David Brown
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231829
- eISBN:
- 9780191716218
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231829.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter explores the religious experience through the power of music, in particular classical music. It begins with a detailed discussion of the sort of reservations that generated Christian ...
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This chapter explores the religious experience through the power of music, in particular classical music. It begins with a detailed discussion of the sort of reservations that generated Christian resistance to instrumental music. It then considers the neglected features of the biblical witness that, in fact, strongly support a more positive approach, not least in the book of Chronicles. It is argued that as in the Temple's worship envisaged in Chronicles, so elsewhere music can help break down the barriers between the invisible world of the divine and our own. In other words, certain features of music help an already present God to be perceived. The works of some key composers in the classical tradition are examined, including Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, and Bruckner.Less
This chapter explores the religious experience through the power of music, in particular classical music. It begins with a detailed discussion of the sort of reservations that generated Christian resistance to instrumental music. It then considers the neglected features of the biblical witness that, in fact, strongly support a more positive approach, not least in the book of Chronicles. It is argued that as in the Temple's worship envisaged in Chronicles, so elsewhere music can help break down the barriers between the invisible world of the divine and our own. In other words, certain features of music help an already present God to be perceived. The works of some key composers in the classical tradition are examined, including Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, and Bruckner.
Henry Chadwick
- Published in print:
- 1984
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266730
- eISBN:
- 9780191683077
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266730.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The historian of Western culture cannot travel far without discovering that the roots of many 20th-century questions lie in the ancient dialogue between the early Christians and culture of the old ...
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The historian of Western culture cannot travel far without discovering that the roots of many 20th-century questions lie in the ancient dialogue between the early Christians and culture of the old Classical world. This book takes three Christian thinkers: Justin, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, and shows what the debate looked like from the Christian side. It draws on the pagan critics of the Church to illustrate the case the Christians had to answer. The examination of the Christian synthesis illustrates the extent to which penetrating criticism of the Classical tradition was combined with a profound acceptance of its humanism.Less
The historian of Western culture cannot travel far without discovering that the roots of many 20th-century questions lie in the ancient dialogue between the early Christians and culture of the old Classical world. This book takes three Christian thinkers: Justin, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, and shows what the debate looked like from the Christian side. It draws on the pagan critics of the Church to illustrate the case the Christians had to answer. The examination of the Christian synthesis illustrates the extent to which penetrating criticism of the Classical tradition was combined with a profound acceptance of its humanism.
Peter van der Merwe
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198166474
- eISBN:
- 9780191713880
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198166474.003.0018
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This epilogue glances at the further estrangement between ‘serious’ and popular music during the remainder of the 20th century. It concludes that the future of the classical tradition is ...
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This epilogue glances at the further estrangement between ‘serious’ and popular music during the remainder of the 20th century. It concludes that the future of the classical tradition is unpredictable, but that if it is to survive it will need popular roots.Less
This epilogue glances at the further estrangement between ‘serious’ and popular music during the remainder of the 20th century. It concludes that the future of the classical tradition is unpredictable, but that if it is to survive it will need popular roots.
GRAHAM OLIVER
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264669
- eISBN:
- 9780191753985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264669.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The chapter focuses on the commemoration of the individual in ancient and modern cultures. It argues that the attitude to individual commemoration adopted by the War Graves Commission in the First ...
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The chapter focuses on the commemoration of the individual in ancient and modern cultures. It argues that the attitude to individual commemoration adopted by the War Graves Commission in the First World War in Britain can be linked to the commemorative practices of ancient Greece, emphasising the importance of the part played by Sir Frederic Kenyon. The chapter draws on examples of commemoration from classical Athens, twentieth-century Britain and the Soviet Union in order to explore the different roles that the commemoration of the individual has played in ancient and modern forms of war commemoration.Less
The chapter focuses on the commemoration of the individual in ancient and modern cultures. It argues that the attitude to individual commemoration adopted by the War Graves Commission in the First World War in Britain can be linked to the commemorative practices of ancient Greece, emphasising the importance of the part played by Sir Frederic Kenyon. The chapter draws on examples of commemoration from classical Athens, twentieth-century Britain and the Soviet Union in order to explore the different roles that the commemoration of the individual has played in ancient and modern forms of war commemoration.
