Copyright February, 2001, Dennis Oliver Woods
All rights reserved

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT HISTORY COULD KILL YOU!

The history of Western civilization is bound up with the Great Conversation. It is the fascinating story of a discussion that has continued unabated for thousands of years. Participants act, react and interact. The conversation is complicated by the fact that most of the participants are no longer alive. It is further complicated by the fact that some of the conversationalists are speaking the truth while others are confused or lying. Sometimes they speak calmly to each other and at other times the conversation grows quite heated and fisticuffs break out.

Some of the participants simply talk or fight, while others record their thoughts in books for the benefit of subsequent participants. These are the philosophers and historians who make it possible for us to pick up on the Great Conversation without having to start all over at the beginning. Their pen -- it has been noted -- is mightier than the sword because it holds a powerful sway over the minds of men. Those books that have had the greatest influence on the thoughts and actions of men we call Classics. This is a book about the Classics.

Francis Schaeffer and Richard Weaver before him have built a powerful case demonstrating how the engines of popular (pop) culture (music, art, video, periodicals, etc.) disseminate the musings of the philosophers to every nook and cranny of society. Thus, it happens that even the most ignorant and unschooled become the most avid devotees of the philosophers. This without ever having heard their names or leafed the pages of a philosophy text or any of the Classics. The average person catches his philosophy "from the air", like he catches a case of measles or a common cold. It infects every part of his being, colors his perception and clouds his mind.

For the Christian this ought not to be so. Instead, Christians should be like the children of Issachar, "men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do...." (I Chr. 12:32). In part at least, this is what the Bible means when it exhorts us to, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Rom. 12:2). It takes a conscious effort to break out of this mold. It requires a unique ability and effort to "tune out" the shrill voices of pop culture and listen to the "still, small voice" that speaks from another dimension -- a spiritual and Biblical dimension.

But, what happens when the Christian interrupts the Great Conversation without adequate preparation or fails to take note of what has gone before? Sometimes Christians enter the Conversation with an obsequious respect for the Classical authors, regarding them as "wisdom literature" almost on par with Scripture. This often happens because Christians simply jump in with little or no preparation whatsoever. It has been this tendency to lionize the Classics that has plagued the church throughout most of the Christian era. Rather than scrutinizing the Classics in light of Scripture we have ended with a corrosive amalgam of secular wisdom and Biblical truth. Have you ever been in a situation where a group of people is engaged in conversation and a newcomer suddenly butts in without taking the time to listen to what's going on? It's embarrassing, isn't it? Or sometimes even comical. But that's what happens when a person or a nation proceeds to act without a knowledge of history. Ignorance of history forces each generation to "reinvent the wheel", so to speak.

Unfortunately, the most common scenario today is that Christians ignore the Great Conversation altogether? What happens then? For one thing, it is impossible to speak Biblically to the contemporary scene without understanding the historical and philosophical forces that have shaped it. We come across as ignorant and irrelevant.

Moreover, the Proverb (4:1) exhorts us to learn from our fathers: "Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding." The fathers themselves have determined before that "We will not hide them ... shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done." (Ps 78:4). It is the height of arrogance to presume that we can approach life successfully without learning from our fathers of previous generations. Especially when failing to heed the instruction of our forefathers can have lethal consequences.

HISTORY IS LETHAL

When we consider that there have been less than 300 years of peace in recorded history, we are perhaps more likely to conclude that history is the story of the Great Conflict, rather than the Great Conversation. In many respects this is true. Ultimately, the participants in this Great Conflict are God and His people over against the rest of rebellious humanity.

Thus, history is lethal. What you don't know about history could kill you! Does that sound like an extreme statement? Consider the passage in I Corinthians 10: 1-11. Here the Apostle Paul tells the recipients of his letter that he would not have them ignorant of history (verse 1). He then recounts several historical incidents in which the unbelieving Jews were judged by God for their disobedience. In one case 23,000 committed fornication and were killed in one day (Verse 8). In another case some of them did nothing more than murmur against the care and providence of God and were likewise "destroyed of the destroyer" (Verse 10).

What does that have to do with me, you might ask? Verse 14 contains the "clincher": "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world have come."

