Inherit the Greek

by Heather Campbell
June 2004

Seeing the movie Troy recently brought to mind the claim of some Xian fundamentalists that our culture is based upon the Bible. Whether deceitful or just ignorant, such an idea is sheer historical revisionism. In actual fact, our civilization is based upon the legacy of ancient Greece and Rome. Virtually every aspect of our society, other than religion itself, is inherited from the classical world: architecture, arts, philosophy, government and science.

The 'unified field theory' of Greek culture was humanism, which "affirms the dignity and worth of human beings". Here, the focus is on the human condition and the natural world. In contrast, the Biblical focus is on the supernatural; man is seen as evil by nature and incapable of redeeming himself without God's help.

Democracy is a Greek concept, the word meaning "rule of the people". Implementation of this political system has been one of modern civilization's great successes. Although philosophers such as Plato and Socrates mistrusted complete democracy, they and most Athenians of their time believed the state functioned best when there was widespread participation in civic life. These thinkers, along with Aristotle, undertook systematic examination of various forms of political organization. The American founding fathers studied ancient Greek and Roman models and political theory, and were able to institutionalize a system of checks and balances among the branches of government, and to ensure the rights of the minority and individual in the face of majority rule.

The Old Testament, on the other hand, offers just two models for governance: monarchy or theocracy (or mixtures thereof). In either system, checks and balances are nonexistent. God's authority rests with the leader and is not to be questioned; God's will is whatever the leader claims it to be. Individuals are not seen as deserving status independent of the group. God's covenant is with the people as a whole, after all, so presumably any innocent person would be punished along with the group (or, conversely, a guilty person might be rewarded). It defies common sense, however, that all members of a group are equally well (or poorly) behaved.

Even the more specific idea of trial by jury comes from ancient Greece. The system of jurors as a type of representative of the populace was instituted by the time of Pericles (450 B. C.), but even earlier than that, the concept of individual moral responsibility for one's actions had been established. In the Old Testament, however, relatives of a guilty party could be held accountable, leading to Hatfield-versus-McCoy feuds, or the sins of the father being visited upon the next generations.

Science and medicine are stellar achievements of our civilization that were built upon foundations laid down by early Greeks. Aristotle carefully investigated the natural world. Pythagoras held that universal laws underlying the natural world could be mathematically expressed. Democritus of Abdera put forth the idea of atoms as the fundamental particles of matter. Aristarchus of Samos defended heliocentrism (the theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun). Euclid's geometry was important not just for math, but for the development of perspective in the visual arts. The Bible simple offers no comparable contributions to the advancement of science.

Medicine in particular is a classical legacy; Hippocrates is acknowledged as its father. The Hippocratic school was empiricist -- that is, they carefully observed illnesses and their various treatments, and cataloged the clinical results. They explained disease in natural terms, including, remarkably, insanity.

The biblical culture, however, saw disease as a religious problem -- brought on by sin, and cured by priestly rituals. In the New Testament, Jesus performs a number of healings in the form of miracles. At least once His healing seemed more like sorcery: In John 9:6, He cures a blind man by rubbing his eyes with a mixture of spit and dirt. Such cures are all well and fine for the two dozen people who received them, but the method cannot be reproduced to help others. In fact, faith healing has opened the door for hucksters such as Benny Hinn and Peter Popoff, not to mention criminal neglect of children by Xian Scientists and similar groups.

How much psychological torture has been inflicted on people who believe their illnesses are somehow deserved? How much physical suffering has been caused by disease left effectively untreated?

Even Christianity has been influenced by Greek culture. The New Testament was written in Greek, and not just words but concepts (such as "koinonia" and "agape") were borrowed. In the 1200s, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote a treatise blending the bible with Aristotle (a fusion which came to be known as the "medieval synthesis"). The Church declared this work to be doctrine. Thus, even religion itself is an indirect hand-me-down from classical forebears.

While the Church held power in Europe, the connection to classical legacy was obscured, but when Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, refugees brought with them Greek writings. This newly rediscovered material fueled the Renaissance and restored humanism as a central principle of culture. It took two millennia to match and exceed the flourishing of civilization that originated in ancient Greece, a culture in which humans were more noble than the gods, and where homosexuality was tolerated.

References:

• Robinson, Daniel, Greek Legacy: Classical Origins of the Modern World, The Teaching Company, 1998.
• Lavine, T.Z., From Socrates to Satre: the Philosophic Quest, Bantam Books, 1984.
• The Bible, King James version.