Aeschylus & Aristotle

This lecture covers Augustine and the Manichee and astrologer along with his time spent in Carthage, Rome, and Milan. Augustine believed it worse for an innocent person to be condemned than for the guilty to be acquitted. Love in your heart can only be filled by God. Augustine finds faith in Milan and comes to Ambrose. Ambrose interpreted the Old Testament allegorically. Augustine could not believe Jesus could become a man like he had become.

This lecture covers Augustine and his secular ambitions and conflicts. His mother Monnica has a full understanding of salvation- life coming out of death. Augustine was gradually persuaded by Ambrose. Ambrose preaches the Scripture and it is Scripture that leads Augustine to faith. Scripture is what gives life. The Bible itself is its own great defender. It is a mystery that God can become man. With mysteries, you cannot reason yourself to them. Augustine admired his friend, Alypius due to his virtue. The Fall of man is re-enacted every day. Augustine suffered under the burden of sin but was afraid to be liberated. Augustine and Alypius want to live the life of philosophic contemplation. Consider that if one God is the God of all things, then there is a need to wrestle with the problem of good and evil.

This lecture focuses on Augustine as a student in Carthage. Due to the free grace of God, Augustine's shame becomes his testimony. He struggled with the idea that God became man. Sin needs to be punished no matter what democracy says. Augustine believed that natural law exists. Consider how natural law is a limitation on democracy.

This lecture has a focus on Augustine and his Neoplatonic quest. Augustine struggled with the idea that God became flesh. Augustine did not find in the Platonists what he found in the Bible. All truth is God's truth. Consider that Christians can plunder the writings of the ancients for truth. To possess the humble Jesus you must become humble yourself. Augustine wanted to be identified with Christ and the Church.

The lecture covers Augustine's thoughts on time and eternity in Confessions. Our purpose ultimately in everything we do should be doxology. It also covers Augustine's thoughts on Platonic and Christian creation. Augustine looks for illustrations of the Trinity. He holds that the three aspects of the self are being, knowing, and willing. He rounds off the book by coming back to creation. He rests from the works of self-justification. To find rest in the finished work of Christ is to find true rest. He ends with an "Amen" which makes his writing a prayer.

This lecture continues to unpack the modes of Aristotle's Rhetoric. The aim of a political speech is to encourage people to good action. The best mode for political speech is ethos. For forensic speech, the best mode is logos. In ceremonial speech, the best mode is pathos. In political speech, the speaker must be virtuous and honest. In forensic speech, the speaker must be logical. In ceremonial speech, the speaker must use emotion. Consider the five canons of rhetoric - invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.

Augustine's Confessions is written as a prayer. Augustine had a clear recognition that he was a new man in Christ. There is a perennial quarrel over the understanding of the nature of man. Is man so corrupted that he needs a complete and total transformation by God or is he only affected by sin and able to reason his way to faith? Consider the five points of Calvinism - total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. Both Luther and Augustine wrestled with their own carnality. Through the struggle of celibacy, Augustine realized his will was not free - it was in bondage.

Augustine is a faithful defender of the doctrine of the Trinity. Consider Augustine's view on the sacraments. Augustine had a Catholic view of baptism - that it takes away original sin. Understand that the Catholic view of the Catholic Church was that it was coextensive with the Kingdom of heaven. Augustine taught that what brings you to faith are the books you read. Genesis is the book that defines Augustine. Confession has three meanings, praising God, confession of sin, and confession of faith.

This lecture covers Augustine's early years. The whole of Confessions is a retelling of Genesis 1. The sanctifying work of God is a process. God's creative work anticipates his redemptive work. Very early on we show evidences of our selfishness and depravity.

This lecture covers Augustine's adolescence in Confessions. The theme of restlessness is seen throughout the book. Augustine's time of crisis involves theft that indicates his character. Augustine understands his fallen condition. Augustine gives thanks for the grace that restrained him from evil acts which he did not do.

