This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may make a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!
This is a guest post from my good friend, Tabitha Alloway. We both have high schoolers this year, and they’re both going to read some Homer. While I’ve read The Iliad and The Odysseyrecently so that I can be in conversation with my son about what he is reading, Tabitha has gone a step further and actually written out her thoughts, which I have found both interesting and helpful! I hope you will, too. Check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 if you haven’t already. Here’s Tabitha with Part 4:
“The Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified… unto the Greeks foolishness” (see 1 Corinthians 1:17-31).
The Greeks had no shortage of bizarre and outlandish tales about their gods. But Christ astonished them.
He died for mankind. Their gods could not die—and certainly wouldn’t for anything so insignificant as a mortal.
He forgave man’s sins. Their gods were quick to mete out justice and retribution, but slower to show mercy. Forgiveness was not a well-developed concept in Greek culture.
He conquered death. A general resurrection of the dead? This was an outrageous thought—something beyond the Greeks’ wildest dreams. It just couldn’t be.
It was the teaching of the resurrection that divided the Greeks who heard Paul preach at Mars Hill. Some mocked. Others were willing to hear him again. A few believed.
To most, the gospel appeared weak and foolish. Their heroes smashed their enemies—they didn’t die for them! The Greeks could not understand a God who would suffer for mortals, just as the Jews, who were looking for a mighty conqueror to save them, did not recognize their humble Messiah who came to serve, rather than be served. And perhaps more than anything, the Greeks couldn’t fathom eternal life in immortal bodies—something they could only envy the gods for possessing. Or else, like Plato, found ridiculous and even undesirable.
Early Church Father Justin Martyr appealed to the Greeks’ understanding of the gods’ immortality to explain the resurrection: “And when we say also that…Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter [Zeus]” (1 Apol. 21).
The gospel was the power of God to salvation for everyone who believed, and God added both Jew and Greek to his church, washing away strife, envy, wrath, and hatred through the Lamb who conquered sin, death, and the grave.
Christ is not only the Lamb of God. He is also the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. He did not suffer for suffering’s own sake; he did it for the joy set before him. He came to rescue a people for himself. He earned a name above every name. Glory. Honor.
In contrast to the Greeks, many today may be more comfortable with a God who is kind, forgiving, suffers without returning insult for insult, and mingles with the lowly, yet struggle with aspects of his justice that might not have been so difficult for the Greeks to understand.
A Servant who girds himself to wash his disciples’ feet is a comforting picture. Is he equally accepted as a King who will return to require worship—and destroy those who do not give it (Psalm 2)? A Lord who will rule with a rod of iron and smash his enemies to pieces (Revelation 2:27, 19:11-16)? A Lawgiver who will break the teeth of the wicked (Psalm 3:7/58:6-8)? An Avenger who “reserveth wrath for his enemies” (Nahum 1:2) and is “angry with the wicked every day” (Psalm 7:11)? A God who tramples the wicked in fury until their blood is splattered all over his garments, and feeds their carcasses to the animals (see Isaiah 63:1-10, Revelation 19:11-18)?
“Kiss the son [signifying worship], lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him” (Psalm 2:12).
This picture of God may be a far less comfortable one for modern sensibilities, but it puts the cross into perspective. It tells us just how offensive we are to a righteous Sovereign.
Mercy only means something in the presence of true justice.
Christ came to reconcile us to God and deliver us from his anger. But the day of mercy will not last forever. When the door of the ark closes, only those found in Christ will be able to safely ride out the flood of God’s wrath. Unlike the Greeks and their petty gods, God’s wrath is holy and justified.
The cross was not the end, but a means to an end: to redeem a people for God’s own glory and possession. Both divine justice and mercy were displayed at the cross. God has linked our good and his glory together.
The God of the Bible is not about foregoing glory. We may be less comfortable with the concept of seeking personal glory (while in the pursuit of God’s glory) than the biblical writers are.
But Paul puts the idea of seeking glory, honor, and immortality for oneself in a good light (the full context of Romans 1-5, of course, is an argument against trusting in works for salvation, and the need to find it—this glory, honor, and immortality—by faith in the finished work of Christ). He motivates believers with the promise of glory, praise, and reward awaiting them, and warns them not to look for this from man on earth. (See John 5:44, Matthew 25:21, 23, 1 Corinthians 4:5, 2 Corinthians 10:17-18, Romans 2:6-7, 29, 8:16-17, 30, 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, Galatians 1:10, Matthew 6:1-6 Colossians 3:23-24, James 1:12, Matthew 5:11-12, Ephesians 6:8, Hebrews 11:6, Revelation 22:12, 1 Corinthians 3:8-15, etc, etc.)
The question is not whether it is a moral thing to seek glory, honor, and immortality for oneself. That is a given in Scripture. It is moral for God to seek his own glory, and it is moral for us to seek both his and our own (these are tied together for the Christian). But how and where are we looking to find it? Vainglory is empty, vapid, invaluable. It is the kind of glory most men seek, and it falls far short of the glory awaiting the believer.
“When I began to look into this matter I was shocked to find such different Christians…taking heavenly glory quite frankly in the sense of fame or good report. But not fame conferred by our fellow creatures —fame with God or (I might say) ‘appreciation’ by God. And then, when I had thought it over, I saw that this view was scriptural; nothing can eliminate from the parable the divine accolade, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant’.”
Striving for reward is a concept that would have been very familiar to the Greeks. In fact, Paul uses the picture of running for a prize or competing in athletic games to illustrate the Christian life (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Hebrews 12:1-3, Philippians 3:13-14, 2 Timothy 4:7-8). Earning prizes and glory is something his Gentile audience would have easily understood.
So there are aspects of our God that the Greeks probably could have understood, to some degree, even better than we might today. And yet, he was still so different from their own gods, from anything they had conceived in their own minds.
They may have been able to appreciate God’s demand for worship and his promise of personal glory and reward for his followers. But the idea of taking up one’s cross and being willing to relinquish temporal life to save one’s eternal soul (Matthew 16:24-25) might have been less tasteful.
They might have been able to identify with Christ as a conquering King and hero. But His life as a suffering Servant to mortals would have been more difficult to understand.
They may have been able to recognize a God of justice. But a God of mercy and forgiveness who reached out in love to those who were his enemies would have been harder to comprehend.
“Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there any works like unto thy works… thou art God alone” (Psalm 86:8, 10).
The Greeks valued glory, honor, wisdom, and longingly wished for immortality, a resurrection of the body. Those among them who believed found all these things in Christ—and more. They were freed from wrath, pride, envy, and the sins that so easily beset men. Finding peace with God, they experienced it with their fellow man and strife was “able to die”—a thing Achilles fruitlessly sighed for. They became heirs of a lively hope, an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled. They enjoyed the hospitality and fellowship of the house of God.
While the gospel appeared foolish to the rest of their countrymen, to those who believed, Christ was made the wisdom and power of God… a power not even their greatest heroes could boast.
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may make a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!
This is a guest post from my good friend, Tabitha Alloway. We both have high schoolers this year, and they’re both going to read some Homer. While I’ve read The Iliad and The Odysseyrecently so that I can be in conversation with my son about what he is reading, Tabitha has gone a step further and actually written out her thoughts, which I have found both interesting and helpful! I hope you will, too. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven’t already. Here’s Tabitha with Part 3:
Unless both of your parents were gods, you could expect a rather bleak and meaningless existence after death.
The Underworld, ruled by the god Hades, was split into three parts: Tartarus (where the evil went), Asphodel meadows (essentially purgatory for all the souls of those who were not particularly good, evil, or noteworthy—this is where Achilles descends to), and the Elysium fields (for good men and great warriors/leaders). The Greeks had a sturdy sense of their own mortality. As Achilles acknowledges, “The grave…hugs the strongest man alive.”
