Can Christians today engage with the great classics of Greco-Roman pagan literature for spiritual formation and growth in the virtues?

Classical scholar Nadya Williams responds with an unequivocal "Yes!" Even in the Late Roman Empire Christians like Augustine and Boethius did just this. But engaging with the classics this way requires examining differently than, perhaps, most people today are used to doing.

Christians Reading Classics Audio Lectures is a series about studying the Greco-Roman classics as Christians—the why, the how, and to a lesser extent, the when. Just as our bodies are what we eat, so are our minds what we consume. There is value in engaging with literature to nourish our minds and souls—not just the Bible but all that we consume for spiritual formation.

Almost two thousand years ago, as Christianity was first beginning to spread in the Ancient Mediterranean world, the gospel came to believers who had grown up hearing and reading the great works of pagan literature and seeing the pagan gods everywhere around in their world. The joy in encountering Jesus stood out particularly starkly against the pagan worldview that comes through so clearly in the myths. And yet, they could also see hints of truth in those myths.

Nadya Williams introduces us to different ancient authors and their key works. She offers three interrelated reasons for Christians today to study the pagan classics for spiritual formation: reading to be surprised by joy, to understand the world of the Bible and the earliest Christians, and for character formation. It is time Christians rediscovered the benefits of reading the great works of Greco-Roman classical literature as Christians.