Aristotle uses three main types of proof. His first proof is ethos. Ethos resides in the character of the speaker. As Christians, we need to best present ourselves so that we do not hinder the preaching of the Gospel. Aristotle held that you cannot be a good speaker without being a good person. Pathos is Aristotle's second proof. Passion is an experience of suffering, misfortune or a strong emotion of desire or craving. Misuse of pathos is manipulation of people's emotions. It is an attempt to get them to do something they would not ordinarily do. Logos is Aristotle's third proof. Logos is to arrange in order and in speaking, always with a rational content. Logos is the logic or ration of speech.

Aristotle explains there are only three types of proof available to the rhetorician. Argument is logos, character is ethos, and emotion is pathos. There are three objectives. Fist, to establish justice. Second, to establish admirability and third to establish advisability. Consider the question, "Does a person's theology drive which proof they are more comfortable with?" There are different denominations because God makes people different and in that there is value. Examine the three modes of persuasion which are political, forensic, or ceremonial. An audience for a political speech is a delegation or church session. An audience for a forensic speech is a judge or jury. An audience for a ceremonial speech is for a funeral or critic. Political speech deals with the future while forensic speech deals with the past. Ceremonial speech deals with the present. The aim in a political speech is to determine if it is advisable or harmful to do a particular action. Forensic speech aims at justice and injustice. Ceremonial speech aims at praise or blame. To do what is biblical is the most advantageous of all.

Rhetoric is the attempt to try and persuade people. Why do we use rhetoric? Aristotle teaches that even if your position is correct, rhetoric may need to be employed. Consider that all truth is God's truth. The question, "Is the study of rhetoric biblical?" is answered.

The claims of the various regimes are freedom, virtue, and wisdom. Men consider wealth, goods, power, and reputation not subject to the mean. The great irony of the philosophic life is that it leads to injustice. The philosopher's crime against the city is that someone else has to provide for his needs. The Apostle Paul by inspiration sets up a political order for the Church. Church community is for the exercise of virtue with the standard of Christ. For Aristotle, happiness requires virtue and leisure. Consider that the most political act of all is education of the young. "Liber" is books or truth that makes you free.

The regime shapes souls in matters of justice and virtue. In the Year of Jubilee, which is every 49 years, property is returned to its owner. It provides one generation of folly will not dispossess their sons. It also prevents accumulated lands and emergence of the tyrant. God preserves families and their inheritance. In the Old Testament, the land brings forth abundance-there should not be any poor. God will bring about justice. Taxes, confiscations, and corruption of the courts bring down democracies. The demos are the farmers, vulgar, merchants, and laborers.

Ostracism is the democratic gesture to rid someone thought to have the power to become the tyrant. The middle class stabilizes the country. Oligarchy can take democracy off its track. Tyrants most often arise from popular leaders. If the country is evolving into a democracy, the constitution is devalued. The problem is when those with preeminence act arrogantly and self-deal. Education does not create virtue. Virtue is defined by what the Scriptures say Christ is. Only God's grace and justifying and sanctifying work of God makes us good. Consider that Aristotle is writing The Politics for Alexander the Great. Christians are called to act on behalf of virtue in order to seek justice. To set the well-off against the multitude is to undermine the concord of the regime. Fighting with the well-off divides the city into two.

Aristotle discusses what preserves and destroys various regimes. Those ruling in a Monarchy, Aristocracy, or Polity have the best interest of the commonwealth. The corrupt form of monarchy is the tyrant who rules for himself. The corrupt form of aristocracy is an oligarchy and the corrupt form of the polity is democracy. Machiavelli argues most articulately for preservation of the tyrant. Revolution is a term invented by Polybius, a Roman political philosopher. Revolutions usually happen quietly. In a democratic rule the people think they are all equal but that is a fallacy. Factions destroy church unity.

