Dear cultural conservatives: Founders drew inspiration from the ‘Aeneid’ and the Bible
Commentary by Walter Hesford | FāVS News
I’ve recently been reading Emily Wilson’s enticing translation of the “Iliad,” that glorious Homeric epic that used to be regarded as one of the pillars of Western civilization.
For generations in colleges and universities across the land, courses were taught in the literature of Western civilization. An American Indian colleague of mine who frequently taught such courses used to remind us white folk that ‘Western civilization’ was a nice idea, were we really civilized rather than a horde of colonizing barbarians. My colleague liked teaching the “Iliad” as it manifested how we valued the quest for individual glory at the expense of the common good.
Such courses heavily featured Greco-Roman literature, beginning with the Homeric epics and moving on to the beautiful and melancholic Roman epic, Virgil’s the “Aeneid,” which makes clear that making an empire, whether Roman or American, comes at great cost, the killing of Indigenous tribes and the loss of the colonizers’ souls. In this epic, the civilized people are those who recognize that we live in a world of tears.
The “Aeneid” was popular among our founding fathers. It is a quote from this, not the Bible, that is on our Great Seal of the Republic, and also on our dollar bill: “Annuit Coeptis Novus Ordo Seclorum” — “He (Jupiter) favors our undertakings.” If we have the Ten Commandments posted in our classrooms, shouldn’t we also post this blessing from Jupiter?
I’ll take the risk of claiming that our founding fathers were fonder of the Greco-Roman tradition than they were of the Judeo-Christian tradition and its Bible. How else to account for all that neoclassical architecture of our nation’s capital?
Currently we are hearing calls from cultural conservatives for America to return to its foundations. Why aren’t these folk asking that we enshrine and teach passages from the Greco-Roman classics along with passages from our compendium of early Hebrew and Christian literature, the Bible?
Certainly the Bible is one of the pillars of Western civilization. Like the “Iliad,” it is chock- full of graphic scenes and boasts of carnage. The taunt, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Samuel 18:7) suggests the value placed on high body counts in the Bible’s history books.
In some ways the Bible is more graphic than the “Iliad” or other works in the Greco-Roman tradition. Only in the Bible do we hear of someone “relieving himself” (1 Samuel 24:3). And while the heroes of the Greek and Roman epics often rape the women they capture, the Bible is more apt to call the sexual abuse of women rape, at least in modern translations: “…the man seized his concubine and put her out to them [the men of the city]. They wantonly raped her and abused her through the night until the morning” (Judges 19:25 NRSV).
The Idaho legislators who are proposing that the entire Bible be read in our public schools prefer the King Jame Version of the Bible. Here the above passage in the KJV: “… the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all through the night until the morning.”
The Idaho legislators propose that the Bible passage be read without commentary. At what age will students know what “knew” meant in the KJV? How will they be edified by this passage from one of the pillars of Western civilization?
In my last decades at the University of Idaho, we were teaching world literature rather than the literature of Western civilization. This course was much more inclusive, and I welcomed learning from new voices.
Still, those old Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian pillars offer much beauty and wisdom. For those who read passages from them within the context of faith, they offer of course much more: deep meaning, guidance and hope.
To take passages from our biblical pillar out of their historic and faith context and throw them on the walls of our schools or shout them over loudspeakers does them no justice, and provides no meaningful education.
The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.
The Bible is inappropriate for children who lack the ability to apply context, and the framing required to take it or leave it as a free person. Teaching only one religious text is indoctrination and both the Idaho and US constitutions establish that a state cannot compel taxpayers to fund religious education. Or it used to be that way. Imagine Muslim lobbyists pushing a reading of the Quran? Or Hindus pushing mandatory readings of the Upanishads? Sheesh.
I find our founding fathers gained a great deal from Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and would prefer that for educational resource. I also love, love, love your insights into the Aeneid. Super fascinating — why didn’t I see that before? LOL
Thank you for being a Christian against Christian Nationalism. My shoulder is with your shoulder.
I agree with Janet that the Bible is inappropriate for children without context; and that context should be applied by parents and not civil servants.
I am a Christian, but not until I was in my early 30’s. It was the inhumanity of humanity that I found in the Bible, the truth of who and what we are, that attracted me to it.
We are vile and wicked, i.e. selfish. But then It gives the solution to our sin that no other book has: death to self, laying all on the altar and allowing God to indwell and change our vile selfishness into His selflessness.