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The Bible and Western culture [TTC Audio]
English | 1996 | 18 hrs and 9 mins | MP3 | 188 MB
Bible and Western Culture
(24 lectures, 45 minutes/lecture)
Course No. 637
Taught by Andrew Ford, Robert Hollander, Michael Sugrue, David Thurn
The Bible has had an incalculable effect on all of Western culture. In this course you explore the Bible's impact as literature both in the study of the literary qualities of the Bible itself and in the analysis of the Bible's influence on subsequent works of literature and philosophy.
Under the guidance of four professors from Princeton University, you encounter such masterpieces of narrative as the Book of Exodus; of philosophy as Thomas More's Utopia; of poetry as Milton's Paradise Lost; and of fiction as Dostoyevsky's The Idiot along with dozens of other works.
The Focus
The first 10 lectures are devoted to the Bible itself a focus that extends back before Genesis by discussing the ancient epic tradition and the influences of the oldest epic, Gilgamesh, on the Hebrew Bible. You study a selection of books from the Old and New Testaments at length with an appreciation for the numerous and varied biblical literary forms: poetry, prose, old verse, victory songs, lamentations, folk tales, and tales of ancestral law, to name just a few.
The remaining 14 lectures focus on the biblical associations in many of the greatest works of Western literature. From St. Augustine to Nietzsche, Dante to Joyce, countless authors and philosophers have found inspiration in biblical texts. Appropriately, three full lectures are devoted to Dante's Divine Comedy, and new windows of understanding are opened on a variety of classic works.
What You Learn: The Bible
The course begins by touching on the Mesopotamian narrative tradition, which provided an epic foundation for the later wisdom literature of the Near East. You then consider the origins of the Old Testament, from the creation story of Genesis to the historical basis of Exodus, and the role of the Pentateuch in establishing the idea of the Mosaic tradition. In lectures on Job and Isaiah, you reflect on the problem of evil in monotheistic religions and the role of the prophets in raising Jerusalem from a geographical center to a sacred symbol. Both of these themes inspired numerous writers and artists in centuries to come.
In turning to the New Testament, you consider first of all Matthew, the synoptic Gospel most clearly aimed at converting those of the Jewish faith and establishing a new chosen people, the Christian Church. Then, in discussions of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, you see the fundamental role of history in forging a tradition for Christianity. A lecture on John describes the mysterious symbolism of numerology. A lecture on Paul demonstrates the perspective of the missionary epistles. With Revelation you examine how, in spite of its ambiguity, it binds the New and Old Testaments into an integrated aesthetic whole.
Sample Themes
Book of Job (Lecture 4): Why do bad things happen to good people? This problem, called "theodicy," is both timeless and insoluble and has vexed religious thinkers for centuries. Addressing the problem of evil, the Book of Job offers a philosophy of resignation, supposing that God is inscrutable but necessarily just and that His ways can never be justified to mankind. The Book of Job counsels humility and faith in the face of what appears to be moral chaos.
The Gospel According to Matthew (Lecture 6) maintains the closest connection with Christianity's Jewish roots. Jesus, presented as a new Moses, unveils a new Law in His Sermon on the Mount. Matthew's five parts articulate the domain of Christian morality and are analogous to the five books of the Pentateuch. Paramount to Christian morality is the "Golden Rule," stated in Matthew 7:12.
The Gospel According to John (Lecture 8) is the most mystical of the Gospels, emphasizing miracles over parables and containing an abundance of numerical symbolism. Unlike the Synoptic Gospels, John treats the crucifixion as glorifying Jesus rather than humiliating Him. Serving as the source for many dogmas that inspired later Christian creeds, John is uniquely important despite its non-synoptic status.
What You Learn: Post Biblical
Passing to the late Western Roman Empire, you consider Augustine of Hippo's contributions to the genre of spiritual autobiography, and you go on to study the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart, whose unsystematic theology pointed to the difficulty of communicating human revelation.
In the late Middle Ages, Christianity in the West still exerted a pervasive influence on every aspect of society. Yet change was in the air. Over the next few centuries, the pace of change accelerated, and the loosening of strictures associated with the Renaissance ushered in a new type of literature, self-critical, human-centered, and experimental. Yet even as the traditional reverence shown to the Scripture might be thought to be declining, still the Bible provided a reference point for writers and other artists.
You assay a span of literature from the very early 14th century (Dante) to the 20th century (Joyce). You discuss literature from Italy, England, Germany, Denmark, and Russia, written in the genres of prose, poetry, and drama, as well as what might be considered philosophy or religious writing. The selections are thus representative of the vast body of Western literature that draws directly on Scripture for inspiration.
Sample Themes
Dante (Lectures 13-15): The problem of how to represent sin sympathetically without treating vice as virtue was one of the great challenges that Dante overcame in the Divine Comedy. Dante's unrepentant sinners who justify themselves at God's expense are exemplified in Canto 33 of the Inferno by Ugolino, who tells his story without acknowledging the degree of his transgression.
Shakespeare (Lecture 18): Shakespeare's comedy Measure for Measure is a biblically inspired allegory of justice, showing that as God authorizes political officials to maintain order and dispense human justice, men must be careful never to mistake human justice for divine justice. Moreover, as Original Sin precludes the possibility of perfect human justice, mercy becomes a necessary part of a virtuous political order. Ultimately, Measure for Measure demonstrates that only God's Final Judgment at the end of the world can completely realize the Spirit of the Law.
Kierkegaard (Lecture 21): S ren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a Romantic thinker who defended Christianity against science and rationality. Insisting that religion demanded a commitment that could not be justified by any logical process, Kierkegaard became a latter day Job, completely submitting himself to the will of God without qualifications.
Joyce (Lecture 24): James Joyce's autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man describes the flowering and waning of Joyce's attachment to Catholicism. Stephen Dedalus (the Joyce figure) negotiates a psychic maze from his earliest schoolboy days to his spiritual emancipation and exile from Ireland. For Stephen, art serves as a substitute for religion, and thus he develops a new kind of spirituality unconfined by Catholic tradition.
"Should I buy Audio or Video?"
No visual aids are included in the DVD version of this course. The difference between the audio and video versions is in being able to see the professors as they deliver their lectures in a college classroom setting.
Course Lecture Titles
The Gilgamesh Epic
Genesis Introduction to Biblical Study
Exodus Toward the Law
Job and the Problem of Evil
Isaiah Swords into Plowshares
Matthew The New Law
Luke and Acts From Jerusalem to Rome
John The Unbroken Net of Scripture
The Pauline Tradition
Revelation and the Eschaton
Augustine and the Christian Self
Meister Eckhart From Whom God Hid Nothing
Justice and Poetry Dante's Book of the Dead
Ugolino Dante's Last "Sympathetic Sinner"
Cantos I and II of Purgatorio Typology and Poetry
Utopia Between Heaven and Earth
Luther and the Reformation
Shakespeare Measure for Measure
Milton Paradise Lost
Hume, Swift, and the Collapse of Deism
Kierkegaard's Leap of Faith
Dostoyevsky's The Idiot and the Book of Revelation
Nietzsche and the Death of God
Joyce From Religion to Art