A citizen participates in the political discourse of decision making. The regime of a monarchy is based on wisdom and an aristocracy is based on virtue. A polity is based on freedom. Discover that cities are always in a state of civil war between the rich and poor. A democratic city must ostracize because people who are great can become tyrants.

Christian virtue is arrived by the standard of Christ. Consider that Paul founded cities as part of his ministry. In Aristotle's Politics, he states that the best city is the one that is unified. In the heavenly city, Jew and Gentile are organically one. The death knell of socialism is that people only take care of their own things. Aristotle holds that socialism does not work. Koinonia is a democratic institution. The Cross is the most democratic thing of all. At the Cross we are totally and utterly equal because of our sin. The good regimes of Monarchy, Aristocracy, Polity contrast with bad regimes of Tyranny, Oligarchy, and Democracy. Discover Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was a refounding of the country based on democratic principles. Virtuous men cannot be replaced by institutions. If the people are no longer virtuous, the institutions cannot hold.

The more democratic, the more fragile the institution. Aristotle teaches us to lesson our expectations from what we expect from politics. The middle class constitutes the most stable regime. The genius of the American system is a strong middle class. Socialist countries are not imperial because they are poor.

In Aristotle's Politics, he teaches that a family must have equipment. There are some persons who are everywhere slaves. There is a relationship of master to slave where they love one another. The master is capable of studying philosophy and politics. Wealth is not subject to the mean. Discover that silver and gold are barren metals to Aristotle.

In Book 10 of Aristotle's Ethics he covers pleasure and the life of happiness. Happiness is contemplation. Education is the right use of pleasure and pain. The soul is a hierarchy and trinitarian. Aristotle holds that the philosopher can be solitary. The student of ethics must apply himself to politics.

Aristotle holds that all men are sick. He begins with the virtue of courage because it is the most important virtue for the city. Moderation of the senses is desired. A tutor trains in virtue by teaching noble speeches. As a surprise to some, Aristotle thought there are some people who ought to be poor.

Aristotle covers the grounds of friendships in Ethics Book 9. He teaches that it is our duty to stick by friends even if there is some depravity but only if it can be cured. The good man is completely integrated or one and desires the same things with every part of his soul. Aristotle believes that to be truly happy you need to have virtuous friends.

In Aristotle's The Politics he teaches that city is of nature. The good is to live well and achieve human potentiality. There are natural rulers and naturally ruled or masters and slaves. For Aristotle, there will always be natural slaves. Consider that if the heavens are ruled by a King, then the highest form of regime is a monarchy. Aristotle believes the city is the great project of man. Speech for Aristotle reveals that which is advantageous or harmful. If the regime is contrary to the natural order then society will be more fragile. The four causes for Aristotle are identified through the illustration of a sculptor. The first cause is the form and in the mind of the sculptor. Next is the material cause or marble. The efficient cause is the chisel and the final cause is the statue itself. The final cause is the New Jerusalem which is the great work of Christ and a reflection of his soul.

In Aristotle's Ethics Book 8, he talks about the different kinds of friendships. Friendships are the bond that hold communities together. Good, pleasant, and useful are the triplex that make you think of the parts of the soul. Friendships between unequals puts a strain on relationships. Friendship is the mark of a healthy regime.

Aristotle holds the view that the demos are the most vulgar. There are three choices of life which correspond to the three parts of the Platonic soul. Aristotle holds that the idea of the forms is only an opinion. There is peace only with unity and differentiation brings struggle. In eastern culture there is no idea of the end because everything is one. For Aristotle, happiness is a virtuous activity of the soul but needs equipment. Property is needed for a virtuous life. Ultimately, happiness is virtue in motion with equipment.

In Aristotle's Ethics Book 7, he covers continence and incontinence or the nature of pleasure. Man is the expression of something remarkably great. Socrates believed if you knew what was good you would do it. Anger is perceived injustice. The incontinent man is always capable of repentance. For Aristotle, there is truer pleasure in rest rather than in motion. We are made to rest and rest in God.