Radcliffe Edmonds III writes,
“The Homeric epics present a mixed picture of what happens to an individual after death… [The] bleak vision of death and afterlife is fundamental to the Homeric idea of the hero’s choice – only in life is there any meaningful existence, so the hero is the one who, like Achilles, chooses to do glorious deeds. Since death is inevitable, Sarpedon points out, the hero should not try to avoid it but go out into the front of battle and win honor and glory. Such glory is the only thing that really is imperishable, the only meaningful form of immortality, since the persistence of the soul after death is so unappealing. “As powerful as this grim vision of the afterlife is in the Homeric epics, commentators since antiquity have noticed that this uniformly dreary life for the senseless, strengthless dead is not the only vision of afterlife presented in the Homeric poems.” (A Lively Afterlife and Beyond: The Soul in Plato, Homer, and the Orphica)
There are times in Homer’s works in which the dead experience feelings and emotions and have memories of their former lives. Sometimes they even interfere in the world of human affairs.
But for the most part, Homer presents an existence in the House of Hades as empty, mindless, meaningless. When Odysseus speaks to the spirit of dead Achilles in The Odyssey, Achilles moans,
“By god, I’d rather slave on earth for another man— some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive than rule down here over all the breathless dead.”
There was little hope of joy in the afterlife. No general resurrection of the dead. This was reserved for only a small handful of privileged individuals—perhaps a mortal whose parentage included at least one god or goddess and who had done great deeds (such as Hercules, who was promoted to immortality). Or a man or woman who was very great and good might possibly be reincarnated up to three times, after which the soul could travel to the Blessed Isles and enjoy a happy existence.
The desire for a happier ending in the afterlife led some Greeks to turn to Middle Eastern mystery religions. The Eleusis mysteries promised that those who lived a virtuous life and performed certain religious rituals would experience a blessed afterlife. The Orphic cult assured followers that through special rites and initiation into secret knowledge they could escape the fate of most men and find the path to a better place in the afterlife. Members were buried with esoteric inscriptions on thin gold sheets that would guide the deceased through the Underworld.
Greek culture focused on glory. Eternity would probably be bleak, but if you could win a name for yourself, you would at least be remembered and praised after your death. Feats of courage and strength were applauded; cowardice and weakness, despised. This created a highly competitive culture that, arguably, was responsible for much of the country’s rise in the world.
Leaving behind great deeds was a way of becoming immortal, in a sense: the Greeks could not be reunited with their bodies, but they could be memorialized.
Avoiding bodily decay after death was a big deal: if a warrior did not receive a proper burial, his spirit was doomed to forever wander along the riverbank Styx. It could not properly rest in the house of the dead. This is why Achilles is desperate to recover the body of his friend Patroclus and see it gets an honorable burial—and to desecrate the body of Hector, his enemy.
While the Greeks valued life—the physical body and the material world—Plato would later (about 300 years after Homer’s time) present a different conception of life and death, meaning and purpose. He saw the body as something to one day happily put off, so that one’s soul might be set free from a prison that prevents a person from reaching true knowledge, True Being—the Beatific Vision. The physical and material were inferior to the spiritual and mystical. The body was a tomb to be cast off in order that one might become “other-worldly.” Plato spurned the idea of resurrection—for anyone. The Gnostics drew from his teachings.
True immortality for the Greeks meant the body must be resurrected and eternally united with the soul. All the immortal gods engaged in physical activities—eating, drinking, sleeping, having marital relations. Unless you were of the Platonian persuasion, it was a state much to be desired, but one which few, even among their best, could ever hope to attain.
The light of the Christian resurrection would one day pierce the darkness of this fear of death—and divide the Greeks at Mars Hill…
Lauren’s Note:
In reading The Republic, it’s so interesting to me that Plato didn’t want people to read/listen to Homer (though he acknowledges that Homer was pretty much the source of philosophical education for the Greeks in his day). Plato wanted gods that were far better examples than they were in Homer’s telling. He idealized and wanted a truly just and honorable God, and the truly just man according to Plato would be just even when not recognized as such, even when treated as though he were unjust, even to the point of …wait for it… crucifixion! What Plato longed for in a God, in a just man…he didn’t find it in Homer. But he was on to something.
Plato also didn’t like poetry. He was a “give it to me straight” kind of guy.
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may make a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!
This is a guest post from my good friend, Tabitha Alloway. We both have high schoolers this year, and they’re both going to read some Homer. While I’ve read The Iliad and The Odysseyrecently so that I can be in conversation with my son about what he is reading, Tabitha has gone a step further and actually written out her thoughts, which I have found both interesting and helpful! I hope you will, too. Read Part 1 if you haven’t already. Here’s Tabitha with Part 2:
The characters of The Iliad are often arrogant, petty, and easily angered—much like their gods. The Greek deities bicker and quarrel throughout the story, employ deception, fight one another, and alternately wreck havoc on the defenders and attackers of Troy, their only guide their own whims, unconstrained by moral considerations. Capricious and fickle, they often behave like spoiled children.
Achilles is described throughout the epic as “god-like.” But perhaps their gods were more “man-like” than anything: except for their immortality and power, the deities resembled man all too much in their thoughts and vices.
The concept of forgiveness and mercy was not really an intrinsic part of Greek culture. David J. Leigh writes,
“A study of the earliest Greek literature and philosophy indicates that the Greeks developed a strong sense of justice and law as related to both gods and humans, but did not develop a concept of forgiveness and mercy. The closest they came to the latter concept was the practice of legal leniency and the notion of ‘pity’… Neither the gods nor human beings in early Greece were seen as ‘forgiving’ people their injustices or offenses… Because the Greeks lacked a divine or messianic example of unconditional forgiveness, they did not feel a religious compulsion to forgive other persons… At most, these hints of the rising importance of pity in the Greek world might suggest some readiness for the reception of the Christian teachings on the divine forgiveness of sins and the human need to forgive one another.” (Forgiveness, Pity, and Ultimacy in Ancient Greek Culture)
Over time, “emergence of something beyond strict justice” did make its way into Greek thinking. And even Homer shows the characters acting, at times, with a compassion borne of pity. Homer presents these as admirable virtues, as part of what makes us truly human. He occasionally gives us a glimpse of man at his worst. And yet, woven throughout the tragedy, acts of kindness, mercy, justice, courage, friendship, loyalty, and honor are displayed.
Even by Achilles.
After killing Hector, Achilles drags the body behind his chariot, dishonoring him in one of the worst ways a man could be dishonored in the ancient world: he intends to let his corpse rot without burial.
But King Priam, Hector’s father, sneaks into the Greek camp and approaches Achilles, begging him to have pity on a grieving old man who has lost his sons. He reminds him how Achilles’s father would grieve were he to lose him. He asks to be given the body of Hector that he might bury it honorably.
It is human feeling that suddenly causes a change of heart in Achilles. Achilles the beast becomes a man again. He weeps for his own father, knowing he (Achilles) will soon die. Pity, compassion, even gentleness overtake him.
He grants Priam his wish, even offering him food and a place to spend the night.
Another shocking turn takes place in the poem when Diomedes and Glaucus meet on the battlefield. Both men are seething with hate and ready to kill when Diomedes calls out to Glaucus, asking who he is. Glaucus proceeds to give him his family lineage. Suddenly, Diomedes plunges his spear into the ground and joyfully tells Glaucus they cannot be enemies.
“…Splendid—you are my friend, my guest from the days of our grandfathers long ago! Noble Oeneus hosted your brave Bellerophon once, he held him there in his halls, twenty whole days, and they gave each other handsome gifts of friendship.”
The two soldiers immediately make a pact of friendship, based on the fact that the ancestor of one had entertained the ancestor of the other. In one moment, hate melts into love and goodwill.
This seems strange—until one understands the significance of hospitality in the ancient Greek culture. Hospitality, or philoxenia (“loving the stranger”), was considered a sacred duty. Turning a stranger away was an ill-advised act, for it might be a god in disguise, testing the host to see if he would practice proper hospitality. (There’s a rather interesting Christian corollary in Hebrews 13:2: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”)
It didn’t matter who came to your door—they must be fed, entertained, and given a parting gift. This important ritual usually signified friendship for life. This is why, even generations removed from the original act of hospitality, Diomedes and Glaucus instantly reconcile.
And this is the reason Paris’s treachery was so heinous to the Greeks. When Paris visited King Menelaus’s home, he took advantage of his host’s hospitality to woo Menelaus’s wife, Helen, away. By this act, he violated a sacred code of Greek ethics—xenia (“guest-friendship” or “ritualized friendship”), returning evil for hospitality.
