America’s Trajectory : Pre-Christian Influences: The Glory that was Greece

1. America’s Trajectory: Pre-ChristianInfluences: The Glory that was Greece

2. America’s Trajectory: Pre-ChristianInfluences Ancient Greece • Greece & Israel: Was there a connection? • Time period: 1000 BC – 1 AD • David//Achilles • Nehemiah//Pythagoras • Micah//Anaxagoras

3. America’s Trajectory: Pre-ChristianInfluences - Ancient Greece

4. America’s Trajectory: Pre-ChristianInfluences Ancient Greece

5. America’s Trajectory: Pre-ChristianInfluences Ancient Greece

6. America’s Trajectory: Pre-ChristianInfluences- Ancient Greece • Democracy • Athens “pure” democracy • Citizen duties & rights • Tyrants • Ostracism • Civic participation

7. America’s Trajectory: Pre-ChristianInfluences - Ancient Greece Love and care of the body & mind Classical architecture: Acropolis Epic poetry & plays

8. America’s Trajectory: Pre-ChristianInfluences Ancient Greece • The Heroic Ideal: • Homer’s Epics: Ulysses, • Achilles, Hector • Pericles : Defense of • Homeland • Leonidas: the • Supreme sacrifice • Marathon • runner “Athens • is saved!”

9. America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient Greece • Pythagoras; 550 BC • Immortality (transmigration of the soul) – strong influence on Socrates & Plato. • Pythagorean theorem, the beginning of mathematics in Western culture – demonstrative and deductive reasoning which has had a key influence . • Influence found an expression in visual art and music, particularly in the renaissance and baroque epoch. • The “Music of the Spheres” assumes that there is correct and pleasing “unheard” music which moves and motivates us.

10. America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient Greece Immortality of the soul: Matthew 10:28And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Music as way of communicating with God: Ephesians 5:18, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,

11. America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient Greece Music as way of antagonizing God: Daniel 3:15: Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”

12. America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient Greece Intelligent Design: Anaxagoras, 500 BC Advanced view of matter, An infinite number of elements. One of the earliest "Big Bang" theories, he suggested that initially "all things were together,” matter was a homogeneous mixture. Intelligent design:” that "nous" (“the supreme mind") separated two great masses, one consisting of the rare, hot, dry, called the 'aether,' the other of the opposite categories and called 'air.'

13. America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient Greece GENESIS 1:1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. 6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. 9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

14. America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient Greece Ethics and Self-Discovery: Socrates/Plato, 350 BC Father of ethics. “Know Thyself!” Irony as method Socratic method. “The Cave” metaphor Accused of corrupting the youth of Athens. Virtue is the most valuable of all possessions; the ideal life should be spent in search of the Good.

15. America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences; Ancient Greece Aristotle, 300 BC Student of Plato Scientific inquiry; body of knowledge & proof Biology, psychology, medicine, physics, geology, optics, & metaphysics Cause and effect Research and classify “Follow the divine.” “The Golden Mean.”

16. America’s Trajectory: Pre-Christian Influences Ancient Greece World is illusion; ideals (form) is real: Socrates Romans 1:20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; Nature of God; our souls’ relation to God: Plato Romans 13:1Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. The good life consists in striving to be in consonance with God: Aristotle Luke 10:27…‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’

17. Immediate Consequences Greek language becomes the language of the Bible Greek philosophy and religion seeks a “new” way – Paul’s influence Platonic & Aristotelian thought Greeks and Judeans intermingle: Jews and Gentiles; universalism of Christianity

18. America’s Trajectory:Pre-ChristianInfluences Ancient Greece • Disunity • Distrust • Decadence • Pluralism • Corruption The Decline of Ancient Greece