Aristotle answers the question, "What kind of life is the highest?" In Plato's Meno, the question is asked, "Can virtue be taught?" Virtue can only be developed in community. How do you achieve sanctification - is it monergistic or synergistic? The ancient world reasoned that if virtue is not gotten by nature, then it must be acquired by nurture and habit. Christ represents what is excellence in man. For Aristotle, the end of man is happiness.

In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics Book 6, he discusses intellectual virtues. Justice is the proper functioning of the human soul. The first part of Aristotle's Ethics is about how we should act. The last part is about how we should think. Prudence is thought through for the benefit of the community. Cleverness has the same capacity but to benefit oneself, not the community. Wisdom alone is not sufficient. The point of the Old Testament is that there is only one Hero, Jesus Christ. Understand that the charge against the philosophy is why aren't the philosophers rich? The ultimate particular is the defining aspect of true humanity.

Aristotle develops the ideas of potentiality and actuality. The Aristotilian way of looking at things has an Anthropological centrality or view that the center of all things is man. Ethics is the nature and purpose of man and the end of man is virtue. Machiavelli viewed cruelty as a virtue. He viewed everything as either image or things-nothing was ethereal. The death of Socrates produced Academics, Skeptics, Stoics, Epicureans, and Cynics. Skeptics believed man can not really know anything. Stoics face life courageously. Epicureans lived for pleasure. Cynics affirmed that man is an animal. The virtue of the spirited aspect of the soul is courage. The virtue of the appetitive aspect of the soul is temperance. The noetic is not subject to the mean.

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics Book 2 concerns the doctrine of the mean. For Aristotle, virtue is a response to a passion and equal to the mean. The mean is not objective but subjective. The mean has a relationship to individuals - it is not universal. Virtue is expressed at the right time, right grounds, to the right people, for the right motive, in the right way, in the best degree. The mean is not applied to actions and feelings that are in essence evil. Aristotle held that to have vice or virtue there must be responsibility.

In Hippolytus, Artemis represents restraint. Find wisdom defined as the choice between two women. John in Revelation has you choose between the whore of Babylon and the woman of virtue. Your soul is defined by the way you understand the whore of Babylon in Revelation.

This lecture continues unpacking Hippolytus. The tragic genre of literature is condemnation of the innocent. The innocent bear all shame - they carry the pollution of the city away. Reflect on the parallel of the biblical scapegoat. The sparagmos is a sacrifice that is cut up and a farmacos is healing. Theseus takes Hippolytus' death as confirmation that it is a just death. Artemis will reveal the truth to Theseus. It will be his tragic moment-his anagnorisis.

This lecture continues the account of The Bacchae. Wine has the property of stopping suffering. A messenger brings the news that Pentheus has died. When Dionysus returns, he brings madness. When he leaves, rationality returns. Contemplate the question, "Can madness come upon an entire city?" Blasphemy such as this results in exile and destruction for the city. Dionysus cannot suffer. Pentheus suffers in his place. Reflect that Jesus was lifted up on a tree for us. "This is my body, broken for you." God in his good providence prepared the Hellenistic world for the Gospel of the grace of God

This lecture continues the conversation with Socrates. The advantage of philosophy to the city is that it teaches what is truly good and makes you noble. The focus is on virtue. Another advantage of philosophy is the understanding of human things. The Socratic rubric is that the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. The Phaedo is the account of Socrate's death in which he is healed of the travails of this life. Socrates' last act is piety against which he had been charged to be a skeptic.

In Euripides' The Bacchae, Dionysus is a god incognito. He is a new god establishing his cult throughout the Hellenistic world. The former king (royalty) and Tiersias the priest act ridiculous. The Bacchus has to do with Eros and the sting of frenzy while Pentheus represents rationally and reason.