Philonexia/philoxenia and philoxenos (Strong’s Greek #5381 and #5382) are found a total of five times in the New Testament: in Hebrews 13:2 (as mentioned above), Romans 12:13 (when Paul admonishes the believers of Rome to be “given to hospitality”), 1 Timothy 3:2/Titus 1:8 (a requirement for an elder is that he be a “lover of hospitality” and “given” to it), and 1 Peter 4:9 (“Use hospitality one to another without grudging”).
Both the Greeks, and later the Christians, would highly value the practice of hospitality, but there are some key differences:
The Greeks practiced hospitality out of duty, fearing retribution of the gods. The Christian practices hospitality out of love, for God’s glory and Christ’s reward.
The Greeks expected the good they did to be returned to them by their guest (if opportunity arose). The Christian only looks to God for reward, not expecting man to pay him in kind.
The Greeks were not allowed to turn a stranger away. Christians are actually commanded to turn some men away, and to withhold fellowship from others. “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds” (2 John 1:10-11). “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators… But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat” (1 Corinthians 5:9, 11).
Peace was made between two soldiers because of an old act of hospitality. Sharing one’s home and table in the ancient world was a symbol of friendship and goodwill. This also carried great significance for new Jewish converts, who, prior to Christianity, physically separated themselves from the Gentiles.
“Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation,” said Peter to the Gentile Cornelius as he stood in his home. He continued, “But God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean” (Acts 10:28).
The gospel shattered the barrier walls between Jew and Gentile. Both were invited to the future marriage supper of the Lamb—and both could now practice hospitality with one another. Homes and hearts opened. Tables accepted guests previously shunned. When Peter cowardly went back on this and stopped eating with the Gentiles, Paul rebuked him to his face (see Galatians 2:11-13).
Dining together and practicing hospitality were important rituals in the ancient world. At least eighteen scenes of hospitality are said to be found in Homer’s works. To share a table was to share more than food. It was an acknowledgment of shared humanity. This kindness marked good men—virtuous men. Paris is thus a true villain, lacking the humane instinct to gratefully return the good he has received. His treachery brings strife and death to both Greeks and Trojans.
Lauren’s Note:
It is striking when reading Plato’s Republic, that in all of his discussion of justice and virtue, love is not really a part of the discussion. This is why Faith, Hope, and Love are called the “Christian virtues”. While the concepts existed, they were not held up as ideals by the Greeks in the way that Christians exalted them.
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may make a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!
This is a guest post from my good friend, Tabitha Alloway. We both have high schoolers this year, and they’re both going to read some Homer. While I’ve read The Iliad and The Odysseyrecently so that I can be in conversation with my son about what he is reading, Tabitha has gone a step further and actually written out her thoughts, which I have found both interesting and helpful! I hope you will, too. Here’s Tabitha with Part 1:
“Rage—”
The opening word of The Iliad captures the whole tenor of this Homeric epic: wrath, hatred, strife, envy, pride, the clash of wills—of both gods and mortals. Rage drives the heroes to great acts of courage… and rage brings ruin and death.
Beginning with a description of the anger of Achilles, Homer introduces us in the opening lines of the poem to the quintessential Greek hero: a mortal man born of the gods, fated to suffer tragedy, who will accomplish supernatural feats.
When his pride is wounded over an insult by King Agamemnon, Achilles swears he will no longer help the Greek army—already nine years into the siege of Troy—till tragedy befalls them. No generous offer of gifts, restitution of wrongs, or desire to reconcile on the part of Agamemnon can move him.
When a party of men conveys Agamemnon’s offer of peace and begs him to let his “heart-devouring anger go,” he explodes,
“… Die and be damned for all I care!… His gifts, I loathe his gifts… I wouldn’t give you a splinter for that man.”
Odysseus, one of the three men sent with the message, rebukes,
“Achilles— he’s made his own proud spirit so wild in his chest, so savage, not a thought for his comrades’ love… You—the gods have planted a cruel, relentless fury in your chest!…”
Odysseus returns to King Agamemnon with these words: “The man has no intention of quenching his rage.”
Later, Apollo himself expresses disgust over Achilles’s anger:
“That man without a shred of decency in his heart… his temper can never bend and change—like some lion going his own barbaric way, giving in to his power, his brute force and wild pride, as down he swoops on the flocks of men to seize his savage feast. Achilles has lost all pity!…”
This stubborn pride costs Achilles his dearest friend, Patroclus:
With Achilles out of the fight, the tide of war turns in favor of the Trojans. After seeing the devastation inflicted by their enemies, Patroclus implores Achilles to let him join the battle if he will not do so himself. Consenting, Achilles sends Patroclus out with his own suit of armor.
Patroclus achieves a victory on the battlefield, but is killed when he pursues the Trojans back to their city. The news devastates Achilles. In his grief, he cries out,
“If only strife could die from the lives of gods and men and anger that drives the sanest man to flare in outrage— bitter gall, sweeter than dripping streams of honey, that swarms in people’s chests and blinds like smoke—”
He resolves to beat down “the fury mounting inside” him, “down by force.” At last he is able to set aside his personal grievances in order to avenge his friend’s death. A formal display of reconciliation between Agamemnon and Achilles reveals that neither party takes full responsibility for their acts. Both blame their bad behavior on the gods. Nonetheless, Achilles is back in the fight.
But rather than overcoming his fury, he merely finds a new target for it—the Trojans, and Hector in particular.
Now his bloody rampage begins. He slaughters mercilessly, with cruelty and joy. He mocks and taunts, hates—and loves hating. “God-like Achilles” descends to the lows of a murderous animal, with so much hostility in his heart he cares not if he dies.
Achilles was born of a goddess and a mortal. Knowing her son was fated for an untimely death, his mother attempted to avert the inevitable by holding him by his heel and dipping him into the River Styx when he was an infant. He was made invulnerable everywhere the water touched him. His heel, which was not submerged, became his one point of weakness. It is Paris who later brings down the mighty warrior—with a poisoned arrow to his heel.
But Achilles’s true heel, his vulnerability, is his inability to control his spirit and check his wrath. “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls,” wrote the wise man (Proverbs 25:28).
The conquer and sack of Troy after the death of Achilles mirrors the defeat in his own heart, the pillaging of his soul.
The great hero is a conquered man, driven by his feelings and passions rather than guided by reason and wisdom. He has no walls of self-control, no defenses against his own pride that poisons him long before Paris’s arrow flies to its mark. His spirit ravaged by rage, he falls. His “cruel, relentless fury” nearly burns to ashes his very humanity, just as the Greek fires will later blacken the streets of Troy.
And yet, for a moment in the saga, before he reaches his end, his fury relents–and Achilles finds room in his proud, bitter heart for mercy…
Amazon links are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.
I’ve written in the past about how our family covers “Bible” in our homeschool, which is to say, I’ve written about how we don’t consider it a subject in school so much as a part of life. You can read that article here, especially if you have little ones or are just getting started reading the Bible together as a family.
The following article is actually a guest post from my husband, as he reflects on what we have done differently in our family Bible time this year–instead of reading a chapter aloud at the kitchen table, we’re reading independently and discussing it together over a meal.
I hope my husband’s words are an encouragement to you to see how family bible time can grow and mature as you and your children grow and mature together. If you don’t have kids, I hope these meditations on reading the Scriptures and the resources listed might encourage you in your own pursuit of God through His Word.
For reference, our boys are turning 14 and 12 this calendar year. So the following practice reflects what is possible with fairly strong readers, ages 11 and up.
Here’s Nathaniel:
This year we changed up how we do family Bible time. We decided to read through the Bible in a year by having each person read on their own. Then we discuss over a meal every day. It has been incredibly rewarding for the whole family. Today we finished our last reading in the Old Testament, and I want to share some things that have made it rewarding so far:
1) A primary intention was to read the Bible as literature. Not as “mere literature”, but as literature nonetheless. We wanted to see the overall story arcs and major themes, to enjoy each genre, and to see how it all worked together.
2) We followed a reading plan that is based on the book order of the Hebrew Bible, which would have been the order in Jesus’ day. It has some nice advantages, particularly in that the prophets follow immediately after the books of Kings. For example, I have long enjoyed the poetry and imagery of Isaiah, but had a hard time understanding to whom he’s talking, particularly when he’s cursing neighboring nations. I thought I needed to find a good commentary to provide all the historical background. Turns out, the book of 2 Kings is a good commentary to provide the historical background! When these books are read quickly and close together, I can remember who these neighboring nations are and why they are being cursed.