Obviously, God expects us to learn from history, especially the history of the Jewish people. The Jews in many cases were slow learners. In fact, the biggest negative example we have of their obstinacy is the rejection of the promised Messiah by the Jewish leaders. Christ had come to pay the penalty for the sins of the world, to die and rise again from the dead. Rejection of their Messiah resulted in the ruin of the entire Jewish nation at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. Jesus told the Jewish leadership that "The Kingdom of God is taken away from you and given to a nation bearing the fruit thereof"...the church (Mt 21:43). Ignorance of this greatest of all historical facts will likewise be the undoing of us as individuals, if we fail to learn from their example and turn to Christ in faith.

HISTORY IS LINEAR

As noted above, history is best learned through the lives of those who lived it. The heart of this book is 50 2-page vignettes of men who rule the world from the grave. We speak metaphorically, for it is God, as sovereign who rules the world and controls the actions of all his creatures. However, within the context of the sovereignty of God, men as secondary causative agents make choices that influence the course of events and the flow of history. As the Bible puts it, "A man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps" (Pr 16:9). In some mysterious way God directs our free choices into His predetermined paths. He works according to our will, not against our will to accomplish His purposes. Thus Christianity is not a fatalistic religion, although it is predestinarian.

History, therefore, moves toward a pre-ordained victorious purpose. That purpose is determined in the decree of God to give to His Son all the heathen nations for His inheritance (Ps 2:8). The church of Christ and the kingdom of God will emerge victorious in the battle for cultural dominion. The kings of the earth are exhorted to bend the knee to the King of kings or "perish in the way". The Bible foretells the day when the nations will come to the church for instruction in the law (Is 2:3,4). Finally, at the Second Coming, the redeemed will be united to Christ in "the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Rev 19:7-9).

HISTORY IS COVENANTAL

On the contrary, blessing and cursing in terms of obedience to the law of God is the operative principle of historiography. This view of historical causation is affirmed over and over in the Bible. For example, Deuteronomy 28:1 says, "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth."

Conversely, verse 15 warns, "But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and over take thee." There follows nearly two pages outlining these curses in excruciating detail. If current events are dark and bleak it is not because the "tribulation" is upon us, it is because the church has failed to obey her Lord.

Thus, the Biblical view of history is covenantal, based on God's sovereign blessing or cursing contingent on obedience to His covenant. History may be reduced to the struggle between the two families proceeding from Adam and Eve: the covenant-breaking family of Cain and the covenant-keeping family of Seth. It is the story of the interminable life and death struggle between the City of Man and the City of God. These historical sketches feature prominent members of both families in the struggle for predominance.

So it is clear that our God is the God of covenants. He rules His creation by means of covenant in the family, the church and the state. Covenant renewal must precede cultural renewal. Under the covenant model of civil government, the elected representatives of a people enter into covenant with God and swear by oath to govern according to His law. Implicit in this oath is the promise of blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience. We may not like this arrangement and we may not understand this arrangement, but it is the way the world works. The Bible says it is the way God works.

Josiah's reform is a classic Biblical prototype. When King Josiah came to power the nation of Israel was at a lower level of depravity than the pagan nations that God had driven out before her (II Kings 21:9-11). It was so bad that even the high priest had forgotten that the Bible even existed. During the course of repairing the temple Josiah discovered a copy of the Law, read it, and repented before God on behalf of the nation.

What was the first step Josiah took in reforming the nation. Did he begin by replacing corrupt public officials? (government reform) Did he begin by commissioning a chain of schools to train the next generation? (education reform) Did he begin by cleansing the temple and destroying the idols? (ecclesiastical reform) The verse quoted above describes King Josiah's first step. He formally renewed the national covenant with God. Everything else flowed from that.

The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep His command- ments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book; and the people stood to the covenant. (II Kings 23:3)

The King of Nineveh provides the prototype for the gentile nations (Jonah 3:7-9). Upon hearing Jonah's message, the King repented and published the covenant he had made with God, imploring all in the city to join him.