James Ker
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195387032
- eISBN:
- 9780199866793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195387032.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter outlines the many receptions of Seneca's death in written and visual form, from late antiquity to the twenty-first century. It revisits the occasional allusions to the death in pagan and ...
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This chapter outlines the many receptions of Seneca's death in written and visual form, from late antiquity to the twenty-first century. It revisits the occasional allusions to the death in pagan and early Christian writings, the creative retellings in the literature and manuscript culture of the middle ages, the rediscovery (and reelaboration) of the Tacitean death description in the fourteenth century as well as the reshaping of Seneca's dying libation into a self-baptism, the clarifying and stylizing effects respectively of seventeenth-century philology and baroque aesthetics, the aversion to Seneca in the nineteenth century, and the renewed interest especially within the literature of postwar Germany. Although the focus is on the heterogeneous meanings of Seneca's death in distinct interpretive moments, attention is given to the process of “Senecanization,” as Seneca's death narrative is brought into ever new contact with other elements of Senecan discourse.Less
This chapter outlines the many receptions of Seneca's death in written and visual form, from late antiquity to the twenty-first century. It revisits the occasional allusions to the death in pagan and early Christian writings, the creative retellings in the literature and manuscript culture of the middle ages, the rediscovery (and reelaboration) of the Tacitean death description in the fourteenth century as well as the reshaping of Seneca's dying libation into a self-baptism, the clarifying and stylizing effects respectively of seventeenth-century philology and baroque aesthetics, the aversion to Seneca in the nineteenth century, and the renewed interest especially within the literature of postwar Germany. Although the focus is on the heterogeneous meanings of Seneca's death in distinct interpretive moments, attention is given to the process of “Senecanization,” as Seneca's death narrative is brought into ever new contact with other elements of Senecan discourse.
Yasmin Annabel Haskell
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262849
- eISBN:
- 9780191734588
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262849.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
From antiquity, to the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance, and to the early modern period, a genre of poetry flourished in the West that has fallen out of favour in the recent times. This is didactic ...
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From antiquity, to the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance, and to the early modern period, a genre of poetry flourished in the West that has fallen out of favour in the recent times. This is didactic poetry, poetry of instruction in astronomy, hunting, farming, philosophy, and in all fields of sciences, arts, and recreational activities. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jesuits produced a great quantity of Latin didactic poems. These poems revealed of the early modern Jesuits, local literary fashions, classical traditions, contemporary events and inventions, scientific developments, cultural knowledge, and social mores. Didactic poetry was the best literary genre for the cultivation of the Jesuits, the modern teaching order par excellence. The majority of Jesuit didactic poems were written by teachers, most of whom were writing in a radically transformed world of print and science, and in the scholarly language of Latin that was facing its gradual decline in the eighteenth century. Most of these poems were initially written for their fellow Jesuits and not for the proper literary classes of humanities and rhetoric. By the turn of the eighteenth century, didactic poems began to take a special place among the Jesuits, and a consciousness of contributions to the Jesuit tradition and microtradition ensued wherein the didactic poems took a special part.Less
From antiquity, to the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance, and to the early modern period, a genre of poetry flourished in the West that has fallen out of favour in the recent times. This is didactic poetry, poetry of instruction in astronomy, hunting, farming, philosophy, and in all fields of sciences, arts, and recreational activities. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jesuits produced a great quantity of Latin didactic poems. These poems revealed of the early modern Jesuits, local literary fashions, classical traditions, contemporary events and inventions, scientific developments, cultural knowledge, and social mores. Didactic poetry was the best literary genre for the cultivation of the Jesuits, the modern teaching order par excellence. The majority of Jesuit didactic poems were written by teachers, most of whom were writing in a radically transformed world of print and science, and in the scholarly language of Latin that was facing its gradual decline in the eighteenth century. Most of these poems were initially written for their fellow Jesuits and not for the proper literary classes of humanities and rhetoric. By the turn of the eighteenth century, didactic poems began to take a special place among the Jesuits, and a consciousness of contributions to the Jesuit tradition and microtradition ensued wherein the didactic poems took a special part.