3) The reading plan we’re using also has us read a Psalm every day. I have been amazed at how often the Psalms connect with the historical reading. It’s much easier now to see the role of the Psalms as the hymnbook of ancient Israel and to see the value of the imprecatory prayers in the context of national turmoil and destruction.
4) I read the ESV Archaeology Study Bible. It was phenomenally helpful to fill in the gaps of historical details and to better understand the world and worldview of the Ancient Near East. It has lots of maps (!!!) and some helpful historical explanation.
Here’s an example spread from Genesis.
Today, I read in 2 Chronicles 35 of King Josiah going to an ill-advised battle with Pharaoh Neco, who’s just passing through on his way to fight someone else. The scripture doesn’t explain who that someone else is, because it’s concerned with Josiah, not with world history. But the study Bible commentary (a portion is pictured below) explained that Neco was allied with the Assyrians and on his way to battle the newly-resurrected Babylonian empire. Neco and Assyria are defeated, and 2 Chronicles 36 picks up a few years later as Babylon sweeps in and attacks Jerusalem.
5) I appreciated that the commentary in this study bible is primarily observation-level commentary. It’s not about digging out deep theological interpretations, it’s more about understanding the historical and literary context of the Scripture. Which really helped in seeing the literary flow of the Bible.
6) We also have watched the Bible Project summary videos of each book. I know that in some theological camps there is some controversy around the Bible Project, and I certainly don’t agree with all of their systematic theology, but I think they do a great job aiding a literary reading of scripture with their compelling outlines and summaries of each book of the Bible in their Read Scripture series.
7) The pattern in our family time this year is for our youngest son to narrate the day’s reading and for our oldest to read his written one-sentence summaries of each chapter. Then I will share my observations, Lauren will chime in, and we generally have an enthusiastic discussion.
The boys have enjoyed it, too. They have established a great habit of daily bible reading as soon as they get up. Without being reminded, they are committed to it and haven’t missed a day all year. Prior to this, our youngest was about halfway through reading the entire bible on his own. But he says this group discussion approach has helped him understand it much better. It is my prayer that this year will provide a great foundation for a lifetime of rewarding Bible reading for my sons.
When we started this plan, I mentioned it offhand to a father at church who is some years my elder. He mentioned that a read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan really makes you appreciate the New Testament when you finally get to it. I don’t think I have ever enjoyed reading the Old Testament as much as this year — even Leviticus and Zechariah — but I believe he’s right: The Old Testament has clearly demonstrated humanity’s sinfulness and persistent rebellion against all that is holy and good and right. Against God Himself. Over and over again, God creates good things, and men reject His leading and ruin everything, resulting in tragic consequences. Even as the Jews return from exile in Babylon, they still can’t get it right. And those of us outside the Jewish nation are even worse off, without the scriptures! We need light to break through our darkness. We need new hearts, with God’s law written on them. We need an anointed King of a transformed people to spread His kingdom of love, peace, and righteousness all over the earth.
I’m ready for Jesus!
Back to Lauren:
Amen! I’m eager to see Jesus enter into our needy world, “in the fullness of time”, as we begin our readings in the New Testament–tomorrow!
To wrap up, here’s a quick summary of our family Bible time practice for this year:
Follow the Bible reading plan from the Bible Project, each of us doing our daily reading independently.
Discuss as a family, usually at breakfast: Youngest son gives an oral narration (or retelling) of our reading; Oldest son shares his short, written summary (usually 1-2 sentences per chapter); Nathaniel guides discussion and shares from his findings in the ESV Archaeology Study Bible; Lauren shares her insights (sometimes drawing from Words of Delight by Leland Ryken) and asks a guiding question on occasion.
We have also added some side studies on the Code of Hammurabi and the Canaanite god Ba’al (among others) to broaden our understanding of biblical and ancient history and to be aware of the way that some critics and liberal theologians will use such sources and subjects to undermine divine inspiration and biblical historicity. It’s been a fascinating study that has made for great discussions. Keep in mind: this level of study is best undertaken when the kids already have a good grasp of history and the parents are solid in the faith and have at least some knowledge of how to interact with historical source material, able to ask good questions of a text or artifact and able to separate what’s actually there from a scholar’s speculative commentary.
Where are you in your own Bible reading journey? (Hint: It’s ok for it to look different in your home!)
Do you have a habit of reading and/or discussing the Bible with your family? What does that look like in your current stage of life?
If you’re just getting started, don’t be intimidated. Just take the next right step. And be sure to check out this post for what we’ve done in younger years.
May you and yours be built up in the Lord as you feast upon (or are just acquainting yourselves with) His word.
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may make a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog.
This post wraps up the books I read in 2022. For my other micro book reviews from 2022, click here (homeschool reads) and here (theology and life management reads).
I’m spending a lot more words on this post than I usually do on my micro book reviews, but that’s because I think this subject matter deserves a lot of care. I don’t usually tout my credentials, but it may be useful for the reader to know that I have a degree in history. So handling it with care is not merely a platitude but a trained conviction.
Since 2020, American politics and public discussion has been a bit of a dumpster fire. I’ve paid attention where I could and ignored what I could for sanity’s sake. I’m not one to pick a fight on social media about these things, but these issues do matter. And so I did a bit of reading on two sides of a coin, you could say.
The Scholé Sisters hosted a seminar on Marxism last spring (accessible now through their Sophie Membership), with three books recommended for reading and careful consideration, which you will find listed first below. Concerns over Marxist-inspired ideology in our day are not unfounded. But they are not the only concerns that are valid.
As much as we need to be on our guard against such ideology, we also need to be aware of our own history–and the fact that some of that history has been ignored or kept from us. And so I also read books by black Christian authors on their experiences, history, and wrestlings with the current cultural climate. To focus on one side of this coin while ignoring the other is short-sighted at best and potentially damaging at worst–to our neighbors, to our nation, and to our witness for Christ in the world. See exhibit A below.
A protest against “the Little Rock Nine” at the Capitol in my home state of Arkansas, 1959.
If you are an American Christian who leans politically left, you owe it to yourself and to your neighbor to read up on these concerns about the influence of Marxist ideology and the current disturbing progression toward what Rod Dreher (see below) calls soft totalitarianism. There’s history there you may be missing. Also, hear from the black voices listed below–they hardly get ANY air time in the mainstream media–and especially not on the left.
If you are an American Christian on the political right, you owe it to yourself and to your neighbor to understand the political labels you throw around (“Marxism” likely among them), and to especially do some homework to understand WHY things like Critical Race Theory have appealed to so many. If people get excited about a bad proposed solution (CRT), it may be because there is or has been a legitimate problem (America’s tainted past). Never mind if the current Theorists don’t pinpoint that problem correctly–we shouldn’t ignore it just because others misdiagnose it. The books I’ve read this past year, as well as some other resources I’ll link to at the end of this post should prove helpful to that end.
Let the love of the brethren continue, and may the Lord be glorified in His people even as we dig-in to understand some of the issues that are currently tearing our nation–and sometimes our churches–apart.
Physical copies for this category–Marx and Plutarch can be read for free online.
Marxism, etc.
The first three books listed here are from Spring Training. The rest are books I chose to read to flesh out the topic a bit more, exploring the dangers of totalitarianism, whether Marxist or not.
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles (I acknowledge both authors up front, but my review refers to Marx alone for simplicity’s sake.) I first read The Communist Manifesto during 2020—it seemed an appropriate time. It was good to listen and process it again. The Manifesto is divided into four parts.
Part One opens: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Marx proceeds to explain this point with a narrative of history that has two key qualities. 1) It’s materialistic, and as such, it’s an incredibly narrow lens for interpretation. Material and economic factors are the only things that count. 2) It’s a new application of Hegelian Dialectic, which saw the clashing of ideas as what produces a new idea, moving collective human thought ever onward toward truth, led on by something Hegel called “Spirit.” This is the essential pattern of thought in all forms of progressivism. In Marx, the clashing of classes produces revolution and new social orders, moving ever forward toward the communist ideal, led on by “History.” What Marx demands to be done is, in his view, what will inevitably be.
