I just finished reading Stephen Greenblatt's "The Swerve," which is about the rediscovery of a long-lost poem by the Roman poet Lucretius and how it changed Western civilization. Called "On the Nature of Things," it contained the most dangerous ideas about gods, religion, fear, pleasure--and the beginnings of atomic theory. I'm not going to present Greenblatt's thesis here in its entirely; you really have to read the book.
Lucretius comes from a pagan philosophical tradition--the Epicureans--that clashed with the upcoming Christianity. Paul may have quoted Epicurean poetry on Mars Hill in Athens according to the Book of Acts, but by the fourth or fifth centuries of the Christian era, attitudes towards anything not Christian had changed radically. One of the people Greenblatt mentions is a church leader named Jerome. His main claim to fame is that he had the Scriptures translated into Latin which became known as the Vulgate which became the official Bible of the Catholic Church. Much as there are people today who insist that the King James Bible is the only true English translation, up until the 1960's it was the official position of the Catholic church that Jerome's Vulgate was the only true version, even more accurate than the Hebrew and Greek originals.
But there was a side of Jerome that the nuns didn't tell us about. Jerome was addicted to reading Greek pagan philosophy. He couldn't help himself. He was seduced by the language these writers used. He knew their arguments, particularly Cicero's, were dangerous to his religion. And so Jerome had to make a choice. He gave up all worldly books. But that was not enough. As Greenblatt says, "This renunciation of the authors he loved was a personal affair: he had in effect to cure himself of a dangerous addiction in order to save his soul. But the addiction--and hence the need for renunciation--was not his alone. What he found so alluring was what kept many others like him in thrall to pagan authors. He therefore had to persuade others to make the sacrifice he had made."
And he was very persuasive. His spirit lives on today. Anytime you see someone giving up the world and retreating to a religious bubble, they are making Jerome's choice. I made Jerome's choice back in my teen years; my parents whose church-going tradition didn't understand such choices, intervened and either saved me or damned me, depending on whose viewpoint you want to take. There are people in the church I go to now who have made Jerome's choice. The pressure is there. As Pastor brought up yet again, we are involved in spiritual warfare and the enemy is prowling like a roaring lion. So you have to be careful. You have to monitor. That is why one of the women told me she had googled my play to see if it contained anything that might be a danger to her faith. Because she didn't trust me. Because she couldn't trust me. I haven't sufficiently demonstrated my commitment; I am not fully one of them, even though I can speak the language. For me to be truly one with them I would have to make a Jerome's choice and give up my beloved authors, and that I refuse to do.
Lucretius comes from a pagan philosophical tradition--the Epicureans--that clashed with the upcoming Christianity. Paul may have quoted Epicurean poetry on Mars Hill in Athens according to the Book of Acts, but by the fourth or fifth centuries of the Christian era, attitudes towards anything not Christian had changed radically. One of the people Greenblatt mentions is a church leader named Jerome. His main claim to fame is that he had the Scriptures translated into Latin which became known as the Vulgate which became the official Bible of the Catholic Church. Much as there are people today who insist that the King James Bible is the only true English translation, up until the 1960's it was the official position of the Catholic church that Jerome's Vulgate was the only true version, even more accurate than the Hebrew and Greek originals.
But there was a side of Jerome that the nuns didn't tell us about. Jerome was addicted to reading Greek pagan philosophy. He couldn't help himself. He was seduced by the language these writers used. He knew their arguments, particularly Cicero's, were dangerous to his religion. And so Jerome had to make a choice. He gave up all worldly books. But that was not enough. As Greenblatt says, "This renunciation of the authors he loved was a personal affair: he had in effect to cure himself of a dangerous addiction in order to save his soul. But the addiction--and hence the need for renunciation--was not his alone. What he found so alluring was what kept many others like him in thrall to pagan authors. He therefore had to persuade others to make the sacrifice he had made."
And he was very persuasive. His spirit lives on today. Anytime you see someone giving up the world and retreating to a religious bubble, they are making Jerome's choice. I made Jerome's choice back in my teen years; my parents whose church-going tradition didn't understand such choices, intervened and either saved me or damned me, depending on whose viewpoint you want to take. There are people in the church I go to now who have made Jerome's choice. The pressure is there. As Pastor brought up yet again, we are involved in spiritual warfare and the enemy is prowling like a roaring lion. So you have to be careful. You have to monitor. That is why one of the women told me she had googled my play to see if it contained anything that might be a danger to her faith. Because she didn't trust me. Because she couldn't trust me. I haven't sufficiently demonstrated my commitment; I am not fully one of them, even though I can speak the language. For me to be truly one with them I would have to make a Jerome's choice and give up my beloved authors, and that I refuse to do.
