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
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Page 7
... story of civi- lization involved much violence , but violent words such as mauled , mugged , maimed , dismembered , tortured , and raped are largely avoided 7 by the writers of history . The word " booty Introduction.
... story of civi- lization involved much violence , but violent words such as mauled , mugged , maimed , dismembered , tortured , and raped are largely avoided 7 by the writers of history . The word " booty Introduction.
Page 13
... story ever told but is growing older with each new field trip to Africa . Ideally , it would be told by special- ists from whole skeletons of single individuals . Because these are almost never found , it must be pieced together like a ...
... story ever told but is growing older with each new field trip to Africa . Ideally , it would be told by special- ists from whole skeletons of single individuals . Because these are almost never found , it must be pieced together like a ...
Page 14
... stories . Most ended unhappily . Then , somewhere around two million years ago , there appeared Homo habilis ( man with ability ) so named because he was the first , though not the last , hominid with the ability to make stone tools ...
... stories . Most ended unhappily . Then , somewhere around two million years ago , there appeared Homo habilis ( man with ability ) so named because he was the first , though not the last , hominid with the ability to make stone tools ...
Page 15
... story ? If he really became extinct it was only after 30,000 BC . Was he of our own species , as Donald Johanson once suggested ? Or did he make no contribution to our gene pool as people like Chris Stringer and , lately , Dianne Waddle ...
... story ? If he really became extinct it was only after 30,000 BC . Was he of our own species , as Donald Johanson once suggested ? Or did he make no contribution to our gene pool as people like Chris Stringer and , lately , Dianne Waddle ...
Page 16
... stories are drier still . The account of man's origins in the book of Genesis seems refreshing by comparison . What scientific jargon can compete with its simplicity and poetry ? " And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground ...
... stories are drier still . The account of man's origins in the book of Genesis seems refreshing by comparison . What scientific jargon can compete with its simplicity and poetry ? " And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground ...
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.