In Parts Two and Three, respectively, Marx lays out the Communist battle plan in defiance of Bourgeois objections and then criticizes the socialist movements that are, in his view, not revolutionary enough to get things done.
In Part Four, there’s an inspiring call to action for Proletarians everywhere to join whatever political movement is likely to produce a revolution: “The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. … Working men of all countries, unite!”
I have to hand it to Marx, his prose is riveting. It’ll get you fired up in one way or another.
It’s important to understand that because of Marx’s historical materialism, immaterial things or concepts like God, love, freedom, family, religion, duty, and moral ideals of any kind are seen as mere instruments for oppression flowing from the current system of production.
No benefit of the doubt is given to people who believe in such principles–all is material, all is political, all is economic.
Inherent human sinfulness doesn’t factor into his equation. If God and moral ideals don’t exist, sin can’t either. The nature of human dignity as having been made in the image of God and the nature of human sinfulness due to the fall are both abolished. Marx refuses to see them, leaving a divine vacuum to be filled by the state (or the gospel-hope of a communist non-state) and a faulty, materialistic anthropology (view of man) to both explain and condition human behavior.
It is this anthropology that drives the desire to abolish private property and consolidate the means of production–because if you can control material outcomes and do away with class structures, everything will be great, right? Marx, seeing only what he allows himself to see, seems to think so.
I wish that reading The Communist Manifesto was only an academic exercise to marvel at the ideas held by a few crazy people sometime “back then”. But sadly, Marx’s ideas, in part if not in whole, are driving much insanity forward today. The narrow oppressor-oppressed lens of historical study is alive and well, and class warfare is being promoted in our day, make no mistake about it. The lines are simply drawn in different places.
That Hideous Strength: How the West was Lost by Melvin Tinker I thought this was a very helpful book for understanding the influence of ideas over the past 150 years, and especially how those ideas have crept into the church (Tinker was an Anglican minister). To assume that ideologies popped up in the 1970s or 2010s without any connection to past ideas is simply ignorant of the way the world works. There are connections and this book traces them.
Tinker does employ the term “cultural Marxism”, largely to define where those class warfare lines are drawn today, especially as they relate to the sexual revolution. I think it is important to understand that this term is used by opponents of Critical Theories and not by promoters of them. No one, to my knowledge, identifies as a “cultural Marxist.” And the origins of this term appear to be associated with anti-Semitism. Most people throwing the term around today, however, eagerly decry anti-Semitism. And the potential negative associations don’t make it an altogether bad descriptive term, because the words themselves highlight what part of Marxist theory has been brought forward: the cultural revolution part, and less so the emphasis on economic theory (though it may be waiting in the wings). All the same, I think it’s easy enough to use the word “Neo-Marxism” to describe the same phenomenon. So, rather than get in a huff over terminology (like our cancel culture loves to do), figure out if the concept being referred to is valid. And choose the term that you think is most appropriate to describe it.
One of the best contributions of Tinker’s book, aside from the fact that it is pretty well documented, is his discussion of “social imaginaries”–how the stories and images that we take in as a culture shape our understanding of the world. This is good food for thought and discussion around what kind of social imaginary we are cultivating in our homes with our children–a positive application that can be drawn from an otherwise exposé-focused book.
Agis and Cleomenes by Plutarch This was the last bit of assigned reading for the Scholé Sisters Spring Training, and it was an interesting dose of perspective. In this story from ancient Greece, it was the conservative movement that called for a repartitioning of the land and a move toward greater collectivism, hailing back to the good ol’ days of Lycurgus the lawgiver. I can’t say I understood or remember everything from this reading, though the discussion inside the Scholé Sistership was very helpful. The main takeaway is that it’s good to shake up our political boxes and assumptions–most political ideas have been around for along time, and they don’t always package themselves in the same way or have the same flavor over the centuries. Again, a good read for the sake of perspective.
Animal Farm by George Orwell I read Animal Farm in high school (or at least I think I did—I know I was supposed to). It was fun to read it this year alongside my oldest son. The animals throw off their oppressive farm master only to eventually find that some of their own animals are “more equal than others.” And the second oppression is just as bad—or arguably worse—than the first. It was interesting to me to find that George Orwell was a socialist. So while his book warns of the evils of communism and perhaps the ditch that socialism can fall into, it doesn’t mean he agrees with my free market, limited government principles. I marveled similarly when I read The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Though Wilde had a death-bed conversion to the Catholic faith, he was for most of his life a hedonist. Dorian Gray exposes the devilishness of that philosophy and the harsh conclusion that following it without restraint can bring.
Whether we’re talking about Orwell or Wilde, I think this is interesting and important to keep in mind: People don’t exist in only two ideological boxes—yours and the bad guy’s. The ideas that thoughtful individuals hold are usually more complex than that, and we do well to ask questions to understand before assuming. Unless, of course, someone is just screaming at you or throwing nothing but ad hominem arguments your way or threatening to cancel you–in that case, don’t waste your time. And don’t be that person, either.
That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis This is a sci-fi novel, but you can expect from Lewis that it communicates truth as much as his directly philosophical and apologetic works do. I’ve written briefly my reflections on this book before, so I’ll quote that here.
“…This third book of Lewis’ Space Trilogy confronts totalitarian scientism and many of the themes addressed in The Abolition of Man. … I’ve found it to be great food for thought. [On the subject of womanhood…] Elisabeth Elliottells about being a woman. Lewis shows it. His character Jane wrestles through it, and Lewis, as the author, lets her be a woman. … I’m finding it quite instructive and freeing, as I tend to have some of the same modern-woman hang-ups as Jane.”
There are a lot more spiritual, ethical, and political themes to consider in this book beyond what it means to be a woman, but I have especially appreciated that personal application in my own life. As I said in the quote above, this book shows the dangers of totalitarian scientism more than Marxism, but both are quite relevant to thoughtful discussions on politics, ethics, and science today.
Live Not by Lies by Rod Dreher If you want the perspective of recent history and political development through a broadly Christian lens, this book is a fantastic read. It’s both informative and edifying. Rod Dreher is a Catholic journalist. Drawing from the stories of survivors who lived under Soviet control, as well as other sources, Dreher discusses the social trends that set the stage for totalitarianism and also the social pressures that help to tighten its grip over a people. While this book traces much sad history and disturbing developments in China and the west, it also contains amazing stories of courage and determination to “live not by lies”–even when faced with imprisonment and death for speaking truth. Dreher also gives encouragement to Christians to build strong families and Christian community as the church has been intended to do from the beginning. This book can feel bleak at times, but it is not without hope. This makes it my favorite read in this category–the book I’m most likely to pick up again soon.
Black Christian Perspective
Each of these books is by a Christian author whom I have followed for a very long time in one way or another. I’ve read articles by Jasmine Holmes since she was a teenager blogging under her maiden name Jasmine Baucham. I’ve listened to her daddy, Voddie, and have read his articles from time to time. I’ve enjoyed music by Shai Linne and Lecrae since my college days (I’m kind of stuck on their oldies). And I grew up hearing Tony Evans on the radio–my mom loves him. So this isn’t some list of black voices selected at random to meet some “white guilt”-driven quota. >insert uproarious laughter here< These are my brothers and sister in Christ who have encouraged me in my walk long before these issues made it hip to elevate black voices.
So many audio books! These are the only two hard copies I have for this section.
Unashamedby Lecrae Moore Technically I finished this book at the tail end of 2021, but I’m including it here because it goes well with this discussion. This is Lecrae’s autobiography. He doesn’t address any political issues directly, but his personal testimony demonstrates the hardship that some young black men face in America. There are drugs, women, abortion…it’s a rough ride. Lecrae is quite vulnerable in sharing his Christian testimony–not only his conversion story but also the challenging and often-failing road of sanctification as a young believer who grew up with zero positive male examples in his life. This book will challenge and expand your capacity for compassion. I especially enjoyed listening to the audiobook from Christian Audio, as Lecrae reads his book himself; and when there are quotes from his rap songs, they are included as clips from his songs rather than merely reading the lyrics off the page.