Daniel Orrells, Gurminder K. Bhambra, and Tessa Roynon
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199595006
- eISBN:
- 9780191731464
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199595006.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, African History: BCE to 500CE
Building on recent scholarly interest in Toni Morrison’s engagement with the classical tradition, this chapter demonstrates that her interest in the Africanness of classicism is a significant feature ...
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Building on recent scholarly interest in Toni Morrison’s engagement with the classical tradition, this chapter demonstrates that her interest in the Africanness of classicism is a significant feature of novels she published both before and after the appearance of Bernal’s Black Athena in 1987. It examines key vignettes in Sula, The Bluest Eye and Paradise, showing that though repeated engagement with Ovid’s Metamorphoses the author asserts the confluence of African, Greek, and Roman cultures. Exploring her interest in the Nag Hammadi texts; in African-American strategic appropriations of a performed ‘Egyptianness’; in Aesop; in the Antiquities collections at the Louvre; and in the work of other ‘diasporic classicists’ such as Wole Soyinka, it concludes that the Morrisonian oeuvre forms a significant contribution to recent reconceptualization of classical culture, and of the implications of this for modernity.Less
Building on recent scholarly interest in Toni Morrison’s engagement with the classical tradition, this chapter demonstrates that her interest in the Africanness of classicism is a significant feature of novels she published both before and after the appearance of Bernal’s Black Athena in 1987. It examines key vignettes in Sula, The Bluest Eye and Paradise, showing that though repeated engagement with Ovid’s Metamorphoses the author asserts the confluence of African, Greek, and Roman cultures. Exploring her interest in the Nag Hammadi texts; in African-American strategic appropriations of a performed ‘Egyptianness’; in Aesop; in the Antiquities collections at the Louvre; and in the work of other ‘diasporic classicists’ such as Wole Soyinka, it concludes that the Morrisonian oeuvre forms a significant contribution to recent reconceptualization of classical culture, and of the implications of this for modernity.
STEFAN GOEBEL
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264669
- eISBN:
- 9780191753985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264669.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter investigates the overlaps between the ‘cultural memory’ of the distant past and the memory of the Great War in Britain and Germany between 1914 and 1939, looking in particular at the use ...
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This chapter investigates the overlaps between the ‘cultural memory’ of the distant past and the memory of the Great War in Britain and Germany between 1914 and 1939, looking in particular at the use of medieval(ist) images in war memorials. There was a certain tension between advocates of medievalism and supporters of classicist images, but often, they reached a compromise. The chapter combines a discussion of the concept of ‘cultural memory’ with case studies on the reception of antiquity and the Middle Ages in the era of the Great War.Less
This chapter investigates the overlaps between the ‘cultural memory’ of the distant past and the memory of the Great War in Britain and Germany between 1914 and 1939, looking in particular at the use of medieval(ist) images in war memorials. There was a certain tension between advocates of medievalism and supporters of classicist images, but often, they reached a compromise. The chapter combines a discussion of the concept of ‘cultural memory’ with case studies on the reception of antiquity and the Middle Ages in the era of the Great War.
Tessa Roynon
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199595006
- eISBN:
- 9780191731464
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199595006.003.0023
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, African History: BCE to 500CE
Building on recent scholarly interest in Toni Morrison's engagement with the classical tradition, this chapter demonstrates that her interest in the Africanness of classicism is a significant feature ...
