Untitled Flashcards Set

• Theiles of Miletus 

• Had a eureka moment in which he predicted an eclipse 

• Because of this, he showed that humans could understand science 

• Herodotus 

• Father of History 

• Not an atheist, but believed in Greek gods 

• Saw Barbarians as also having great deeds 

• Shocking to the greeks 

• Cause of the Trojan Wars 

• 3 goddesses argue about who is the most beautiful 

• Abduction of Helen 

• Tries to give a natural explanation, not the gods 

• Histories meant research at first 

• Travels to do research 

• What is the purpose? 

• So that things done by man may not be forgotten in time 

• Critical Analysis 

• Ionian Enlightenment 

• People wanted natural explanations for everyday occurrences 

• They weren’t satisfied with religious explanations 

• Polis as Citizen States 

• 750 

• Fertile plain 

• Usually near mountains 

• Only 4 practiced democracy 

• Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle have dim view on democracy 

• Sparta had a diarchy 

• Bound to your citizen State] 

Greco-Persian Wars 

• Persia was the largest empire the world had ever seen 

• Started to conquer Ionian city-states 

• In the name of Ahura-Mazda (god of light/order/justice) 

• The Greeks revolt against the conqueror 

• Persians start crushing revolts, Athens & poleis send help 

• Persia destroys Eretria (Athens’ neighbor) to go to Marathon to get Athens 

• Greek phalanx are there (Marathons bay) to meet Persia 

• 10,000 Persians are killed, 192 Athenians died 

• Athens was left unprotected 

• Sent a runner from Marathon to Athens 

• Gets out his message and dies 

• Persia sends a massive army up & around through Greece 

• Battle of Thermopylae 

• Narrow passes 2 mountain ranges >> Persia has to pass through to Hot Gates(??) 

• Spartans block the Hot Gates with phalanx 

• 7,000 soldiers dwindled to the 300 

• The 300 know they’ll die, they’re just trying to hold them off 

• Persians got through another pass 

• Persians kill them all & devastate Athens 

• Battle of Salamis Bay 

• Lure Persian navy into little passage & trap & demolish them 

• King Xerxes watched Greece destroy his navy (479) 

• Persians go home, Greeks win but expect the Persians to keep coming back because they have endless manpower 

• Athens wants a defense-pack (Delean League) 

• Combine navies with Delas’ ships 

• League requests money à move the money to Athens 

• Athens used the money to beautify their polis 

• Athens is like “meh, we deserve it” 

• They gradually try to turn Greece into their Tributaries 

• Athens the democracy becomes an empire 

• Thucydides blames the Peloponnesian War on Athens’ pride & Sparta’s responding too late 

• Between the wars (479-430) 

• This is the Classical Greek (Golden) age 

• Art, literature, dramas (Aeschylus fought in the Persian war) 

• Aeschylus’ tombstone says he fought at marathon (fun fact) 

• Philosophy peaks in aftermath of Peloponnesian Wars 

Plato, Socrates, Aristotle 

• Sophists 

• Plato’s intellectual competitor (he hates them) 

• They charge for instruction in oratory/rhetoric 

• Sophistry: disconnect between logos (word) and eragon (action) 

• Teach how to persuade crowds of a given course of action 

• There’s something almost daemonic (spiritual) about them 

• Rhetoric as a foundation doesn’t mean truth is the foundation 

• Rhetoric isn’t truth inherently  

• The Apology (part 1) 

• Logos & Eragon (word and deed) 

• Physis & Nomos (law of the gods/law of the universe) 

• Physis says Antigone must bury her brother 

• Nomos says Antigone can’t bury her brother 

• Sophists say screw physis 

• The Big Three say truth isn’t what I can convince you with my words, it’s more ultimate 

• Allegory of the Cave 

• Using tangible things to explain intangible concepts 

• Prisoners are 3 steps removed from reality 

• Projection of a projection of reality 

• 1 Prisoner gets out of the cave >> Real world is painful, miserable, everything they thought was real is a lie 

• Truth is found outside the cave 

• The world of the forms/ideas, not in the tangible 

• The world of the forms is separate from the tangible world 

• Is reality that which I see, or is the tangible only a reflection of reality, which is spiritual and eternal?  

