Why We're All Romans

Book Review by Ursus

In our intellectual lives we are Greeks, in our spiritual lives Hebrews. Or so the claim is made when speaking of the Western tradition owed to the Ancients. Carl J. Richard agrees with these assessments, but adds that it was the Roman Empire which filtered and facilitated both the Greek and Hebrew legacies to the nations of the West. Along the way Rome managed to add its own native embellishments to the tapestry of history. Richard provides a decent enough overview of The Eternal City's contributions to posterity....

...read the full review of Why We're All Romans by Carl J. Richard

Book Review by Ursus

In our intellectual lives we are Greeks, in our spiritual lives Hebrews. Or so the claim is made when speaking of the Western tradition owed to the Ancients. Carl J. Richard agrees with these assessments, but adds that it was the Roman Empire which filtered and facilitated both the Greek and Hebrew legacies to the nations of the West. Along the way Rome managed to add its own native embellishments to the tapestry of history. Richard provides a decent enough overview of The Eternal City's contributions to posterity....

 

...read the full review of Why We're All Romans by Carl J. Richard

 

"The author is also a confessed Christian. While I don't think any strong bias shows through on his chapters on religion, he treats Christianity and its triumph as a given rather than an historical aberration, which may annoy those with more atheistic tendencies or pagan sympathies."

He does make slam against early Christianity on page 38:

"Like other religions Christianity profited fromt the Psychic crisis. But Christianity also helped destroy the empire by turning many intelligent and desperately needed romans from a life of political leadership to an ascetic lifestyle focused on the next life. Christianity may also have exacerbated the economic crisis; much of the late empire's private and public wealth gravitated to the Church, which was exempt taxes needed to fund the common defense and whose clergy were exempt from military service."

He seems to be echoing the views of Gibbon who as we all know blamed Christianity for the fall of Rome.

Otherwise he does seem to infer a superior morality from the Hebrew influence.