Given this covenantal framework, the first question we must ask is, "Is America a covenanted nation?" Most will agree that the Mayflower Compact, signed by the Pilgrims off Cape Cod was surely a covenant with God. Likewise, the preambles of most of the colonial constitutions were very forthright covenants with the God of the Bible. In one form or another they invoke God as Partner and His Word as the source of law. Moreover, many required the officeholder to take a religious test oath to govern according to the Bible.

For example, consider the oath required of every public officeholder in the state of Delaware: "I do profess faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ His only Son and in the Holy Ghost, one God blessed forever more and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine inspiration...." ⁽¹⁾  Not exactly a model statute for the American Civil Liberties Union.

If then America is a covenanted nation, the second question we must ask is, "Has America broken the covenant and if so, when, where and how?" This is the tough part because this book asks you to seriously consider the proposition that America broke the national covenant when she ratified the federal Constitution in 1787. Your first reaction to that statement may well be incredulity and disbelief.

This book challenges you to do something very difficult. It asks you to re-examine your first principles -- your most deeply held convictions about American government and history. It asks you to look beyond the superficial answers usually given to questions such as the following. Is the U.S. Constitution a Christian document? Why does it exclude God in favor of "We the People" as the source of governing authority? Why does it forbid a religious test for public office? Why do the Federalist Papers totally ignore the Bible? It is impossible to answer these questions apart from a knowledge of the philosophical currents that influenced the American framers.

This book will ask you to take a critical look at beliefs you have probably cherished and held dear for many years. You will be asked to re-evaluate highly esteemed founding fathers in light of Scripture. You will be asked to consider the subtle, but critical difference between a social contract and a national covenant. You will be asked to consider that America's problems stem not primarily from her departure from the Constitution, but rather from seeds of humanism buried deep within the Constitution itself. To discern the source of these seeds you will be asked to trace the historical roots from which the Constitution sprang.

This is a painful process and a daunting mental exercise, but we must rise to the challenge. We must come to grips with the true nature of the national covenant because until we renew that covenant before God, He will not -- indeed He cannot -- bless our efforts to reform the culture. We will simply be repeating the failures of the past in cyclical fashion.

HISTORY IS CYCLICAL

It is only legitimate to refer to history as cyclical in reference to man in rebellion. The book of Judges describes these cycles of sin, servitude, supplication and salvation repeated over and over. God however, works through these cycles of human inconsistency to accomplish His great purpose in history. The cycles do not go on forever. Remember that the book of Ruth, which establishes the lineage of Christ, comes immediately after the book of Judges.

It is not hard to be critical, even cynical, as we scan back over the panorama of history, especially considering the exceptionally bleak times in which we of the new millennium live. Staring tyranny in the face we are tempted to ask, "What kind of terrifying legacy is this that our ancestors have bequeathed?" It is, however, the better part of humility to recall the sage advice: if we see farther than others it is because we stand on the shoulders of giants. Moreover, while we espy lofty peaks and treacherous valleys stretching far back, we note that our general progress has been upward.

It is the peculiar habit of the Almighty to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Every 500 years or so, we can make out the dim outline of an especially steep and precipitous valley followed by a notably lofty and glorious peak. The birth of Christ, the overthrow of the Roman Empire (410 A.D.), the Papal Revolution in the investiture struggle (1075-1122), and the Protestant Reformation (1517) stand out in bold relief. Each convulsion breaks the shackles of a prevailing evil and seems to thrust the kingdom a little closer to its ultimate consummation.

If these 500-year cycles are indeed the Divine pattern, then we stand on the threshold of a glorious deliverance. Let us not lose heart, remembering the exhortation of Mordecai to Esther, "...relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews...who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this."

Rather than a series of cycles, it may be more accurate to think of history as a roller coaster. It has its ups and downs, but it constantly moves forward toward a destination. However, this analogy breaks down at one critical point: the roller coaster starts high and ends low, whereas the overall course of history is upward toward the glorious consummation of the kingdom or civilization of Christ.

INTRODUCTION

50 MEN WHO RULE FROM THE GRAVE

Another way to think about history is to parse it according to the following outline. Our 50 biographical sketches are, in fact arranged according to this outline to give the reader a quick grasp of where each figure fits in the grand scheme of historical progression.

