Kendra’s Comments (group member since Aug 26, 2016)

Kendra’s comments from the Reading Classics, Chronologically Through the Ages group.

"The Venerable Bede, referred to as "venerable" because of his piety, was born near the Jarrow Monastery in Dedham, where he spent his entire life. Because of his wide variety of ecclesiastical and historical writing, he is generally considered to be the father of English history.

Written around 730 C.E. (the middle of the Dark Ages), Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People is the first comprehensive history of the early English Christian church as well as English secular life, an accomplishment that is almost unimaginable given the conditions under which Bede worked. Before the writings of King Alfred in the tenth century, the only reliable history of England is contained in Bede's History.

For his sources, Bede drew widely from what he called primum scripta (“early writings”), which included Roman sources such as Pliny, Eutropius, and Gildas (an earlier English historian). Bede seems to have relied on few secondary sources for his ecclesiastical history, but he uses and refers to The Life of St. Fursa, The Life of St. Ethelburg, and The Anonymous Life of St. Cuthbert. He also refers to using some annals. For information about other parts of England, he seems to have relied on a network of fellow clerics." Source

We cruising through history and jumping over 300 years ahead from Augustine to Bede!

Welcome, Gini! I look forward to your insights once you hop into the conversations.

Thank you both!

Cleo, I can't say I understood/retained a lot of The Republic, but I did get to read it while in Athens so I have a fondness for it.

I hope I can read Peloponnesian War! Maybe if I finish City of God soon (I'm reading an abridged version!) I might be able to get started with it before February. Or I'll just work on finishing Lives... So many big books!

2018 Recap

Another great year of reading! I finished 25 books in all – definitely fewer than previous years but still something to be proud of. Plus, I read more longer books this year, which definitely impacted that final number.

I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to take the reins and lead this group. It definitely motivated me to keep up and read the books, especially when I started getting distracted. There were a few books I intended to read/finish this year that I just didn’t get around to. Hopefully I’ll get to them next year.

Books Completed
TWEM:
The Histories by Herodotus - Completed 5/01/18
Three Plays of Euripides: Alcestis/Medea/The Bacchae - Completed 4/01/18
The Birds by Aristophanes - Completed 4/07/18
On Airs, Waters, and Places by Hippocrates - Completed 4/08/18
The Republic by Plato – Completed 6/2/18
Poetics by Aristotle – Complete 6/27/18
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – Completed 7/22/18
Physics by Aristotle – DNF 8/08/18
Odes by Horace – Completed 9/02/18
On the Nature of Things by Lucretius – Completed 9/24/18

The Story of Civilization:
The Life of Greece by Will Durant – Completed 11/02/18

Around the World in Books:
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (Japan) – Completed 1/18/18
The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories by Bruno Schulz (Poland) - Completed 3/01/18

Planned But Didn’t Read:
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
The Sagas of Icelanders by Örnólfur Thorsson
The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

In book 8 chapter 8, Augustine discusses Plato and Platonic thought about God, ethics, and wisdom. Augustine seems to really like Plato's approach and a lot of what he believes/says about God.

Interestingly, I've read in a few places, authors who combat common/perpetual Christian ideas as unbiblical which found their source in Plato. Obviously Plato has strongly influenced Western thought and he clearly crossed over into Christian thought as well.

Elizabeth, I too have the first edition. From what I can tell comparing the lists, the second edition added the science genre, and one or two of the modern novels changed. I think I kept both on my personal list, although I should probably borrow the second edition from the library again just to make sure...

It's funny - my copy of The City of God says "For the modern reader" on the cover. What is that suppose to mean?! Are you saying the "modern reader" can't handle the complete text? I am offended!

Looking forward to 2019, I have created a tentative reading schedule for the year. I'm continuing the standard of one book per month, with a little variation for especially small and large books. I'd love feedback - changes are absolutely welcome!

January - The City of God by Augustine (426 AD, History)
February - The Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede (731 AD, History)
March - Beowulf (1000 AD, Poetry)
April - Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321 AD, Poetry)
May - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1350 AD, Poetry)
June - The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 - 1400 AD, Poetry)
July - The Book of Margery Kempe by Margery Kempe (1430 AD, Autobiography)
August - Everyman (1495 AD, Plays)
September - The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (1513 AD, History)
October - Utopia by Sir Thomas More (1516 AD, Histroy)
November - Commentariolus by Nicolaus Copernicus (1543 AD, Science)
December - Sonnets by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616 AD, Poetry)

Let me know what you think!

Cleo, I was confused by your comment and then looked at my own copy of the book. Turns out it is an abridged edition... Sticking with this copy might be a good idea.

