All the strange connections and the classics










(Italics supplied by Kopf.)






8 responses

  1. Interestingly, the importance of the Classical Education is something that I grasped only in my later years (I am 65) as I began to probe deeply for myself the origins of Christianity through the studies of more ancient religions from which Christianity emerged. My goal (which I am still pursuing) was to answer the question “What is Christ really trying to tell us”? Even the Church teaches us that the broad universal messages of the Church, while helpful, are the beginning and not the end of answering this question.

    I am ashamed to admit to the extent to which I never realized how much the importance of the higher spiritual messages contained in Greek, Roman, and Norse, Mythologies as well as the messages being conveyed by the great philosophers and “Saints” of all ethnicities and religions is so completely correlated. I am sure the demise of the Classical Education (which would have taught us that at an earlier age and about its importance) is due to the fact that today, students embarking on a choice of educational paths are not taught about this correlation, about its importance in their lives (i.e., they are taught to only care about the fleeting material world and “making a living”), and to their therefore treating it as irrelevant.

    If one is primarily concerned about higher levels of existence as Christ and many others have taught we should be, the importance of acquiring an understanding of what truths have historical been shown to be universal cannot be underestimated. The only way to acquire a view of truth that withstands the doubts and the lack of credibility that inheres in basing one’s beliefs on something gleaned or repeated from any single historical event or person (or a limited set of them) is to see whether what we found in those events or people is, in fact, universal. We must expand our knowledge beyond the times we live in or a single period of time in order to acquire “understanding”. That is what the classical education is for.

    I wish I would have known that.

  2. Judge:
    I consider myself a relatively sophisticated man who reads a lot but I must profess ignorance when it comes to Dr. Eisley and his prodigious output. After your blog post I went to Wikipedia and was amazed at what I read. I then went to Amazon and ordered every one of books that they had available. I expect–thanks to you–to enjoy many hours of awesome intellectual fulfillment. As connections go (you to me to Loren Eisley) it may not be as impressive as “six degrees of Robert Lincoln”, and yet…

  3. sdroar,

    I have no real claim to an education in the classics. I graduated from the Kearney State College, and I was admitted there on academic probation. But, I had two professors that were educated in the classics, and they took me under their wing. They taught me what you wrote: “We must expand our knowledge beyond the times we live in or a single period of time in order to acquire ‘understanding’. That is what the classical education is for.”

    All the best.


  4. Lawn chairs, gophers, and rifles.

    Now, for the benefit of the gallery and the cloth to be weaved.

    Get there Judge.

  5. How many men do you know named Lorin? Listened to him lecture at Penn. Made me think, mostly about how much I didn’t know and hadn’t thought of.

  6. Lorin,

    I missed the connection. Thank you for supplying it.

    There is a lyric quality to your personality (at least the one I perceive given the limitations of this medium). It is similar to the lyric quality of that great man’s writing.

    All the best.


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