Lyric and Comedy are very bodily. This lecture shows that a healthy soul understands the comic. Hippolytus and The Bacchae both have to do with Eros. Love is at the heart of tragedy. The love drive has to do with our recognition of our own incompleteness followed by a desire to be otherwise. Anyone in Christ is complete. Children are an affirmation of life against death. Love creates art especially through suffering. Bernini's Apollo and Daphne is used as example of unrequited love. Poetry and music come from unrequited love.

This lecture continues discussion on The Clouds. In the middle of Greek comedy there is parabasis in which the play stops and the writer of the play addresses the audience. Just speech condemns the Socratic enterprise. Facets of the drama include that Strepsiades says there is no god. Phidippides believes it is just to beat his father. Strepsiades believes philosophy has done injustice to the gods. The poetic charge against the philosopher is that common people need to believe in gods to keep contracts and defend the city.

Philosophers mock the poets who create images of the gods and show the irrationality of believing in the gods. The charge is that poetry destroys the city. In Genesis, on the third day God brings organic life out of death and is a picture of resurrection. Socrates knows the demos is appetitive. According to Socrates and using the Socratic method, he determines that the wise or people of high repute are utterly ignorant. Socrates reveals he has a diamon (genius). It tells Socrates not to become involved in politics. The biblical parallel is Paul urging Timothy not to become entangled in the things of this world.

The Clouds is the opening salvo of the quarrel between the poet and philosopher and is about just and unjust speech. The great image of Socrates is that he calls himself a midwife who helps give birth to ideas. He gives no credit to the gods because he is an atheist. The birth of atheism is calling all causes natural which is the philosophic Achilles heel.

The intelligence of Aristophanes is highly regarded and he was both a philosopher and poet. He invented the comic realm. This lecture covers his Birds, Peace, and Frogs. The comic hope is a poet who comes back from the grave and saves the city. Protestants suffer from a lack of comic imagination and it needs to be recovered. The pure virtues of faith, hope, and love help us endure the miseries of this life. Imagination is faith. Matthew, the publican, is transformed into the evangelist of grace. Paul, the chief of sinners was transformed into the chief Apostle. The largest literary theme of the Bible is the rescue of the whore. Christ is always seeking out the publican, the whore, the leper, the outcast and to understand the Bible is to identify with these.

In this lecture, the tragedy of Oedipus continues to be unpacked. In Greek tragedy, the audience does not see the obscene. Oedipus experiences utter isolation and is abandoned by man and by God. Oedipus means "swollen foot" and is a remembrance of the injury he sustained in the way he was exposed. The one who was envied suffers a tragic end.

The irony in Oedipus is that he is given wisdom to save the city in solving the riddle. There is blood guiltiness in the city and the gods are punishing the city. Oedipus brings down imprecations (curses) on the one responsible for the king's death. The irony is that Oedipus is blind to the idea. He is anticipating good news - a comic turn. Tiresias is the priestly blind seer and charges Oedipus of being the cause of the pestilence in the city. The tragic moment is being forsaken by God.

In tragedy, recognition is best when it occurs simultaneously with reversal. A tragic plot happens to someone who is innocent. Understand that metaphor is the primary qualification of the poet. Aristotle holds that literary criticism precedes theology. Based on this, Hermeneutics is the most important human science to be studied and leads to a right understanding of the Scriptures.

The four genres of literature are Epic, Lyric, Tragic and Comic. Aristotle defines tragedy as an "imitation of an action that is admirable, complete, and possesses magnitude; in language made pleasurable, each of its species separated in different parts performed by actors, not through narration effecting through pity and fear the purification of such emotions." Blindness is a theme in tragedy. In an anagnorisis, the tragic protagonist will recognize and see himself. Tragedy on the Athenian stage achieved its end. Understanding the four genres of literature helps us to understand the Scriptures. Explore as an example, the Gospel of John and Revelation are a diptych or two parts of one epic story.