Reconstructing Western Civilization: Irreverant Essays on AntiquityThis is a collection of eleven essays, laced with humor and irony, on the Dawn of Man, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Hebrews, Minoans and Mycenaens, classical Greece, Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic world, Rome's Republic and Empire, and several church fathers (Irenaeus, Tertullian, Jerome, and Augustine) who influenced the Primitive Church. Tinsley highlights current research while showcasing themes of contemporary as well as ancient significance - misogyny, the manipulation of rhetoric to justify privilege, the contributions of the anonymous to the well-being of the famous, the paradox of progress, the distortion of prophecy, the use and misuse of myth and other media, the exploitation of spiritual, intellectual, physical, and sexual resources, the comforts and perils of provincialism versus the dangers and benefits of organization - spiritual, imperial, or both. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 37
Page 8
... means stolen prop- erty . Booty was a glue that held " civilization " together at the same time that it kept it from bonding . With the onset of cities and civilized living , men were able to organize themselves into armies . War was ...
... means stolen prop- erty . Booty was a glue that held " civilization " together at the same time that it kept it from bonding . With the onset of cities and civilized living , men were able to organize themselves into armies . War was ...
Page 13
... mean real wise guys . Alternatively , we could call ourselves Homo neglegens ( careless man ) ; Homo stultus ( foolish man ) ; or even Homo pravus ( immoral man ) . The term " man " means human beings of both sexes , since no one sex ...
... mean real wise guys . Alternatively , we could call ourselves Homo neglegens ( careless man ) ; Homo stultus ( foolish man ) ; or even Homo pravus ( immoral man ) . The term " man " means human beings of both sexes , since no one sex ...
Page 26
... means for revenge on mankind , who displeased him by building the world's first skyscraper , a Sumerian temple or ziggurat . Yahweh " con- fused their speech , " sending polyglot speakers out from Shinar ( Hebrew for Sumeria ) to fill ...
... means for revenge on mankind , who displeased him by building the world's first skyscraper , a Sumerian temple or ziggurat . Yahweh " con- fused their speech , " sending polyglot speakers out from Shinar ( Hebrew for Sumeria ) to fill ...
Page 31
... means of transportation were sailboats and wheeled carts . The information pilgrims derived from each other while trekking off to visit the ziggurats became the basis for policy - making , for priests or other officials of temple towns ...
... means of transportation were sailboats and wheeled carts . The information pilgrims derived from each other while trekking off to visit the ziggurats became the basis for policy - making , for priests or other officials of temple towns ...
Page 37
... means of insuring that international trade should flourish , largely for the benefit of his capital city . " 2' So what if he did not control all of Mesopotamia all of the time ? 28 This may mean only that he was smart enough to ...
... means of insuring that international trade should flourish , largely for the benefit of his capital city . " 2' So what if he did not control all of Mesopotamia all of the time ? 28 This may mean only that he was smart enough to ...
Contents
7 | |
11 | |
26 | |
Forever Egypt | 50 |
Our Hebrew Heritage | 75 |
Crete and Mycenae | 102 |
Classical Greece | 121 |
Alexander and the Hellenistic World | 155 |
Hellenistic Civilization | 174 |
Republican Rome | 200 |
Princeps and Principate 27 BCAD 180 | 235 |
Four Fathers and the Primitive Church | 282 |
Notes | 327 |
Bibliography | 365 |
Index | 377 |
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Reconstructing Western Civilization: Irreverant Essays on Antiquity Barbara Sher Tinsley No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
Africa Akhenaton Alexander Alexander's Ancient Antiochus Asia Assyria Athenian Athens Augustine Augustine's Augustus believed Caesar Caligula called Canaan century BC Christ Christians Church civilization classical Claudius Cleisthenes conquest Crete culture daughter David death defeated divine Domitian Egypt Egyptian emperor empire Epicurus Etruscans father fertility friends God's goddess gods Greece Greek Hadrian Hebrew Hellenistic heretics historians History Homo human Hyksos Ibid Irenaeus Israel Israelites Jerome Jesus Jews king Kingdom later Latin leader lived Lord Macedonian Marcus Marius Mesopotamia military Minoans modern Moses mother murder Mycenaeans named neighbors Nero never palace peace Peloponnesian Persian pharaoh philosophers political Pompey Ptolemies reform reign religious repr Republic Roman Rome Rome's rulers sapiens Saul says scholars Seleucids Senate social Sparta spiritual Stoics story Suetonius Sumer Sumerian Syria temple Tertullian Thebes things thought Tiberius tion took Trajan tyrants University Press Western wife women worship wrote York Zeno
Popular passages
Page 75 - You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth.
Page 236 - Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
Page 135 - Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!
Page 278 - If the gods have determined about me and about the things which must happen to me, they have determined well, for it is not easy even to imagine a deity without forethought; and as to doing me harm, why should they have any desire towards that? for what advantage would result to them from this or to the whole, which is the special object of their providence? But if they have not determined about me individually, they have certainly determined about the whole at least, and the things which happen...
Page 267 - Trajan was ambitious of fame; and as long as mankind shall continue of Trajan to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their in the east benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.
Page 94 - O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you. O Absalom, my son, my son!
Page 17 - As soon as some ancient member in the great series of the Primates came to be less arboreal, owing to a change in its manner of procuring subsistence, or to some change in the surrounding conditions, its habitual manner of progression would have been modified: and thus it would have been rendered more strictly quadrupedal or bipedal.
Page 238 - Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.' And he replied, 'Who are my mother and my brothers?' And looking at those who sat around him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother' (Mark 3:31-35 ). This suggests that Jesus is referring to a universal family of believers.