Carved in Ebony by Jasmine Holmes This was a unique book. Jasmine tells stories of black women from American history with both evenness and heartfelt personal reflection. I deeply appreciate Jasmine’s stated approach to American history: her goal is to glorify God in telling these stories, not to glorify America nor to throw disgrace upon her. She’s filling in some gaps both in our traditional American history framework and in American church history—some of these women reminded me of Christian missionary Amy Carmichael and Christian educational philosopher Charlotte Mason. This brought me to ask, why have I not heard these stories before? In all my reading on heroes of the faith, I’m not sure I’ve ever read the life of a black Christian woman. Well, now I have. And I’m blessed by it. I plan to have my boys read this book in high school.
The New Reformation by Shai Linne Christian pastor and hip-hop artist Shai Linne addresses the issues of “racism” (his preferred, biblically-aligned term: “ethnic sin“) in four parts. In part one he shares his own story, which is of particular interest if you’ve followed his music. In part two, he deals with some backstory, wrestling honestly (and graciously) with some of the skeletons-in-the-closet of Reformed heroes like Jonathan Edwards and Martin Luther. In part three, he digs into theology, especially justification by faith alone, and its implications for the church. Finally, in part four, he concludes with a discussion of biblical unity and practical ways that Christians can walk that out.
Linne’s main point seems to be that we are on the verge of another reformation–instead of simply reclaiming doctrinal purity, this reformation is about applying it more fully: the Christ-alone, faith-alone, grace-alone gospel is available to all people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. And our churches ought to seek to reflect that when possible through genuine unity in Christ across any and all ethnic divisions–not just black and white. I so appreciate Shai Linne’s vulnerability and faithfulness to sound doctrine–not merely in verbally ascribing to it but in calling us to live out its life-changing implications by the power of the Holy Spirit. Highly recommend. This is a very good read to have in conversation with the next two books, also written by pastors.
Oneness Embraced by Dr. Tony Evans (A new edition of this book came out last year. My review is of the previous edition.) I listened to this book via Christian Audio. I appreciated Dr. Evans’ tour of black American history—and especially the peek into its spirituality and church history. This, like Jasmine Homes’ book above, fills in some important gaps. I couldn’t verify all of his citations and over-arching claims as I listened, but I think the perspective is valuable and it would be worth searching out some day when I have more time (and a physical copy in hand). It’s important to note that Dr. Evans is probably writing to the broadest demographic of any author in this category (aside, perhaps, from Lecrae). He’s an evangelical pastor whose readership will be varied in race, political affiliation, and theological leanings (Dr. Evans is not in the Reformed camp that the rest of these authors are in). With this in mind, it makes a little more sense that at the start of the book, he says some things that help him relate to people across racial and political lines.
There are, therefore, things that will make both Republicans and Democrats uncomfortable. For example, he uses the term “social justice” for most of the book—likely accommodating the popular use of the term–before he states in the last few chapters that he prefers the term “biblical justice,” and then proceeds to suggest what that ought to look like. These creative efforts to do justice biblically are where this book really shines, in my opinion, though you can’t dispense with the background knowledge that he gives to build up to that point (especially his evaluation of liberation theology’s appeal and shortcomings). I would like to own this book in print, which is to say, I liked it and think it’s important enough to own. That’s a pretty high recommendation.
Faultlines by Voddie Baucham This was an excellent book. Probably the best in this category. Again, I listened to it rather than had it in front of me. Interestingly, the reader was the same for this book as for Oneness Embraced, and I enjoyed the feeling that these books were connected—coming at some of the same issues from the same side of the fence, but with different emphases and perspectives and solutions—different, but both seeking to faithfully apply the scriptures. Both were incredibly valuable. But Voddie Baucham hits the nail on the head as he discusses the problems with the modern social justice movement. Unlike the other books on this list, Voddie is able to address the problematic ideology of progressivism and woke social justice head-on, providing a much-needed evaluation of the claims made by the media and by some within the church today. He even calls Shai Linne out for a weak statement he made. Sometimes I felt Baucham was a bit harsh in his call-outs of faithful, godly pastors and leaders. But I think I understand these to be warnings that even the good guys can get caught up in this stuff and say things that may lead people to accept ideas that are wrong. The warning is warranted at least for consideration, even if at times it feels a bit nit-picky. I think it is given in the spirit of love for the brethren, including those whom he calls out.
While this book was excellent, I think it would be VERY SAD if this is the only book in this category that you pick up. He’s going to say things that will resonate with what most white conservatives already believe. Which is fine if the things he says are true (and I believe they are). What he doesn’t do is challenge the same group of people to expand their understanding and compassion toward other believers to the extent that some of the other authors on this list do. If you’ve got the time, read all five of these books–they’re each an important piece of the puzzle.
TWO: On a related and very practical note, here is a discussion of living books as Mirrors and Windows (in the context of a Charlotte Mason education, largely considered to be under the classical umbrella). The main point is that kids need to read quality books that both reflect their ethnicity (mirrors) and give them a peek into the experiences of others (windows).
THREE: Both Baucham’s and Tinker’s books above provide a critique of Critical Theories while tracing their development. You can find similar information in this series by James Lindsay (an agnostic liberal who exposes the flaws of progressivism and the woke left). Lindsay has not only done extensive research, but he reads at-length directly from Marxist and Critical Theorist sources so you can hear it from the proverbial horse’s mouth. Heads up, there may be some strong language in his talks.
For some current-events commentary from James Lindsay, check out these recent interviews with Relatable host and Christian, Allie Beth Stuckey: Why Bud Light… (giving background for the crazy corporate and UN decisions being made lately) and …Debate Christian Nationalism (which discusses some concerns with the CN movement–from a conservative Christian and agnostic liberal perspective). These various topics do in fact tie in with the issues discussed in this post.
FOUR: Lecrae is probably the most sympathetic person on this list to Critical Race Theory and the books published espousing concepts from it. He’s walking a bit of a tight rope. Even so, I appreciate hearing from him as a believer who seeks to remain faithful to Christ but who desperately wants his brothers and sisters to understand what he’s been through and what he sees. This TEDx Talk from 2016 is a challenging message to that end. You don’t have to agree with every little thing he says–and this talk doesn’t say everything there is to say, even from Lecrae’s own vantage point as a Christian–but it is valuable to at least hear and consider the story he tells and the points he’s trying to make when working through these issues.
There you have it. Have I offended everyone yet? I hope I’ve at least given quality food for thought and inspiration for prayer and faithfulness. Real conversation on these issues is important. If you’ve got a thoughtful question or comment to share, please drop it below.
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may make a commission at no additional charge to you. Thank you for supporting my blog while you shop!
Hello friends! I’m just popping on here today to remind you of the BIG SALE that’s wrapping up today at Compass Classroom! See my previous post for more details on their excellent video-based curriculum that we have enjoyed. Click HERE to go directly to the sale!
If you are catching this a day (or more) too late for the spring sale, I can still get you 25% off with a discount code at my new Compass Classroom landing page, where you can find some of my favorite curriculum items from their store. This code is good on your next purchase (but not valid during the spring sale), so take some time to figure out what you need and then load up your cart to make that discount stretch as far as you can!
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may make a commission at no additional charge to you. Thank you for supporting my blog while you shop!
I don’t do many sales posts, but this is definitely a good time for one! Many of us homeschool moms are already making plans for next school year, and that means it’s curriculum shopping season!
Here are some great sales happening this month, from publishers and curriculum providers that I love. A lot of them are focused on Christian classical education, but you may find resources that fit your homeschool goals whether you consider yourself a classical homeschooler or not. Unsure about what that even means? Check out this post.
I’ll start with the most time-sensitive.
Logos Press: 10-40% off and Free Shipping over $250 This sale is now ended.
Logos Press publishes and carries a ton of Christian classical curriculum resources and books. They had this sale through March 31, and they’ve extended it! It looks to me like this sale may only last until Friday (tomorrow), so jump on this one quickly to get 10-40% off and free shipping on orders over $250.
They carry classic books with worldview guides built in, Latin curriculum, Life of Fred math books, Math Mammoth, and much more.
Roman Roads Press: 20-35% off ALL Curriculum and Books, April 1-10 This sale is now ended.
