It's the Greeks, not the Mayans

Although this essay is written from a secular perspective, it's refreshing to see writing not bound by the canons of multiculturalism:

"I don’t care if the Maya civilization did collapse. I don’t think we should shed a single retrospective tear. It might be interesting to know how or why it fell—whether from war or drought or disease or soil exhaustion—but I don’t much care about that either. Because quite frankly, as civilizations go, the Mayan civilization in Mexico didn’t amount to much."

The Architecture of the Mega-Church

I didn't know whether to laugh or weep at this article and slideshow about mega-churches. Apart from the monstrosities in the photographs, consider these quotations from the article:

"The desire of congregations to make their place of worship a part of everyday life rather than a place apart is admirable, and one can sympathize with the wish to avoid the traditional ecclesiastical symbols that have been pretty much co-opted by mainstream religions."

"It doesn't look like a place of worship, but what does it look like? A performing-arts center, a community college, a corporate headquarters?"

"Paul Goldberger once observed, 'The Gothic cathedral was designed to inspire awe and thoughts of transcendence. Megachurches celebrate comfort, ease and the very idea of contemporary suburban life.' "

"[M]ost contemporary megachurches are resolutely secular in design."

"The arena seating, the mainstream decor, the profusion of lighting and television broadcasting equipment, as well as the surrounding lobbies and vestibules, are distinctly secular. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

"[T]he abstract forms and louvered windows make this graceless building look more like a power plant than a cathedral."

Can you think of a better example to illustrate the identity crisis in which mainstream Christianity has floundered? The Christian mind and the culture it produces are AWOL.

New Book on Helen of Troy

There's a new book out on the woman whose face launched a thousand ships; it bears the arresting title Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore. I'm not familiar with the author (Bettany Hughes), but the book appears to be a standard deconstructionist work stressing an "ambivalence towards the ideal of female beauty." On the plus side, it looks like Hughes allows the possibility that Helen was real person.

A London Times review of this and another new book on Hercules can be found here.

The Reliability of Pre-modern Sources

I recently saw a link to an article which described an experiment proving that the "legendary" death ray of Archimedes could have been real. The account prompted me to reflect on the deep skepticism with which most moderns view ancient and medieval accounts of all sorts.

I suppose it is post-Renaissance arrogance and disdain for the past which leads to the dismissal of stories of advanced technologies and supernatural events. We [the MLA program] reject modernism as well as post-modernism, or say we do, but I wonder how many modern prejudices are still ingrained in us. Would I have countenanced the possibility of Archimedes's death ray in the absence of this new "scientific" account? I don't know.

What degree of faith or skepticism should we have when we approach documents produced in a different age, when the standards to which we are accustomed did not apply?

The Continuing Relevance of the Ancient Image

Back in May, the BBC ran a television series called "How Art Made the World." The producers discovered (gasp!) that most modern images have antecedents in the ancient world! What revelation will we be treated to next by these geniuses?

Pagan Tourists and their Modern Counterparts

Someone named Tony Perrottet has written a book entitled Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists. The first chapter is online here. Anyone doubting the resurgence of paganism in our day should consider that the big attraction at Pompeii, as Perrottet shows, is the various depictions of male genitalia found on walls throughout the ruin. (I believe Dr. Woods had to ask specifically that his group of students not be shown that side of things during his visit to Pompeii last summer.) In this article, Perrottet says today's New York City is analogous to ancient Rome. According to him, that's not a bad thing.

It gives one a better idea of what Paul was talking about in Romans 1, doesn't it?

Odysseus's Home Found

According to this article in the Madera Tribune, the home of Odysseus--yes, that Odysseus--has been located on the island of Kefalonia off the west coast of Greece. Maybe we can arrange a field trip . . .

Introducing the Faulkner University MLA Weblog!

Despite our neo-Luddite tendencies in the Master's of Liberal Arts program, we do recognize that most technologies, when used wisely, can further worthy objectives without undermining them. This is true even of the "blogosphere," despite the tremendous amount of silliness that can be found there. Thus we have created our own weblog.

The purpose of this site is to help the faculty and students of our program share thoughts and keep each other up to date on matters related to the Great Books and the Christian mind; we will be posting relevant news articles and essays, as well as inviting discussion on these topics. We hope that prospective students and other "outsiders" interested in the program will get a useful glimpse of what we are about here.