• All that we see are shadows 

• Completely outside of us 

• BUT it’s also embodied within ourselves 

• Everyone in the cave has the world of the forms inside them (inherent knowledge) 

• Your soul has always existed in the world of the forms, then was put into material body 

• Life is a series of forgetting what your soul knows 

• But Christianity says souls are born 

• Education à “ex duco” = “I lead out” 

• Everyone has knowledge within that needs awakened 

The Apology (part 2?) 

• The key to understanding a text is embedded within the first line/block of the text 

• The sophists’ speeches are GREAT, but their words aren’t founded in truth 

• There is beauty in the Apology because it’s founded on truth 

• Apology is rational yet delightful and accessible 

• Socrates was patient and helped the audience find truth themselves 

• An attempt to break the prison bonds 

• Captures the timelessness of humanity 

• Surface level, Socrates could’ve avoided his death, but to do so would result in a fate worse than death 

• In his personhood, calling, convictions, he couldn’t have let himself 

• He’s the guy who goes back to the cave to enlighten the others 

• Thesis: pursuit of truth cannot be compromised 

• His life mission is to bring truth to people in the cave 

• An apostle of truth 

• If you know the good you’ll do it 

• Plot twist, this isn’t a Christian concept because of original sin 

• Makes an assumption about human nature that conflicts with Christianity’s  

• Makes knowledge the savior of humanity 

• Plato mistakes fallenness for ignorance (he’s not entirely incorrect, just misguided) 

• Enlightenment will save the world (according to Socrates) 

• Plato is interested in what you ARE not what you appear to be 

• Living right & getting rewarded for it is a rare thing & an unforgettable blessing when it happens in this life 

• What is it to ACTUALLY live in truth and honesty?  

• If you don’t play to your audience, it won’t go well HERE 

• Harvard Address Soltionton 

• Fallout in the press lasted YEARS 

• Because he said the unexpected 

• Truth is bitter & hard to find & seldom pleasant 

•  Criticism of Freedom of the Press 

• Condemnation of the West’s materialism 

• Invoked Plato & Socrates’ principles of shameless truth 

• A true prophet loves the people they’re denouncing 

• Not a criticism, but loving instruction 

Plato 

• Deduction 

• The world of the forms 

• Discovering what’s already there 

• General to Particular 

• Knowledge is embedded in our souls from the Great Herebefore 

• Reality is static/unchanging 

• Virtue = knowledge 

• If you know the good you’ll do it 

• Knowledge is the solution 

• Form of the Good 

• Perfect, eternal, unchanging 

• You won’t be able to help but do the good 

• You know it or you don’t 

Aristotle 

• Induction, Empiricism 

• Your soul is the motor of your body 

• We apprehend reality by observing 

• Particular to General 

• Knowledge is from the senses 

• Reality has the ability to change 

• Telos- reality is created to become something 

• Virtue= habit 

• If you practice the good you’ll do it 

• If you know the good, you could still choose not to do it 

• Golden Mean ----- Mean Relative 

• Golden Mean 

• Keep shooting at the target 

• Missing the target just means you need to try again 

• Mean Relative 

• Recognize which side (cowardice or recklessness) you’re on & lean toward the other side 

• Then seek what is relative to you 

• Refutation of the Golden Mean & Mean Relative: observation without context isn’t enough 

Plato + Aristotle (the duo) 

• Preachers of the Polis à advocates for smaller communities 

• Critical of Democracy 

• Democracies don’t last more than a century in ancient times 

• Defenders of the pursuit of Truth (against the Sophists) 

• Defenders of absolute truth 

• Opposed to Relativism 

• Humans can discover truth and knowledge through reason of empirical methods alone (not experience) 

• Believed Humans are basically good 

• Redeemable through education or habit 

The Roman Empire 

• TLDR: a tiny village took over the whole Mediterranean 

• “Mare Nostrum” à “our sea” 

• “Mediterranean” in the middle of the lands 

• Ab Urbe Condita: Year 1- Founding of the City 

• Foundational stories define people groups and their fundamental values 

• Rome’s foundational stories are horrific (Romulus and Remus- personal honor)  

• Myth of Sextus and Lucretia 509 BC (foundation of the Republic of Rome) 

• Revolt against the Etruscan kings in justice for Lucretia  

• The way we tell stories tell something about us 

• Temple of JUPITER OPTIMUS MAXIMUS on Capitoline Hill (shameless flex, I’m going there) 

• Political and Religious building 

• Fundamental Value: intertwining of religion and politics 

• Inclusion of Outsiders: people from all over the “world” became Roman 

• Rome was one of the most successful conquerors and THE most successful retainers of conquests 