King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which he could not recall. The next day he asked the wise men of Babylon to recount the dream and give its interpretation -- a seemingly impossible task. God, however, revealed the dream and its interpretation to the prophet Daniel. The image was that of a great statue, which Daniel revealed was symbolic of 4 great pagan empires to follow. The head of gold was Babylon, the breasts of silver were Media-Persia, the thighs of brass were Greece, and the legs of iron were Rome. A great mountain struck the image, shattered it to dust, and it grew to fill the whole earth. That mountain was the kingdom of Christ. This is also pictured in the New Testament parable of the mustard seed, which starts out as the "least of all seeds", but grows very big (Mt 13:32).

The Bible tells us that in the "fullness of time God sent forth his son." When sin had run its course, God sent forth the remedy for sin. Jesus Christ led a sinless life and was therefore qualified to die as a substitute for the sins of the world. This He did in 30 A.D. He rose victorious over death and ascended to the right hand of God, thereby establishing his Kingdom over heaven and earth. All subsequent history has been and will be the outworking of that kingdom victory in every aspect of earthly existence.

Daniel 7:13 tells us that "the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all people nations and languages, should serve him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." The Coming of Christ described here is not the 2nd Coming to earth, but His Coming to the Father in an inauguration ceremony after His ascension and the associated Coming in judgment on Jerusalem some 40 years later. This was the Great Tribulation, now ancient history.

Jesus was born into a world dominated by a Hellenistic outlook on life. In general, the playwrights and poets preceded the philosophers of the ancient world. The gods of ancient Greece were patterned after man (fickle, immoral, quarrelsome), but they did provide some vague sense of the transcendent. The philosophers, beginning with Socrates, marked a shift away from even this pagan conception of deity. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle turned the focus downward and inward to man himself. Man is the measure of truth, without reference to any external standard such as the Bible. Even some of the Greek "prophets" (e.g., playwright Aristophanes) decried this loss of "faith."

AN OUTLINE OF WORLD HISTORY

I. The Pagan World

A. Egyptian Empire
B. Assyrian Empire
C. Daniel's Image (Daniel 2)

II. The Prince of Peace establishes His Kingdom

III. The Patristic World: Plato revisited in Monasticism (Rise of the monastery)

IV. The Papal World: Aristotle revived in Scholasticism (Rise of the academy)

V. The Modern World

The Patristic world was the world of the church fathers. Because of their historical proximity to Greco-Roman paganism, most of the church fathers found it very difficult to completely purge the autonomous Greek mind-set from their thinking. This was especially true of the first generation following Christ and included even the great Augustine to an extent. This established an unfortunate pattern for the centuries to follow.

A form of Platonistic dichotomy between the sacred and the secular was introduced which expressed itself in a monastic way of life. It is sometimes referred to as the "2-kingdoms" theory in which the church is subject to the law of God, but the state is permissively non-Christian and subject to the authority of natural law or human reason. This is a prescription for tyranny. To compound this problem, the church perpetuated those features of the Old Testament law (priesthood) that had been done away in Christ and downplayed those features (civil & judicial case laws) that were intended to be permanent.

This age did, however, formulate important doctrines related to the Trinity and the monasteries performed the important task of copying and preserving the Scripture. However, the period between the fall of Rome (410) and Charlemagne (about 800 A.D.) was a period of academic stagnation known as the "dark ages". Modern humanists like to extend the "dark ages" all the way to the Renaissance, but this is a biased judgment that dismisses the centuries of Christian development as a superstitious diversion from Greek humanism.

Even the Dark Ages were not as dark as we moderns like to suppose. The fall of Rome left a political vacuum and an approximate 400-year opportunity for local culture and government to develop unhindered by centralized tyranny. This was the genesis of the decentralized feudal system in which communities flourished in freedom around the protection of castle fortresses built by local noblemen.

