of Troy, and since, today, few know of the Trojan War except through a very bad film, either Chesterton was wrong or there are fewer people today who count than there were in his time.
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