• Roman Empire took less bureaucrats to run 70 million people than it takes Ohio State to run 7000 

• They were efficient & had very few revolts 

• “In the Fullness of Time” 

• Sabine women reinforces the idea of “e pluribus unum” 

• Out of many (peoples), one (nation) 

• Romans are inclusive 

• “Mos maiorum” ways of our betters 

• Fundamental Value: Ways of our ancestors 

• Rome placed heavy emphasis on honoring their ancestors 

• Augustine book 1 chapter 9 à mocks ancestors 

• Mocks classical model of education 

• I have no memory of this but it was written down  

• Augustine book 1 chapter 16 “Hellish river of custom” 

• Roman education 

• FUNDAMENTAL VALUE: anyone can be Roman 

• Ability to handle self criticism 

• Ot’s weak when it can’t handle it 

• Tacitus Germania 

• Exposition of German Culture 

• Primary purpose: criticism of Romans 

• Roman materialism 

• Marital Chastity 

• Section 19) all around better moral customs than Rome 

• Criticism of Patria Potestas (absolute authority of the father) 

• Simple blind praise does nothing to help Rome thrive 

• Patron/client relationship 

• Patrons offer Clients something the clients can’t do for themselves 

• Hellenistic World: world after Alexander the Great’s expansion of Greek Culture 

• Alexander’s Empire collapsed, squabble, and call Rome for help as PATRONS 

• Not the help between equals; Rome gets to absorb and PATRONIZE the areas 

• Number of revolts are few & far between 

• Rome unites the Mediterranean 

• Punic Wars started in 264 BC 

• Hannibals Elephants in the Alps! 

• Rome wins 2^nd and 3^rd Punic Wars, comes to rule the Mediterranean 

• Republic Government 

• Their military success is what hurt the republic the most 

• Republic: “res publica” = “public thing” = “common wealth” 

• Everyone knows the candidates to vote for, who become representatives  

• Candidates wear white togas (just for funsies) 

• Each year there’s a series of electives for every office 

• Consuls: leader of military and republic (a highest office next to the sensor) 

• PATRONS rely on clients for votes 

• Julius Caesar: dominant dictator for life (part of the 1^st Triumvirate) 

• Assassinated by the conspirators 

• 2^nd Triumvirate divides the Republic 

• Octavian 

• Lepidus 

• Antony 

• Octavian takes control in 31 BC 

• Octavian/Augustus: 1^st Emperor of Rome & New Political Order 

• Established Praetorian Guard 

• Political, Military, Religious Reforms 

• POLITICS: Strong of mind, weak of body 

• After saving Rome, Octavian was ready to fade from the picture but the senate wouldn’t let him 

• Augustine Settlement: negotiation with Senate 

• Senate gave him the title “Augustus” à “God’s anointed” 

• Princeps: primary citizen à title makes him just one of the guys 

• RELIGION: Pontifex Maximus: chief priest 

• The go between the gods and people à bridges the gap 

• Maintains “pax deorum” (“peace with gods”) 

• MILITARY: Amnesty: honored retirement to civil war fighters 

• Pax Romana!! 

• Established a standing army (300,000 people!!!) 

• Octavian claims the title Pater Patriae (Father of the Fatherlands) 

• Set himself up as the ultimate PATRON 

Rise of Christianity (and Triumph) 

• Two Roman Religion Styles 

• Official Religion: regulated, formal, liturgical, Priests maintain pax deorum 

• Popular Religion/Mystery Cults: raucous, inclusive, communal, lavish, ceremonial 

• Dedicated to Isis, who they believed to be the divine savior 

• Enthusiasm à inspired by the gods 

• Personal Salvation: blessed life after death 

• Can be part of any number of mystery cults (they’re not exclusive) 

• Mithraism  

• Initiation: Taurobolium (bull-blood shower) 

• You’re either in or you’re not 

• The world that Christianity is born into has a LOT of religious options 

• Does it meet the needs of the people in the mystery cults? 