More
Building on recent scholarly interest in Toni Morrison's engagement with the classical tradition, this chapter demonstrates that her interest in the Africanness of classicism is a significant feature of novels she published both before and after the appearance of Bernal's Black Athena in 1987. It examines key vignettes in Sula, The Bluest Eye and Paradise, showing that though repeated engagement with Ovid's Metamorphoses the author asserts the confluence of African, Greek, and Roman cultures. Exploring her interest in the Nag Hammadi texts; in African‐American strategic appropriations of a performed ‘Egyptianness’; in Aesop; in the Antiquities collections at the Louvre; and in the work of other ‘diasporic classicists’ such as Wole Soyinka, it concludes that the Morrisonian oeuvre forms a significant contribution to recent reconceptualization of classical culture, and of the implications of this for modernity.Less
Building on recent scholarly interest in Toni Morrison's engagement with the classical tradition, this chapter demonstrates that her interest in the Africanness of classicism is a significant feature of novels she published both before and after the appearance of Bernal's Black Athena in 1987. It examines key vignettes in Sula, The Bluest Eye and Paradise, showing that though repeated engagement with Ovid's Metamorphoses the author asserts the confluence of African, Greek, and Roman cultures. Exploring her interest in the Nag Hammadi texts; in African‐American strategic appropriations of a performed ‘Egyptianness’; in Aesop; in the Antiquities collections at the Louvre; and in the work of other ‘diasporic classicists’ such as Wole Soyinka, it concludes that the Morrisonian oeuvre forms a significant contribution to recent reconceptualization of classical culture, and of the implications of this for modernity.
Andrew Wallace
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199591244
- eISBN:
- 9780191595561
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199591244.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book weaves a three-part story around the reception of a group of ancient poems in the grammar schools of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. First, it argues that the ancient Roman poet ...
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This book weaves a three-part story around the reception of a group of ancient poems in the grammar schools of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. First, it argues that the ancient Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BCE) is an agile theorist of the nature and mechanics of instruction. Second, the book offers a long view of pedagogical engagements with a sequence of self-reflexive studies of instruction in his canonical poems, emphasizing how grammarians, commentators, editors, schoolmasters, and translators responded to this aspect of Virgil's achievement in the midst of their own attempts to make his poems teachable. Third, the book contends that complex responses to Virgil's meditations on instruction pervade early modern grammar texts, miscellaneous schoolbooks, and works by writers such as Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516/17–1547), Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599), Francis Bacon (1561–1626), and John Milton (1608–1674). Identifying and tracking traditions of interest in Virgil's preoccupation with instruction, the book argues, further, that humanist pedagogy is characterized not only by an evolving commitment to classical Latinity and the studia humanitatis, but also by a commitment to studying the dilating space that separates the master from his schoolboys. In sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England the discourse of ‘mastery’, of self-sufficient and pre-eminent achievement, frequently struggles to conceive of itself in any form other than the paradigmatic relationship between schoolmaster and scholar.Less
This book weaves a three-part story around the reception of a group of ancient poems in the grammar schools of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. First, it argues that the ancient Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19 BCE) is an agile theorist of the nature and mechanics of instruction. Second, the book offers a long view of pedagogical engagements with a sequence of self-reflexive studies of instruction in his canonical poems, emphasizing how grammarians, commentators, editors, schoolmasters, and translators responded to this aspect of Virgil's achievement in the midst of their own attempts to make his poems teachable. Third, the book contends that complex responses to Virgil's meditations on instruction pervade early modern grammar texts, miscellaneous schoolbooks, and works by writers such as Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516/17–1547), Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599), Francis Bacon (1561–1626), and John Milton (1608–1674). Identifying and tracking traditions of interest in Virgil's preoccupation with instruction, the book argues, further, that humanist pedagogy is characterized not only by an evolving commitment to classical Latinity and the studia humanitatis, but also by a commitment to studying the dilating space that separates the master from his schoolboys. In sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England the discourse of ‘mastery’, of self-sufficient and pre-eminent achievement, frequently struggles to conceive of itself in any form other than the paradigmatic relationship between schoolmaster and scholar.
Meredith Safran (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474440844
- eISBN:
- 9781474460279
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474440844.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Screening the Golden Ages of the Classical Tradition explores how films and television programs have engaged with one of the most powerful myths in the Western classical tradition: that humans once ...
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Screening the Golden Ages of the Classical Tradition explores how films and television programs have engaged with one of the most powerful myths in the Western classical tradition: that humans once lived under ideal conditions, as defined by proximity to the divine. We feel nostalgia for this imagined origin, regret at being born too late to enjoy it, and worry over why we lost it. We seek to recover that “golden age” by religious piety—or, by technological innovation, try to create our own utopia. The breach between this imagined world and lived reality renders these mythical constructs as powerful political tools. For the “golden age” concept influences how participants in the Western classical tradition view our own times by comparison, as an “iron age” whose degradation we lament and wish to escape.
