Tom became a historian, looking deeply into the accounts and writings of his heroes like Julius Caesar and Leonidas. But he learned enough to discover that their values were not his values. Leonidas supported "murderous eugenics", and Caesar "killed a million Gauls and enslaved a million more."
Tom found that his own values were in sympathy with the God who came to earth to live a sacrificial life to save the people he loved. "In the ancient world, it was the role of gods [to inflict] punishment – not to suffer it themselves." Those gods would not inspire people like the Vanderpools to live sacrificially for others (yesterday's post).
He says that he was wrong about Christianity. "It took me a long time to realise my morals are not Greek or Roman, but thoroughly, and proudly, Christian."
Ditto for most of the West.
image: signum-crusis
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