• Rise & Spread of Christianity 

• Starts in Jerusalem 

• Koine Greek (Greek of the NT): language of the time (common language) 

• Pax Romana makes it easy to move throughout the Roman Empire 

• Christianity appeals to all classes, men & women alike 

• “Religion is the opiate of the masses” -Marx 

• Life is materialistic. The poor (who can’t afford STUFF) use religion as a drug to numb the pain and provide hope for the future 

• James says not to treat rich people differently and not to judge by appearances 

• Litotes: affirming something by phrasing its opposite 

• “Not a few” rather than “many” 

• Scripture references women and centurions 

• There is not a disproportionate number of poor people in the church 

• “Masters” are addressed in how to care for servants 

• In Rome, class was written into their physiology 

• Christian Persecution 

• 250 AD: Decius’ empire-wide persecution 

• 303-311 AD: Diocletian’s Great Persecution 

• Diocletian’s edicts: hand over copies of Scripture (people who did were called Traditores à Traitor à Tradition) 

• This had a fundamental impact on Christianity 

• Later results in Donatists 

• Constantine & the Edict of Milan 

• Declares tolerance and justice for Christianity 

• Chi Rho (first two letters of Jesus’ name stacked) became a symbol 

• Within a century, Christians go from persecuted to persecutors 

• 410 AD- Goths sack City of Rome 

• Christians thought with Constantine’s rule that the Roman Empire was God’s kingdom on earth (so they didn’t understand why God let them get sacked) 

• The pagans believed the gods weren’t protecting them anymore because of the Christians 

• Augustine wrote The City of God  

• This was a full recap of Rome and Christianity 

• Wrote about people living for God and people living for the world 

• City of God vs City of Man à don’t elevate your country to God’s kingdom on earth 

• Augustine wrote Confessions book 10 chapter 27 (late have I loved you) 

• Genre: autobiographical prayer 

• Only successful one 

• Elements of philosophy & testimony 

• Book 1 Section 1 

• Paragraph 1 is the whole point of why he’s writing this 

• Nature of prayer 

• Man’s innate need for God 

• “our hearts are restless until they rest in you” 

• “You excite him to take pleasure in praising you” 

• Augustine uses sexual language because that’s the best comparison to him (nothing else has captivated him equally) 

• Basic Human Characteristics 

• Augustine constant pursuit of satisfaction 

• Learning, teaching, fame 

• He wanted out of his redneck town 

• Once he left he never came back 

• Pursuit of truth 

• Dabbling in love and pleasure 

• Always around companions and friends 

• Garden scene is only one he’s really alone 

• Thrill of the forbidden (“The evil was foul and I loved it”) 

• His story is fundamentally human à what makes it timeless 

• Everyone can understand/relate to at least one part of the prayer 

• Book II & the Pear Tree Episode 

• Wrongdoing for the thrill of it 

• Augustine shaking his fist at Aristotle and Plato 

• Going against “if you know the good you’ll do it” 

• Because he knew the good and he very intentionally didn’t do the good 

• Human depravity: fundamental brokenness as a result of original sin 

• Augustine introduces original sin to the west 

• Opposes Aristotle’s theory of “if you practice the good you’ll do it” 

• Augustine is necessarily inclined against that 

• Medieval Catholic 

• God’s grace is essential, but the good work/faith steps are too 

• Good works are necessary but not sufficient for salvation 

• Council of Trent 

• Guy climbing stairs 

• Classical Protestant 

• Dead in sin, raised to life through justification 

• Dead guy and living guy 

• Book 5 chapter 13, Book 6 chapter 5, Book 3 chapter 4, Book 7 chapter 17 

• Book 8 chapter 1 à Leadup to Garden 

• Faith Based Intellect 

• Faith Seeking Understanding: I believe in order that I may understand 

• Aristotelian and Platonic Notions of Classical Perfectionism 

• Donatists: God’s grace is not sufficient, church is only for the perfect, if the priest is corrupt then everyone in the church is corrupt 

• Pelagianism: you can white-knuckle your way into Heaven, you can and should be perfect 

• Salvation brings sinlessness: you’re born a blank slate and can follow Christ’s life/path 

• Augustine says the church is one, humans are fallen at birth, the church is a helper of fallen souls, grace > our sins 

• Peter Abelard: by doubting we come to inquire, by inquiring we arrive at truth 

• Contrast to Augustine’s notion of faith based knowledge 

To Build a Communitas Fidelium 

• Foundation 

• Christianitas: whole Christian culture, dominated the middle ages 

• Germanitas: Germanic culture Christianized 

• Romanitas: continuity of Roman/classical culture 

• Language and law 

• Germanitas 

• 410 Goths sack Rome 

• Inspires Augustine to write the City of God 

• 2 Dynasties of Franks 

• Merovingians and Carolingians oppose Arianism and convert to orthodoxy 

• Arianism says Christ isn’t God 

• Carolingians 

• Charlemagne 

• Carolingians overthrow Merovingians because of Papal authority  

• Major Domo 

• Charlemagne is the most important Carolingian King 

• Renovatio romanii imperii: want to restore the roman empire 

• His full title captures Christianitas, Germanitas, Romanitas 

• Communitas Fidelium à Community of the Faithful Ones 

• Key leaders tried to create this community 

• Faithful to church and state (which was inherited from Rome) 