This “golden age” complex has manifested in the world-building activities of ancient Greek and Roman texts, from Hesiod to Suetonius, and in modernity’s hagiographic memory of certain historical societies: Periclean Athens, Thermopylae-era Sparta, and Augustan Rome. These fourteen collected essays discuss how golden age themes animate screen texts ranging from prestige projects like Gladiator and HBO’s Rome, to cult classics like Xanadu and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, to films made by auteurs including Jules Dassin’s Phaedra and the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? Essays also examine the classical “golden age” tradition in fantasy (Game of Thrones), science fiction (Serenity), horror (The Walking Dead), war/combat (the 300 franchise, Centurion, The Eagle), and the American Western.Less
Screening the Golden Ages of the Classical Tradition explores how films and television programs have engaged with one of the most powerful myths in the Western classical tradition: that humans once lived under ideal conditions, as defined by proximity to the divine. We feel nostalgia for this imagined origin, regret at being born too late to enjoy it, and worry over why we lost it. We seek to recover that “golden age” by religious piety—or, by technological innovation, try to create our own utopia. The breach between this imagined world and lived reality renders these mythical constructs as powerful political tools. For the “golden age” concept influences how participants in the Western classical tradition view our own times by comparison, as an “iron age” whose degradation we lament and wish to escape.
This “golden age” complex has manifested in the world-building activities of ancient Greek and Roman texts, from Hesiod to Suetonius, and in modernity’s hagiographic memory of certain historical societies: Periclean Athens, Thermopylae-era Sparta, and Augustan Rome. These fourteen collected essays discuss how golden age themes animate screen texts ranging from prestige projects like Gladiator and HBO’s Rome, to cult classics like Xanadu and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, to films made by auteurs including Jules Dassin’s Phaedra and the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? Essays also examine the classical “golden age” tradition in fantasy (Game of Thrones), science fiction (Serenity), horror (The Walking Dead), war/combat (the 300 franchise, Centurion, The Eagle), and the American Western.
Tessa Roynon
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199698684
- eISBN:
- 9780191760532
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199698684.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, American History: pre-Columbian BCE to 500CE
This introductory chapter positions the argument of this book in relation to recent scholarship in the field of ‘black classicism’. It posits the ‘strategic ambivalence’ of Morrison's classicism, ...
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This introductory chapter positions the argument of this book in relation to recent scholarship in the field of ‘black classicism’. It posits the ‘strategic ambivalence’ of Morrison's classicism, outlining the dominant cultural uses of the classical tradition in definitions of American history and identity with which the text takes issue, and suggesting that the novelist's allusiveness is fundamental to the critical intervention in the politics of race and gender that her oeuvre constitutes. The chapter discusses prior scholarship on Morrison's classicism and presents an overview of the role of classics in Morrison's intellectual formation, and of her own discussion of the classical tradition in essays, interviews, and speeches. Finally, it outlines the book's argument regarding the key narratives of American history that Morrison's classicism transforms.Less
This introductory chapter positions the argument of this book in relation to recent scholarship in the field of ‘black classicism’. It posits the ‘strategic ambivalence’ of Morrison's classicism, outlining the dominant cultural uses of the classical tradition in definitions of American history and identity with which the text takes issue, and suggesting that the novelist's allusiveness is fundamental to the critical intervention in the politics of race and gender that her oeuvre constitutes. The chapter discusses prior scholarship on Morrison's classicism and presents an overview of the role of classics in Morrison's intellectual formation, and of her own discussion of the classical tradition in essays, interviews, and speeches. Finally, it outlines the book's argument regarding the key narratives of American history that Morrison's classicism transforms.
Carol Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199281664
- eISBN:
- 9780191603402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199281661.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This chapter considers the biographical, historical, and theological context of Augustine’s early works (386-96). It outlines the way in which these works have been read in scholarly debates over the ...
