What Does the Resurrection of Jesus Christ have to do with the Great Books?

What value is there in reading the Classics? Surely they’re classics for a reason? We’ve upheld that label in referring to them, we’ve preserved them, we’ve created and recovered whole models of education around them. But what is their ultimate value?

Is it the academic rigor we associate with them? When we see someone, child or adult, who is well versed in the Classics, we are inclined to think of them as well educated – with good reason.

Is it the caliber of storytelling that has stood the test of time? Certainly some books are preserved for centuries and millennia based on the writing prowess of the author. But is that where the ultimate value of these books lies?

Yes, the academic value study of the Classics offers is valuable in its own right. Recovery of the Classical model of education and the Great Books associated with it are good and right and anyone who pursues that study is better off for it.

But when we look at Classical Christian education, why are we concerned with the same books? While rigorous education is valuable, if it’s to the ends of worldly wisdom and puffed up head knowledge, it is worthless vanity. So, what specific, ultimate, eternal results does study of the Classics provide a Christian student?

One way to answer this question is to look at the Great Books alongside the lynchpin of the Christian faith itself, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If we ask ourselves, “What does the resurrection of Jesus Christ have to do with the Great Books?” we can begin to see the eternal value of study of the Classics.

As Christians, our great hope lies in the resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:12-23). Our great purpose lies in calling others to be reconciled to God through Jesus and embrace that hope (2 Corinthians 5:11-21). And when we embrace that mission to share the Gospel, the means of reconciliation, the message of the perfect life, substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection of Christ, we will receive different responses.

Think of Paul at the Areopagus. Provoked by the idolatry of the men of Athens, he spoke to them of the true God, and called them to repentance, speaking to them about the resurrection of Jesus,

“Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’ So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them” (Acts 17:32-34).

In these exchanges, Paul used the poets of the people to whom he was speaking to point out their idolatry and call them to repentance in Christ (Acts 17:28). Here is where we can draw a parallel to the value of studying the Classics: books and literature, like these poems Paul refers to, like the ancient books from the same land that predate this exchange by thousands of years, like the ones we value from the early centuries of America, and even like the one God gave us to reveal Himself, present a worldview.

The Word of God alone stands as the standard for truth. These other works, though, are not neutral forms of entertainment or academic exercise. They are works that either align with the Word of God, or they present the word of man, sinking sand upon which any other worldview is built. Study of these books offers the student a chance to understand how people have, throughout different times and cultures, sought to answer important questions based on the word of man rather than the Word of God. They also allow students to see that across these times and cultures, there is nothing new under the sun. The Word of God eternally stands as truth and attempts to subvert it are timeless lies with different names.

When a Christian student learns to assess the worldview presented in one of the Great Books, they are learning how to love God better by understanding and defending His Word on a deeper level, and they are learning to fulfill their ministry of reconciliation by learning how to meet the tired lies of the word of man with the never failing truths of the Word of God, leaning first and foremost on the Gospel.

In my Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration in Ancient Greece course, students will learn this truth by unpacking the overarching objective,

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the great hope of the Christian life and the means by which any man must come if he is to escape eternal death. The great purpose of the Christian life is to appeal to others to embrace that hope, and the response to that appeal will vary as it did among the people to who the apostles preached. Because Jesus resurrected from the dead, we know He is who He says He is. Because Jesus is who He says He is, we must believe the risen Jesus when He tells us that the Bible is the very Word of God. There are ultimately only two views of the world, one informed by the Word of God and one informed by the word of man. These worldviews answer very similar questions at their roots, questions that all men desire to know the answer to. As those committed to the Word of God, we must be ready to answer those who are committed to the word of man, whatever form it takes. The Great Books of Ancient Greece provide an opportunity to understand some of the ways in which men seek to answer those foundational questions about the world informed by the word of man and draw them to the Word of God, in which we can implore them to embrace the great hope for all men in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If you would like to partner with me to aid your student to be better prepared to give an answer for the hope that is in them through the study of the Great Books of Ancient Greece, check out my online course offered through Kepler Education, “Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration in Ancient Greece,” now accepting registrations for the 2024–2025 academic year.

Jessica Clark earned a masters degree in Christian and Classical Studies from Knox Theological Seminary. She serves as an independent educator at Kepler and a substitute teacher at Abilene Classical Academy in West Texas.