Christians Reading Classics: Audio Lectures

It is time Christians rediscovered the benefits of reading the great works of Greco-Roman classical literature as Christians.

Can Christians today read the Greco-Roman pagan classics for spiritual formation and growth in the virtues? Classical scholar Nadya Williams responds with an unequivocal “Yes!”

In twenty videos, Williams introduces viewers to ancient authors and their key works. She offers three interrelated reasons for Christians to read the pagan classics: to be surprised by joy, to understand the world of the Bible and the earliest Christians, and for character formation.

Session Titles and Runtimes:

0 - Introduction: Why Should Christians Read the Greco-Roman Classics? (16 min)

1 - Homer and Glory Before the Foundation of the World (21 min)

2 - Hesiod and the Quest for the Meaning of Life (22 min)

3 - Pindar and Seeking Eternal Glory Through Athletics (22 min)

4 - Herodotus, Thucydides, and Writing Eternity in Prose (24 min)

5 - Aeschylus and the Formation of Virtuous Citizens (23 min)

6 - Sophocles Plays Clue (22 min)

7 - Aristophanes and Euripides Remember the Ladies (23 min)

8 - Plato and Aristotle Teach Civics (23 min)

9 - The Athenian Forensic Speechwriters (23 min)

10 - How to Do Anything in the Ancient World (22 min)

11 - Cicero, Caesar, and Political Rhetoric in the Roman Republic (24 min)

12 - Ovid and the Rhetoric of Love (21 min)

13 - Cato, Livy, and Exemplarity in the Roman Republic (23 min)

14 - Vergil's Exemplary Romans (22 min)

15 - Tacitus on How to Be a Good Man Under a Bad Emperor (23 min)

16 - Suetonius, Plutarch, and the Emperor's New Groove (23 min)

17 - Apuleius and Marcus Aurelius Consider the Soul (23 min)

18 - Three North African Converts Read the Pagan Classics (22 min)