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This chapter considers the biographical, historical, and theological context of Augustine’s early works (386-96). It outlines the way in which these works have been read in scholarly debates over the last hundred years, demonstrating that they have generally been marginalised as the rather obsolete philosophical investigatons of a new, somewhat naïve, over-optimistic convert, still entrenched in the classical tradition of belief in human free will and perfectibility. These have generally been contrasted with the later, mature works of Augustine — the pessimistic theologian of the Fall, original sin, and human dependence upon divine grace. It considers Peter Brown’s analysis of the revolutionary transformation of the early into the later Augustine following his reading of Paul in the 390s, and sets out the argument of the book: that there is no discontinuity or revolutionary transformation of the early into the later Augustine, but rather a fundamental continuity between the two.Less
This chapter considers the biographical, historical, and theological context of Augustine’s early works (386-96). It outlines the way in which these works have been read in scholarly debates over the last hundred years, demonstrating that they have generally been marginalised as the rather obsolete philosophical investigatons of a new, somewhat naïve, over-optimistic convert, still entrenched in the classical tradition of belief in human free will and perfectibility. These have generally been contrasted with the later, mature works of Augustine — the pessimistic theologian of the Fall, original sin, and human dependence upon divine grace. It considers Peter Brown’s analysis of the revolutionary transformation of the early into the later Augustine following his reading of Paul in the 390s, and sets out the argument of the book: that there is no discontinuity or revolutionary transformation of the early into the later Augustine, but rather a fundamental continuity between the two.
Johannes Haubold
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199298266
- eISBN:
- 9780191711602
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199298266.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter considers Milman Parry's contribution to Homeric scholarship and uses this to investigate shifts in conceptions of epic and its place in the Western literary tradition in the 20th ...
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This chapter considers Milman Parry's contribution to Homeric scholarship and uses this to investigate shifts in conceptions of epic and its place in the Western literary tradition in the 20th century. It points to unresolved tensions in approaches to Homer in the 20th century, with scholars and other receivers of Homer equivocating between the idea that Homeric epic belonged to the world of traditional, oral-derived poetry, and the view that Homer is the starting point of a linear history of Western literature. It suggests that notions of tradition and reception need to be investigated in relation to one another. Recent scholarship on oral traditions now accommodates many phenomena that Parry associated exclusively with the great authors of the Western literary canon, such as Apollonius and Virgil, so the relationship between oral traditions and the canon needs to be revised. Meanwhile creative receptions of Homer have found ways of embracing the traditional Homer and the canonical Homer at the same time.Less
This chapter considers Milman Parry's contribution to Homeric scholarship and uses this to investigate shifts in conceptions of epic and its place in the Western literary tradition in the 20th century. It points to unresolved tensions in approaches to Homer in the 20th century, with scholars and other receivers of Homer equivocating between the idea that Homeric epic belonged to the world of traditional, oral-derived poetry, and the view that Homer is the starting point of a linear history of Western literature. It suggests that notions of tradition and reception need to be investigated in relation to one another. Recent scholarship on oral traditions now accommodates many phenomena that Parry associated exclusively with the great authors of the Western literary canon, such as Apollonius and Virgil, so the relationship between oral traditions and the canon needs to be revised. Meanwhile creative receptions of Homer have found ways of embracing the traditional Homer and the canonical Homer at the same time.
Keith Ward
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263937
- eISBN:
- 9780191682681
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263937.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, World Religions
Twentieth-century theologians have attempted to reconceive the classical tradition of the Christian concept of God and interpret biblical sources in a different light. This chapter highlights the ...
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Twentieth-century theologians have attempted to reconceive the classical tradition of the Christian concept of God and interpret biblical sources in a different light. This chapter highlights the work of Karl Barth—considered by many to be the most outstanding 20th-century Christian theologian—as representative of attempts to provide a more dynamic and relational doctrine of God. The object is to bring out the distinctiveness of the idea of God as Trinity which stems from the New Testament, and at the same time drawing attention to some striking agreements between major modern theologians working across religious spectrum.Less
Twentieth-century theologians have attempted to reconceive the classical tradition of the Christian concept of God and interpret biblical sources in a different light. This chapter highlights the work of Karl Barth—considered by many to be the most outstanding 20th-century Christian theologian—as representative of attempts to provide a more dynamic and relational doctrine of God. The object is to bring out the distinctiveness of the idea of God as Trinity which stems from the New Testament, and at the same time drawing attention to some striking agreements between major modern theologians working across religious spectrum.