Roman Roads Press also provides fantastic material for Christian classical education at home (for middle grades to grown ups). I’m currently reading The Illiad (and soon The Odyssey) along with the Old Western Culture Parents’ Challenge. This is giving me a chance to enjoy Wes Calihan’s lectures and think about how we might use them in our homeschool. I’ve found them incredibly helpful so far in understanding Homer’s works from a literary and thoroughly Christian perspective. Heads up to conscientious parents: there is some nudity in the art featured in these videos. Just being honest, this is a big part of the consideration going on as far as what my husband and I choose to put in front of our sons. I otherwise love the content.
Roman Roads also offers courses on Poetry (which I have done with my boys), Latin, Logic (currently the lowest price I’ve seen for Introductory Logic!), History, Economics, Calculus (which I’m about to order, per my engineer-husband’s request), and more.
Compass Classroom: ALL Curriculum Discounted, Up to 50% Off, April 12-19! THIS SALE IS ON NOW!
Compass Classroom has so many quality video courses for about age ten and up. We have enjoyed WordUp! The Vocab Show, Visual Latin 1 and 2, and Jonathan Rogers’ Creative Writing–I took his Writing with Scout course on To Kill a Mockingbird a few years ago when he first offered it as a live course. It was fantastic, evaluating literature as both a reader and as a writer. I have Writing with Hobbits planned for my boys to go through soon–and I know they will love it!
This sale doesn’t start until April 12, which means you’ve got time to try out their Premium Membership for ONE MONTH FREE in order to get a fantastic opportunity to evaluate any of the courses you are thinking about purchasing during the sale! They have great sample lessons anyway, but this would allow you to look things over thoroughly–no credit card required to start your one month free trial!
Prodigies Music: April is Month of the Young Child, Get 50% Off Plus Membership, 33% Off Songbook Bundle, AND an Additional 5% Off Your Order with Code KEPT
Prodigies is a colorful and fun way to teach music to children from pre-K to age 12. My boys started doing Prodigies Music Lessons (videos with color-coded desk bells and sometimes a workbook) when they were 7 and 5, and now that they are 13 and 11, I can see how much they have benefited for the long-haul from this playful but theory-packed approach to music education. My boys are obsessed with playing piano, have recently picked up recorder and ukulele, and one day would love to learn bag pipes, too! They not only love music and are doing well in their piano lessons, but they are creative with it, too–something that was intentionally cultivated by the Prodigies Music Curriculum. We didn’t even do the program super religiously, but it has been a blessing to our family! They have several options for how deep you want to go with their curriculum and resources, so that you can choose a plan that suits your needs and your budget.
You can also try Prodigies out with a 7-day free trial on their website. You can also download the My First Songbook pdf for FREE. Feel confident enough in your own musical abilities to do a bit of this yourself? You could purchase the bells and use them with the First Songbook to get your little one started. Scroll down on this page to see what instruments and workbooks they have available in this same color-coded format that helps kids learn quickly! They even have Chromanotes Piano Stick-Ons so you can relate the Prodigies song books directly to your own piano or keyboard.
Don’t forget to use coupon code KEPT to get an additional 5% OFF your entire order–on top of sale prices!
Rainbow Resource Center: Everyday Low Prices and Free Shipping on $50+
If you can’t find what you’re looking for at the sales listed above, head on over to Rainbow Resource Center. They don’t run huge sales, but they are committed to carrying a plethora of homeschool curriculum to suit all different styles. They’ve been serving the homeschool community since 1989, and they have wonderful customer service!
Are you starting to plan and shop for next year? I’m just beginning to think about it beyond the flurry of big-picture ideas floating around in my head. I’ll have an eighth grader next year, so I’d better get on it!
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may make a commission at no additional charge to you.
I have done some form of Morning Time with my boys for something like ten years. It looks a little different now that they are 13 and 11 this year instead of 3 and 1, when I likely started with a song, a scripture, and a calendar at the kitchen table. For one thing, my youngest is no longer restrained in a high chair (though there were a few years where he would be upside down on the couch or literally climbing onto my shoulders as I read aloud that I might have wished for that high chair again!).
This Morning Time Box has seen a lot of action over the years!
Latin
This year we are continuing our study of Latin with Visual Latin 1. We did the first 20 lessons last year and the plan is to finish Level 1 by Christmas so that we can start Visual Latin 2 next semester. I made it through the first 20 lessons last year without doing the worksheets myself (thanks to many hours of college-level Spanish), but this year I have printed off lessons 21-30 so that I can get in the same translation practice that my boys are doing. The grammar is a bit more complicated now, so it’s easier for me to keep track of it if I’m doing the work, too. And as an added bonus, I can very easily check the boys’ work without having to pull up the answer key pdf every time.
On lighter days in Visual Latin, we’ll sprinkle in some reading from Lingua Latina and perhaps also from Familia Mala (“Bad Family”…this book doesn’t shy away from the fact that the Roman myths are a hot mess).
Read Alouds
Just finished at the start of the year:
Cue drum roll… We have finally finished reading The Story of the World Volume 4: Modern Times by Susan Wise Bauer. It’s crazy to think we’re done with the whole series. I think we’ve actually read Volumes One and Two twice. This series goes down as one of our family all-time favorites. My kids would ask me even on the weekend: “Read Story of the World while we play Legos?” This has been a great adventure through chronological world history.
We also recently finished The Fallacy Detective. This was a big hit with my boys–a fun read with often-entertaining examples and exercises. I’ve tried to make a point to my sons that being able to identify logical fallacies is fun and useful, but 1) it isn’t to be used to tear others down, and 2) fallacies make up a small, small fraction of the study of logic–we have yet to begin to cover all of what logic actually is. We’ll take a break this year before heading into formal logic when my oldest is in 8th grade. The Fallacy Detective has certainly whet their appetite for it.
New reads this year:
I pre-read The Ology a few years ago but it’s finally making it into our rotation this year. I think it would have been great to read sooner, but I think it will still be a good, simple treatment of theology for us to enjoy and discuss this year.
In our home, we love books by H. E. (Henrietta Elizabeth) Marshall, having enjoyed Our Island Story (British history), This Country of Ours (US history), and Scotland’s Story in the boys’ independent elementary studies. This year I decided we could start reading her book English Literature for Boys and Girls together. I’m eager to read it myself, and sometimes the best way to make that fit in my schedule is to read it aloud. 🙂 The boys are excited to hear again from a beloved author, and I’m excited for us to venture into the world of British Lit–more deeply than I ever did in school!
Other Riches
I’m in the process of starting a co-op with some local families, so we’ll be covering hymns, Scripture memory, folk songs, poems, artist study, composer study, and nature study in community this year!
There’s also a book club time and my boys (who are both in the “older kids” group) will be studying Shakespeare, one play each semester. This fall, it’ll be The Tempest.
I’ll try to work our co-op selections into our daily Morning Time. But as the kids are getting older and our Latin studies require a daily commitment, this will be more sporadic than regular (has our Morning Time ever been more than sporadic? Hmmm…). One of the reasons for the co-op, after all, is because it is hard to make space for all of these beautiful things!
Want some inspiration for Morning Time in your home? Over the summer, I enjoyed reading Pam Barnhill and Heather Tully’s new book Gather. It’s a beautiful compilation of thoughts, practices, and examples from their own homeschools, and it’s chock full of lovely photos of other homeschool families (of all sizes!) who enjoy learning together. It’s like one of those “day in the life” blog posts, only there’s a book’s worth of it and you can actually hold it in your hands. Tangible book lovers, rejoice!
What about you? Do you do Morning Time? Or something like it at another time of day? What are your plans for this school year?
Amazon links are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. I make no money from links to Christian sellers, but I encourage you to support them over Amazon whenever possible.
“What Bible curriculum do you use for grade x?”
It’s a question I get from time to time, and it never ceases to make me squirm a little.
Why, you may ask? Well, because the idea of “Bible curriculum,” and especially for a particular “grade level,” is foreign to me.
Now of course I’m aware of the fact that “Bible curriculum” and “Bible classes” exist in Christian school settings, but I’ve always wrinkled up my nose a bit thinking about the Bible being made to fit the mold of an academic subject, added on to a school day like just another textbook or workbook to get through. What affect does that have on the way kids approach the Scriptures? And do they give grades for those classes? What does that teach?