The church of Rome began to assert itself when Pope Leo crowned Charlemagne as he knelt for communion on Christmas eve, 800 AD. The early scholastic age is often marked from the end of Charlemagne's reign. This movement eventually produced the great universities and a demand for academic freedom -- independence of the academy from the church and eventually from God. Scholasticism was given impetus with Thomas Aquinas' reintroduction of Aristotle into the West in the 1200's. Aristotle's emphasis on the particulars of the material universe provided the catalyst for a shift in perspective from transcendence to immanence. This led to the Renaissance, a materialistic outlook, scientism, and the modern age with its drive for political consolidation and autonomy of the nation-state.

The other event that simultaneously augmented Papal power and paved the way for the advent of the modern age was the investiture struggle of 1075-1122 in the very middle of the Medieval period. Who can forget the dramatic picture of the penitent Henry IV, standing barefoot in the snow at the Castle of Canossa, begging Pope Hildebrand to lift the ban of excommunication. The church under Hildebrand declared her independence and the state began to move away from the church, developing along secular lines. Both trends were encouraged by the rediscovery of the Justinian Code in an Italian library about 1080. Renewed study of Roman law and Aristotle concurrently boosted scholasticism, Papal power, and state independence.

The modern age has in a sense followed the outline of Socrates' humanistic defense before the Council of Athens, a failed defense that left him facing a death sentence: 1) rationalism, 2) personal experience, and 3) subjectivism or mysticism. We see this same pattern unfolding in a macro-sense with the Renaissance and Enlightenment (rationalism), the Romantic backlash of the 19th Century (personal experience), and the degeneration into Relativism or irrationalism in the 20th (Socrates "inner voice"). Which brings us full-circle back to our opening section -- those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.

This trend was interrupted by the 16th Century Reformation, which appeared to be re-emerging in the latter half of the 20th Century. The Reformation marked a dramatic return to foundational Biblical doctrines, most notably the doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ alone. Unfortunately, the Reformation was aborted prematurely by a failure to fully reform epistemology, eschatology, education and the application of Biblical law to jurisprudence. The church was still trying to defend the faith in terms of an Aristotelian and Socratic framework -- a foundation of sand. This left the door open for a revival of pagan Renaissance theories of knowledge and the monolithic state.

Ironically, while it was the Christian view of an orderly universe that made modern science possible, the Reformation also failed to integrate and interpret the emerging scientific revolution with Biblical truth. This opened the door even wider for Bacon, Descartes and Newton to establish science as a competing system of truth in the following century (17th).

This failure ushered in the Age of Revolution. This century encompassed two English revolutions (17th Century), even though three other great national revolutions (American, French, and Russian) occurred later. We call this the century of revolution because it was this era that witnessed the wholesale shift in perspective from the Biblical world view of the Middle Ages to the secular outlook of the modern world. Prior to 1603, almost everyone in the West viewed the world through a Biblical grid, whether they believed it or not. By 1714 this had all been swept away.

"James I preached that kings ruled by Divine Right...Parliamentarians countered these positions by Biblical texts or medieval precedents. By 1714 politics had become a rational inquiry, discussed in terms of utility, experience, common sense...The second half of the century saw modern science triumphant; by 1714 fairies, witches, astrology, and alchemy were no longer taken seriously by educated men...The transformation that took place in the seventeenth century is then far more than merely a constitutional or political revolution. It embraces the whole of life. Two conceptions of civilization were in conflict." ⁽²⁾  .

The triumph of secularism ushered in the 18th Century Age of Reason with its naïve confidence in the sufficiency of the human mind to arrive at truth apart from God. The U.S. Constitution is by and large a product of the rationalism of this era. Then came the Romantics (19th Century) with their immanent view of a Pantheistic God. And finally, the 20th Century witnessed the conquest of Kantian subjectivity in every realm.

Our hope and prayer is that by the grace of God, the 3rd Millennium will be the age of Repentance and Recovery of that which has been lost. The work of Cornelius Van Til in the realm of epistemology and apologetics in the 20th Century has laid the groundwork for just such a renewal.

The historical sketches that follow add detail to this broad outline. The sketches appear in order of the publication date of the author's most influential book, so as to reflect the flow of philosophical ideas. Where appropriate, positive contributions, as well as negative, are emphasized.