Tessa Roynon
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199698684
- eISBN:
- 9780191760532
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199698684.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, American History: pre-Columbian BCE to 500CE
This chapter examines a Latin motto in Song of Solomon and the transformed version of Atlas in The Bluest Eye to discuss Morrison's reclamation or reinvention of the classical tradition, and of ...
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This chapter examines a Latin motto in Song of Solomon and the transformed version of Atlas in The Bluest Eye to discuss Morrison's reclamation or reinvention of the classical tradition, and of tradition itself, as transnational and potentially radical processes.Less
This chapter examines a Latin motto in Song of Solomon and the transformed version of Atlas in The Bluest Eye to discuss Morrison's reclamation or reinvention of the classical tradition, and of tradition itself, as transnational and potentially radical processes.
Tessa Roynon
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199698684
- eISBN:
- 9780191760532
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199698684.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, American History: pre-Columbian BCE to 500CE
This book explores Toni Morrison's widespread engagement with ancient Greek and the Roman tradition. It examines the ways in which classical myth, literature, history, social practice, and religious ...
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This book explores Toni Morrison's widespread engagement with ancient Greek and the Roman tradition. It examines the ways in which classical myth, literature, history, social practice, and religious ritual make their presence felt in all ten of Morrison's novels published to date. Combining close readings with theoretical discussion, it argues that Morrison's classical allusiveness is characterized by a strategic ambivalence. It demonstrates that Morrison's classicism is fundamental to the transformative critique of American history and culture that her work effects: the novelist deploys the classical tradition to rewrite narratives about America's discovery and colonization, about the founding of the new nation, about slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, about black migration and urbanization, and about segregation and the Civil Rights Movement. The volume positions Morrison within a genealogy of intellectuals who have challenged the purported conservative nature of Greek and Roman tradition, and who have revealed its construction as a ‘white’, pure, and purifying force to be a fabrication of the Enlightenment. Exploring the ways Morrison's dialogue with Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides, Virgil, and Ovid relates to her simultaneous dialogue with a diverse range of American literary forebears such as Cotton Mather, Willa Cather, Pauline Hopkins, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner, this book shows that Morrison's classicism enables her to fulfil her own imperative that ‘the past has to be revised’.Less
This book explores Toni Morrison's widespread engagement with ancient Greek and the Roman tradition. It examines the ways in which classical myth, literature, history, social practice, and religious ritual make their presence felt in all ten of Morrison's novels published to date. Combining close readings with theoretical discussion, it argues that Morrison's classical allusiveness is characterized by a strategic ambivalence. It demonstrates that Morrison's classicism is fundamental to the transformative critique of American history and culture that her work effects: the novelist deploys the classical tradition to rewrite narratives about America's discovery and colonization, about the founding of the new nation, about slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, about black migration and urbanization, and about segregation and the Civil Rights Movement. The volume positions Morrison within a genealogy of intellectuals who have challenged the purported conservative nature of Greek and Roman tradition, and who have revealed its construction as a ‘white’, pure, and purifying force to be a fabrication of the Enlightenment. Exploring the ways Morrison's dialogue with Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides, Virgil, and Ovid relates to her simultaneous dialogue with a diverse range of American literary forebears such as Cotton Mather, Willa Cather, Pauline Hopkins, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner, this book shows that Morrison's classicism enables her to fulfil her own imperative that ‘the past has to be revised’.
Ahmed El Shamsy
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691174563
- eISBN:
- 9780691201245
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174563.003.0010
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This concluding chapter tracks the developments in Arabo-Islamic print culture beginning in the mid-twentieth century. It remarks on some features of postclassical thought which were common enough to ...