Our approach to the Bible looks a lot less like school and a lot more like discipleship. Reading the Bible together has been a part of our family culture since before our children were born. We haven’t ever felt a need to make sure we added Bible to the kids’ schooling because they’ve been getting Bible with their breakfast since they were tiny.
In fact, while every part of school is informed by the Scriptures, we like to keep the Bible itself separate from “school” in a sense so that they don’t get the impression that a day off of school is a day off from devotion to the Lord.
But what does that look like? And how can you get started with this holistic family discipleship model of Bible learning if it’s foreign to you?
Well, let’s start with why.
Our Why: Created Reality and Biblical Goals
Our children are precious creations of our Heavenly Father–and they are precious gifts entrusted to us as parents. We desire to give them access to the Truth that God has revealed in His Word so that they can grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man, that they would begin to know and love their Creator.
Ultimately, we desire that our children would trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation from their sins and that they would love and serve Him all their days–for their good and God’s glory, both in this life and in the life to come. We don’t ultimately control this outcome. But we can be faithful to train our children in the way they should go.
Our Why Dictates Our How: Holistic Family Discipleship
Given the nature of our children, the nature of our relationship to them as their parents, and the nature of our goal (that they would have a relationship with God), it follows then that we ought to teach them in a way that is first and foremost relational. And decidedly not academic.
This means that interaction with the Scriptures comes woven into the fabric of our every day lives. There are no worksheets nor tests, no grades nor grade levels.
This doesn’t mean we don’t use printed materials to aid our children’s learning (I will link to some below), but we need to remember that the greatest resources we have to instruct our children in the ways of the Lord are His Word, His Holy Spirit, and our own lives lived alongside and before our children.
God’s Word: We must be in the bible ourselves and we must offer the Scriptures to our children.
The Holy Spirit: We must be seeking God to be at work both in us and in our children–apart from Christ we can do nothing. We may have had a direct role in bringing about our children’s physical life, but the spiritual life is of the Spirit–we cannot manufacture it in our kids. Prayer is indispensable.
Our Own Lives: We must model for our children what it means to believe the Word of God, to study it, to meditate on it, to practically submit our lives to it, and to receive both correction from it when we fail and comfort from it when we repent.
What does this actually look like?
Family Bible Time (what some call Family Worship)
Our current family Bible reading pattern, which we’ve had going for several years, is Proverbs at breakfast and Gospels at supper.
Now, this doesn’t mean each one happens every day. The reason we read the Bible over breakfast and dinner is because we often don’t read the Bible over breakfast and dinner. This is a scattering of seeds, not mechanical planting.We aim for faithfulness and perseverance rather than anything that resembles perfect consistency. But in keeping up the habit, we pretty reliably hit at least one of these each day, sometimes both. And before it was Proverbs and Gospels, we read slowly through the entire Bible at meal times–it may have taken a decade, but we kept going. The reason we’re in Proverbs and the Gospels right now is because the primary needs of our children are to receive instruction and correction according to God’s wisdom and to receive Jesus the Messiah as their Savior.
While we eat breakfast, my husband will read a few verses from the chapter of Proverbs that matches the calendar date (since there are conveniently 31 chapters in Proverbs), either selecting these verses ahead of time or asking for the kids to randomly select a number. He reads a verse and asks what it means. The kids give it their best shot and then we all discuss the meaning. He asks if they can think of any examples (a child may not use his brother as a negative example–this is a necessary rule, folks!). It has been fun over the years to hear the examples the kids come up with–sometimes from a fable, from literature, from a Bible story, from a movie. They are learning about wisdom and foolishness and learning how to identify each.
After Proverbs, we recite the Shema and the Lord’s Prayer. We switched up this recitation time over the holidays last year in order to recite and memorize Mary’s Magnificat. Now that we have the placeholder for recitation, we may use the time for other passages when they seem fitting.
Our evening Family Bible Time involves my husband reading from a passage of Scripture (currently Luke) at mealtime and then asking a few questions:
What did we learn? This is a good time for kids to either pick one thing that stuck out to them or simply narrate what they heard.
What can we worship God for? Sometimes, when we’ve been in the prophets, the answer is usually “That God was so patient and gave so many warnings.” Now that we’re in the first few chapters of Luke, the answer is usually “For sending Jesus to save us.” Sometimes the answer is different, but it’s no problem to worship God for the same things over and over again–in fact, it’s right to do so. Once answered, we pray and praise God based on what we saw in the passage–even if it’s simply for preserving the genealogy of Christ (which is pretty amazing when you think about it). Sometimes there may not be an obvious answer. When we were in the middle of Job as a family, it was admittedly hard to find any answer from the text–so we felt Job’s desolation a bit but worshipped God anyway.
What can we do with what we have learned? This is where we pay attention to the right response(s) to what we have read. Sometimes it is simply to worship as we did in the second question. Sometimes there is a command that we ought to obey. Sometimes there is something for which we ought to be thankful, something that ought to amaze us, something that ought to cause us to care for others, an example to follow or an example not to follow.
Now, these questions aren’t magical. They’re just the tools we have used for discussing the Bible as a family and for attempting to respond to it properly. Sometimes the kids are fully engaged and wow us with their insight. But sometimes the kids aren’t super excited to answer. Sometimes we get blank stares. But we don’t read the Bible and ask the questions in order to get perfect responses from our kids. We do it so that they are regularly interacting with the Scriptures and learning by modeling how to respond to them. It’s not perfect, but it is worthwhile. We are planting seeds.
Other Applications and Resources
The seeds we plant in Family Bible Time are watered by a lot of other practices and experiences.
We pray together as a family before meals and before bed. We try to remember to include intercession: to pray for neighbors, friends, family members, etc–sometimes on a weekly rotation so we don’t forget (but let’s be honest, we sometimes forget and go for long stretches with just basic bedtime prayers).
We have also made sure to include Bible time for our children to enjoy independently, even from a very early age by listening: Dove Tales (with cassettes–yes, we inherited these from my in-laws), Jesus Story Book Bible (with CDs), and a dramatized audio Bible from Faith Comes by Hearing. Now that our boys are 11 and 9, they are expected to read a chapter of the Bible first thing in the morning before coming downstairs for breakfast. This doesn’t mean it always happens, but that’s the goal and the general habit.
We’ve also enjoyed watching videos by The Bible Project–edifying for parent and child alike.
This emphasis on the Word of God being integrated into all of life means that it also influences our school day–just not in the graded-Bible-curriculum sort of way.
We have enjoyed singing many hymns in our Morning Time (currently singing along with this channel), and we have also enjoyed music by Sovereign Grace Kids (from a Christian seller). Even as adults, when we listen to music with lyrics, we generally choose music that is spiritually edifying. Our kids take this in as well.
The Scriptures inform the other books we choose–and how we read them–whether literature, tales, history, poetry, nature, etc.
The Scriptures make it into our kids’ copy work and dictation, too (that’s language arts).
Keeping It Real
We don’t do all of these things all the time. The most regular parts of our every day life are family Bible time, listening to hymns and other spiritual songs, family prayer, and good discussions on all kinds of things as we go about our days together. And these discussions aren’t just aimed at our kids. My husband and I discuss books, current events, and so many things with each other, seeking to apply God’s Word and His wisdom to everything we encounter. Our kids are audience to these adult conversations, too.
The aim is holistic, not check-list driven. And it is gloriously free from pressure to “get through it” on any kind of annual school schedule (thank God!).
The point of this post isn’t to say we’ve got it down, nor to set any kind of expectation for anyone else. The point is to demonstrate the many ways in which we can spiritually nurture and disciple our children–without boxed curriculum. And to remind all of us (myself included) that we may sow seeds, but the Lord causes the growth. Our dependence upon Him is central to our efforts at training up our children in the ways of the Lord.
All of the things we do have begun as small habits. A little here, a little there. If you are just starting to bring Scripture into your home and homeschool, don’t be discouraged or overwhelmed. Pick one thing. One habit that you and your children can enjoy. Plant a seed. And then another. Water where you can. The Lord causes the growth.
I hope this post has helped to somewhat answer the “What do you use for Bible curriculum?” question. It’s not a short answer, but I hope it may encourage some to think outside that proverbial box … of curriculum. 😉
How do you nurture your children in God’s Word? What resources have you found helpful?
He was a “give it to me straight” kind of guy. 
Kept and Keeping 