• American experiment broke from this communitas fidelium 

• Renovatio Romanii Imperii 

• Charlemagne was a Greek King, but he seemed also Roman 

• Claims to be Emporoer ruling the restored Roman Empire 

• Much further North than the OG Roman Empire 

• Took the Franks to places they’d never been 

• Brutal conqueror (convert to Christianity or be slaughtered) 

• Carolingian Renaissance 

• Renaissance of Learning/Education 

• Not real Italian Renaissance 

• Latin texts written in the year 800 is 11-13 times more all latin texts/manuscripts up to 800 

• 90% of every text we read from the ancient world that were originally written in latin is from 800 AD 

• Starts just before 800 

• After the fall of the Roman Empire, literacy was like gone 

• Just before Charlemagne, literacy was 1% 

• Height of Roman Empire, literacy was 10% 

• Charlemagne (over 30 years) brings literacy rate back to 10% 

• Pulled together the best minds to do it 

• Alcuin of York (guiding light of educational reform) 

• Theodulph of Orleans (Visigoth from Spain) 

• Einhard (wrote bio about Charlemagne) 

• Carolingian Ren. Produces Carolingian miniscule 

• Standardized form of writing we use to today 

• Change in books from Roman Empire to the fall of Rome to Medeival times to Carolingian Ren. 

• Leather-bound (made to use) 

• Bedazzled (made to display 

• All books were valuable in between era books were even more valuable 

• Printing Press will lower value of books 

• Charlemagne wanted a restoration of Roman stuff 

• Brought back Roman bookmaking 

• The difference in portrays reflect differences in purposes 

Two More Renaissances: 12^th Century and THE Renaissance  

• Filioque: “and the son” part of Nicene Creed  

• Charlemagne standardized this (and a whole lot of other stuff) across Western Europe 

• Carolingian Renaissance Christmas 800: Charlemagne 

• “Dark Ages” is more of a myth, it wasn’t that dark 

• 12^th Century Renaissance: Abelard and Aquinas à Scholasticism 

• Original in spite of itself 

• Peter Abelard: Sic et Non (This and not this) 

• Takes controversial questions and presents other people’s ideas 

• Some say ____, some say ______ 

• Doesn’t do what Acquinas does 

• You can’t answer these questions with other people’s words  

• Peter Abelard: Story of My Misfortunes 

• Birth scholasticism 

• Drives Authority Crazy: 

• Rational Explanations 

• Won debates 

• Wasn’t taught by the “masters” but still was a smarty pants 

• Argued with priests and stuff 

• Said words of authorities weren’t enough 

• By doubting, we come to inquire, by inquiry we arrive at truth 

• Father of scholasticism 

• 12^th Century Renaissance: used Aristotle as a major guide for education  

• Introduced index and concordance and chapter divisions 

• Thomas Acquinas 

• “I would far rather believe pigs could fly than believe my brothers would lie to be” 

• Beneficiary of 12^th Century Ren.  

• Summa Theologica: Theological Summary 

• Written for an audience of beginners 

• Synthesized Aristotelian reason and Christian faith 

• Substance/attributes in the natural world to Aristotle 

• Substance (what it is) stays the same 

• Attributes (what it looks like) change 

• Acquinas says with Eucharist, substance changes and attributes change 

• After consecration, the attributes (what you experience) are the same, but the substance (like its identity) has changed 

• Transubstantiation  

• Structure: question, opposing side, refutation, his argument 

• Demonstrates logic of both sides 

• Does the opposite of a strawman 

• Acquinas makes the opposing side as logical/appealing as possible before debunking it 

• 14^th Century à Century of Calamity 

• End of the middle ages 

• 100 years war 

• Christians killing Christians 

• Age of pessimism and regression 

• Black death killed 1/3 Europeans 

• Crop failure, famines, peasant revolts, church crisis 

• THE Renaissance 

• Italian: Petrarch 

• Northern: Erasmus