"A masterpiece of Western culture, The City of God was written in response to pagan claims that the sack of Rome by barbarians in 410 was one of the consequences of the abolition of pagan worship by Christian emperors. St. Augustine responded by asserting, to the contrary, that Christianity saved the city from complete destruction and that Rome’s fall was the result of internal moral decay. He further outlined his vision of two societies, that of the elect (“The City of God”) and that of the damned (“The City of Man”). These “cities” are symbolic embodiments of the two spiritual powers—faith and unbelief—that have contended with each other since the fall of the angels. They are inextricably intermingled on this earth and will remain so until time’s end. St. Augustine also developed his theological interpretation of human history, which he perceives as linear and predestined, beginning with creation and ending with the Second Coming of Christ.

The City of God was one of the most influential works of the Middle Ages. St. Augustine’s famous theory that people need government because they are sinful served as a model for church-state relations in medieval times. He also influenced the work of Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin and many other theologians throughout the centuries." Source

We will be spending two months on this second book by Augustine, in part due to it's length, but also due to the time of year.

Welcome, Irene! I'm so excited for you to join us. Even though we're working on the books chronologically, you are always free to comment on an old discussion and get it rolling again. And if you want me to post a discussion for a future book, just let me know! (It looks like we already have one going for Don Quixote).

I look forward to reading some of your unique perspectives. Thank you for introducing yourself!

I'm only about 100 pages in, but one aspect of this book I find really interesting is that, despite the fact that it is an autobiography, Augustine is speaking/writing directly to God. He obviously knows that other human beings will be reading it but he is essentially ignoring them. He is writing a letter directly to God and whether or not we read and take anything from it is completely besides the point.

Wonderful! I'm excited to hear your thoughts on it, Sharon!

Yay, Cleo! I've definitely been craving some company with these reads - I look forward to discussing it with you.

I'm really looking forward to these next few books. We did allocate two months for City of God, so I'm glad to hear that was a good decision (although I was hoping to work through it quickly so I could try to jump back to Thucydides before we get too far away from him!)

"St. Augustine, also called Saint Augustine of Hippo... [was] one of the Latin Fathers of the Church and perhaps the most significant Christian thinker after St. Paul. Augustine’s adaptation of classical thought to Christian teaching created a theological system of great power and lasting influence. His numerous written works, the most important of which are Confessions (c. 400) and The City of God (c. 413–426), shaped the practice of biblical exegesis and helped lay the foundation for much of medieval and modern Christian thought. In Roman Catholicism he is formally recognized as a doctor of the church.

Augustine is remarkable for what he did and extraordinary for what he wrote. If none of his written works had survived, he would still have been a figure to be reckoned with, but his stature would have been more nearly that of some of his contemporaries. However, more than five million words of his writings survive, virtually all displaying the strength and sharpness of his mind (and some limitations of range and learning) and some possessing the rare power to attract and hold the attention of readers in both his day and ours. His distinctive theological style shaped Latin Christianity in a way surpassed only by Scripture itself. His work continues to hold contemporary relevance, in part because of his membership in a religious group that was dominant in the West in his time and remains so today.

Intellectually, Augustine represents the most influential adaptation of the ancient Platonic tradition with Christian ideas that ever occurred in the Latin Christian world. Augustine received the Platonic past in a far more limited and diluted way than did many of his Greek-speaking contemporaries, but his writings were so widely read and imitated throughout Latin Christendom that his particular synthesis of Christian, Roman, and Platonic traditions defined the terms for much later tradition and debate." Source

I had an interesting thought while reading Plutarch today. For about the 100th time, the "barbarians" were mentioned and for the first time I took pause.

Who were these barbarians? So many times they are mentioned only in passing as uncivilized and barely worthy of note. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't have their own kind of civilization and culture.

I did a little bit of research and discovered that originally the term "barbarian" was just an umbrella term which meant those who do not speak Greek. So, it follows, that there were civilized barbarians. However, during the Roman times, the meaning of the word changed and became synonymous to "foreigners". It's only more recently that the term took on a more generalized, negative connotation.

Here's yet another rabbit hole I could go down. A quick Google search shows that research has been done on these various tribes, even if the Greek and Roman authors we're reading don't spend much time discussing them. And I could also ask, what qualifies a person or group as civilized vs. uncivilized? I can't imagine there would be a sharp defining line (nothing in history or humanity is ever that simple).

Hi, Sharon! Welcome! I'm excited to hear your thoughts on the various books we're reading!

Wow, Cleo, that is quite the undertaking! I look forward to reading your posts once you return.

I personally have made it through about 200 pages of volume one and so far my favorite lives have been Lycurgus and Numa Pompilius. In them, I really saw how this book could be used as something of a moral education, and there were definitely many lessons to learn from them. If anyone is looking to read a few selections, I definitely recommend those two.

Thanks for the encouragement, Cleo. They definitely are quite the tomes. And I've never been able to read history quickly, even when it is fascinating.

I'm linking here to a part of Susan Wise Bauer's website that lists links to free ebooks for many of the books on this list. Figured it would be helpful for those trying to save a bit of money!

Here you go!