Obviously, these vignettes are by no means an exhaustive treatment of the individual's thinking. In many cases important elements of their teaching are omitted because of space considerations. However, an attempt has been made to capture the dominant tendency of their thought, place it in historical context and trace its influence on subsequent history. A brief biblical analysis is also offered together with recommendations for future action. And, of course, the reading assignment and study questions (in the Colloquium) are designed to lead the student to his own conclusions by studying the Classics for himself. Over the course of a lifetime, knowing the essential facts about the classical authors is more important than attempting to cram volumes into the brain with little hope of retention. This course is designed to drill those essential facts into the student's consciousness.

The following timeline is the key to the course. It enables the reader to trace at a glance the development of philosophical thought or, if you will, the various contributions to the Great Conversation. The date associated with each author is the publication date of their most influential work, or in a few cases their life span. The timeline lists simultaneously major historical events to help visualize the interplay between ideas and actions. In the words of Richard Weaver, "ideas have consequences." The names in capital letters are the author's covered in this volume. Those in small case are other important writers to be dealt with in Volume II.

Some may object that sufficient time has not elapsed for the work of 20th Century authors to become established as classics. This is true enough in one sense. Their thought has not been here long enough to have had a significant impact. Nonetheless, a number have been included because in our opinion their contributions have the potential to revolutionize the way men think.

It is our conviction that the student should not approach the Classics "unarmed." These works are considered Classics because of the beauty of their style and the impact they have had on Western Civilization, but in many if not most cases, that influence has been less than laudatory. Their cumulative impact has after all brought us to the disastrous condition in which we now find ourselves. As in all educational endeavors, the Classics should be examined through the grid of Biblical truth. Armed with a Biblical world view, the student is equipped to evaluate mistakes of the past as well as successes.

Earlier we noted the difficulties attending our interpretation of the Great Conversation. These difficulties are compounded by the fact that there is often a discrepancy between what men say and what they do. Likewise, there is often a discrepancy between what men say in public and what they say in private. When it comes to history a couple of well-worn clichés apply: "Talk is cheap -- actions speak louder than words." Too often Christians look back in history and read some pious statements by an historical figure. Their hearts go "pitter-patter" and they draw historical conclusions without familiarizing themselves with the total impact of the person's life and what he produced.

Someone has observed that all of us are heretics, but some of us are more heretical than others. Even the Apostle Paul in his uninspired moments was plagued by this tendency to say one thing and do another: "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." (Rom 7:15 RSV). This is a fact of life and if we are not aware of it in our historical research, we are going to be led astray. The only remedy is to make careful comparison between what the man said and what he did.

For example, the framers of the American Constitution uttered many pious statements and books have in fact been published filled with these quotations. Christians read these and their hearts go "pitter-patter". However, when we look carefully at what many of these men believed we find that they denied key doctrines of the Christian faith, such as the deity of Christ. Moreover when we carefully examine the documents they produced we find, in fact, that they led America into rebellion from the Word of God. Many other examples could be cited, including Francis Bacon, John Milton, Isaac Newton, William Blackstone, and others.

It is thus very important that the student first have a clear outline of the forest before being immersed in the minutia of trees. Review quizzes and modular review exercises are designed to fix the relevant Biblical, historical, and biographical data firmly in mind before turning to the classical reading. The queries range from very simple factual questions to more complex inference-type questions in which the answer must be derived logically from material presented in the essay.

All told, this book contains over 1,500 review questions -- all things that everybody should know about the classics. All are designed to force you to analyze, integrate and remember the underlying Biblical principles of history, philosophy, science, economics, education, sociology, political science, and theology.

Sticklers for detail might object that the course title advertises "1001 Things Everybody Should Know About the Classics", not 1,500. Note first of all that we have built some repetition and review into the questions sets. If still adds up to somewhat more than 1001, remember that 1,000 is used in Scripture as a figurative number signifying fullness and completeness. And besides, we believe in giving you more than your money's worth -- even in a free course.

© Copyright December, 2001. All Rights Reserved
It is permissible to print out a copy of individual items for normal educational purposes,
but mass copying and distribution for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited.

Please read our Email Privacy Policy. Your privacy is very important to us.