In 536 A.D., an Icelandic volcano explosion occurred, blanketing the Earth with such thick ash that it plunged the entire planet into a volcanic winter for the next several years. Nothing like this had ever happened before or since. Day looked like night and the temperature dropped significantly. Several centuries later, people still felt the […]
Category Archives: Western Civilization
49. God Becomes Man at the Center Point of History
In my second annual Christmas post, I would like to highlight for you one of my most favorite paintings of all time. It is entitled The Annunciation, by Fra Angelico. The Annunciation – when the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was going to have the Christ child – was a common art theme in […]
24. The Ionian Philosophical Revival – from Death to Life
The Greek Dark Ages commenced with the fall of Troy in the 12th century.1 It continued for several centuries until a ray of light finally dawned in the region of Ionia in western Asia Minor in the eighth and seven centuries BC.2 This flourishing of art and culture is known as the Ionian Enlightenment or the […]
23. Hesiod and the Creation of the World
“Chaos was first of all, but next appeared Broad-Bosomed Earth.” -Hesiod from Theogony Hesiod’s Theogony was monumental in advancing Greek thinking because its subject matter was no less than the origin of the universe.1 It is the most complete surviving Greek account of the creation of the universe. Hesiod described not only how the universe came into being, but […]
22. Homer – from the Glory of the Battlefield to the Virtue of the Homestead
“My mother Thetis tells me that there are two ways in which I may meet my end. If I stay and fight, I shall not return alive, but my name will live forever; whereas if I go home my name will die, but it will be long ere death shall take me.”1 -The Iliad, Achilles talking to […]
21. Divine Revelation and the Ultimate Purpose of History
Revelation occurs at the interface between God’s transcendence and His immanence.
1. The Harmony and Tension Between Faith and Reason
“What does Jerusalem have to do with Athens? -Tertullian, Church Father (155A.D.-220A.D.) After his 51 A.D. encounter with the Greek philosophers at the Areopagus, the Apostle Paul would probably have answered the above question with, “Not much.” Up until this time, Hebrew faith and Greek philosophy had been developing on parallel paths. It seems as […]