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. |
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Page 8
... say is at least as important as what it does say . It cannot say everything because the historical record is never complete . We complete it by our own infer- ences , often ignorant of how those affected by the past felt about it . Very ...
... say is at least as important as what it does say . It cannot say everything because the historical record is never complete . We complete it by our own infer- ences , often ignorant of how those affected by the past felt about it . Very ...
Page 13
... feet six inches tall and had the brain size of a chimpanzee . Was it patronizing to call her " Lucy " rather than Ms. Afarensis , her family name ? Johanson and Lucy rapidly became an " item , " as they say in the BEFORE CIVILIZATION 13.
... feet six inches tall and had the brain size of a chimpanzee . Was it patronizing to call her " Lucy " rather than Ms. Afarensis , her family name ? Johanson and Lucy rapidly became an " item , " as they say in the BEFORE CIVILIZATION 13.
Page 14
Irreverant Essays on Antiquity Barbara Sher Tinsley. an " item , " as they say in the tabloids . Lucy represented a very early , very primitive hominid . Although she walked on two feet and had straight legs , she was not yet of the ...
Irreverant Essays on Antiquity Barbara Sher Tinsley. an " item , " as they say in the tabloids . Lucy represented a very early , very primitive hominid . Although she walked on two feet and had straight legs , she was not yet of the ...
Page 16
... say of them that these Paleolithic folks were at the very least our close cousins ; that if dressed in a good suit and placed on Wall Street , a Neanderthal would fit right in.25 Neanderthals are quite possibly , as some have long sus ...
... say of them that these Paleolithic folks were at the very least our close cousins ; that if dressed in a good suit and placed on Wall Street , a Neanderthal would fit right in.25 Neanderthals are quite possibly , as some have long sus ...
Page 18
... say that man's appearance was working on him . Appearances do count ! Like Dar- win , modern scientists and fashion models who pose on magazine covers know it is all in the bones . When the scientists have collected enough fos- silized ...
... say that man's appearance was working on him . Appearances do count ! Like Dar- win , modern scientists and fashion models who pose on magazine covers know it is all in the bones . When the scientists have collected enough fos- silized ...
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.