On Classics & the Incarnation
by Erin Doom
Feast of St John the Russian of Evia
Anno Domini 2020, May 27
Yours truly with Jessica Hooten Wilson (left) and Warren Farha (back) in October, Anno Domini 2020 at the fifth annual Inklings Festival
1. Essays et al: "Bodying Forth the Classics"
In the introductory essay to her book Invitation to the Classics (unfortunately out of print), Louise Cowan says she re-read the Illiad, Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, The Divine Comedy, and other classics every year. Jessica Hooten-Wilson, who studied under Cowan at the University of Dallas, elaborates:
What we repeat, we memorize; what we memorize, we truly know. While I used to be spellbound by teachers who could call up passages of texts whenever they needed them, as a teacher, I now know the repetition is what creates that knowledge.
If you assign The Divine Comedy every year, you will be reading The Divine Comedy annually; you will begin to know it by heart. It will become as much a part of you as the food you eat. Cowan writes,
[The Classics] have no life except in their readers; in them, they are living presences that come to be known from inside—with the heart as well as the head.
To illustrate how classics become living presences in readers, Hooten-Wilson cites the concluding passage from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. It’s one of my all-time favorites, so I’ll give it to you in full here. Montag, the main character and a former book-burner, joins a group of outcasts who are running from the law. After introducing himself, they respond:
"I am Plato’s Republic . . . I want you to meet Jonathan Swift, the author of that evil political book Gulliver’s Travels! And this other fellow is Charles Darwin, and-this one is Schopenhauer, and this one is Einstein, and this one here at my elbow is Mr. Albert Schweitzer, a very kind philosopher indeed. Here we all are, Montag. Aristophanes and Mahatma Gandhi and Gautama Buddha and Confucius and Thomas Love Peacock and Thomas Jefferson and Mr. Lincoln, if you please. We are also Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John."
Hooten-Wilson concludes:
In a world that burned books, a group of castaways has memorized the classics and is bodying them forth. They are the living tradition, pilgrims memorizing the great stories, philosophy, poetry and passing it on, knowing that, in spite of all of the violence and ignorance of the world, what they are remembering will endure.
And then she throws out this bomb as the final word:
On 31 March 2020 I resigned my position as an associate professor of humanities at John Brown University, where I have taught for seven years. Before this role, I had taught at other schools for nearly ten years. I love teaching, but I am finding that the changing academy means I must change how I consider my calling and who my students are. As I have learned so much from books, articles, lectures, interviews, and podcasts, I hope to be able to teach through those media going forward. So, do not hesitate to contact me with your suggestions and proposals.
Read the whole piece here. Do contact her. And please support her in whatever way she bodies forth the classics.
2. Books & Culture: The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What It Means to Be an Educated Human Being
3. Bible & Liturgy: "Oh Human, What Should We Do with You?"
Acts 18:22-28; Jn. 12:36-47. Online here.
St Basil the Great ponders the incarnation and asks what should be done with humans who do not seek God who remains in the heights:
O human, what should we do with you? When God remains in the heights, you do not seek Him. When He comes down and converses with you through flesh, you do not receive Him. But how will you be brought into affinity with God when you seek explanations? Realize that God is in flesh for this reason: because the flesh that was cursed needed to be sanctified, the flesh that was weakened needed to be strengthened, the flesh that was alienated from God needed to be brought into affinity with Him, the flesh that had fallen in paradise needed to be led back into heaven.
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