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This concluding chapter tracks the developments in Arabo-Islamic print culture beginning in the mid-twentieth century. It remarks on some features of postclassical thought which were common enough to mark the era's scholarship in distinct and recognizable ways. It is likely that they contributed, together with the decline of educational institutions and libraries, to the decreasing availability of classical works in the Arabic-speaking world, which further constrained intellectual production by reducing the resources at scholars' disposal. In their righteous zeal, the reformists may well have exaggerated the intellectual weaknesses of their age, but the sincerity of the feeling of liberation and optimism with which they reached into the classical tradition for tonics for present maladies should not be doubted. From there, the chapter turns to more contemporary times and the major technological strides which herald a new renaissance for classical literature.Less
This concluding chapter tracks the developments in Arabo-Islamic print culture beginning in the mid-twentieth century. It remarks on some features of postclassical thought which were common enough to mark the era's scholarship in distinct and recognizable ways. It is likely that they contributed, together with the decline of educational institutions and libraries, to the decreasing availability of classical works in the Arabic-speaking world, which further constrained intellectual production by reducing the resources at scholars' disposal. In their righteous zeal, the reformists may well have exaggerated the intellectual weaknesses of their age, but the sincerity of the feeling of liberation and optimism with which they reached into the classical tradition for tonics for present maladies should not be doubted. From there, the chapter turns to more contemporary times and the major technological strides which herald a new renaissance for classical literature.
Melanie Bales
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199939985
- eISBN:
- 9780199333134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199939985.003.0010
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
“Touchstones of Tradition and Innovation: Pas de Deux by Petipa, Balanchine and Forsythe” closely juxtaposes three duets from different centuries and styles, though each is located within the ballet ...
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“Touchstones of Tradition and Innovation: Pas de Deux by Petipa, Balanchine and Forsythe” closely juxtaposes three duets from different centuries and styles, though each is located within the ballet idiom. A comparative analysis forces inquiries into the codes and values of the balletic form itself, with a consideration of those values as they emerge through the steps and choreographic structures of the dances, the identities of the choreographers and the sociopolitical climate surrounding the creation of each work. The three examples are signposts by which to see the effects of time upon a classical tradition, and they demonstrate how both individual artists and collective choices have shaped that tradition.Less
“Touchstones of Tradition and Innovation: Pas de Deux by Petipa, Balanchine and Forsythe” closely juxtaposes three duets from different centuries and styles, though each is located within the ballet idiom. A comparative analysis forces inquiries into the codes and values of the balletic form itself, with a consideration of those values as they emerge through the steps and choreographic structures of the dances, the identities of the choreographers and the sociopolitical climate surrounding the creation of each work. The three examples are signposts by which to see the effects of time upon a classical tradition, and they demonstrate how both individual artists and collective choices have shaped that tradition.
Susan E. Whyman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199532445
- eISBN:
- 9780191714535
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199532445.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History, British and Irish Modern History
This concluding chapter summarizes epistolary patterns that emerged from the case studies in relation to age, gender, class, geographical location, and religion. It presents the varied roles of ...
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This concluding chapter summarizes epistolary patterns that emerged from the case studies in relation to age, gender, class, geographical location, and religion. It presents the varied roles of letters over time. Letter writing acquired its purpose, format, and conventions from an older classical tradition. During the 18th century, it shed many formalities and adopted aspects of middling-sort culture. A national letter form that employed the merchant's round hand gradually became the norm. It embodied plain-spoken English virtues instead of flamboyant mannerisms of French letters. The ideal letter grew more informal, and the gap in expertise between letters of men and women disappeared. Yet the inherent tension between the rigid conventions of the letter form and the impulse to write naturally was never wholly resolved. The democratization of letter writing not only affected individuals and families, it had social, economic, literary, and political impacts on the English nation.Less
This concluding chapter summarizes epistolary patterns that emerged from the case studies in relation to age, gender, class, geographical location, and religion. It presents the varied roles of letters over time. Letter writing acquired its purpose, format, and conventions from an older classical tradition. During the 18th century, it shed many formalities and adopted aspects of middling-sort culture. A national letter form that employed the merchant's round hand gradually became the norm. It embodied plain-spoken English virtues instead of flamboyant mannerisms of French letters. The ideal letter grew more informal, and the gap in expertise between letters of men and women disappeared. Yet the inherent tension between the rigid conventions of the letter form and the impulse to write naturally was never wholly resolved. The democratization of letter writing not only affected individuals and families, it had social, economic, literary, and political impacts on the English nation.
