WiW: Athens as seen through Jerusalem

Generally, my Week in Words posts include musings on something I’ve read in the past week. They’re often a sort of personal essay based on the theme found within the quotes.

This week, I’m bucking the trend with a little teaser:

“…The West was built on two pillars: Athens and Jerusalem. By Athens I mean classical civilization, the civilization of Greece and pre-Christian Rome. By Jerusalem I mean Judaism and Christianity. Of these two, Jerusalem is more important.

The Athens we know and love is not Athens as it really was, but rather Athens as seen through the eyes of Jerusalem.

~Dinesh D’Souza, What’s So Great About Christianity?

I’d been a week without books since my books were due on the skydiving weekend (and I didn’t have time to BOTH skydive and get library books from Lincoln.)

So I took a trip into Lincoln to take care of a number of errands. I’d already done my necessary shopping, I’d dropped off some stuff for my niece and spent some time with my sister-in-law, I’d visited with my little sister a bit. Now I had only to visit the library before I had to get back into town for Anna’s party at 7.

I’d be cutting it close, I knew, rolling into the library at 4:15 when I had to drive an hour and a half to be back to Columbus in time for the party.

I’ve never done a full-restocking library trip in less than an hour and a half before.

But I was confident that I could do it. I would do it.

I checked my phone for the time and saw that Anna had texted asking what time we intended to get back into Columbus. I told her seven.

“You do realize the party’s at 6?”

She wasn’t kidding. I checked.

I now had fifteen minutes in which to do my library visit.

I ran like a madwoman, picking up adult books while my little sis grabbed the next fifty children’s picture books and 25 CDs for me. I checked out 115 books after a fifteen minute dash through the library.

Needless to say, I didn’t really spend a lot of time learning about what I was checking out. I picked up Dinesh D’Souza’s defense of Christianity against today’s New Atheists because it was available, not because I was particularly interested in it (or even had any idea what was found within.)

Reading the back cover after I got home didn’t grab me either, but I started reading anyway.

The first few chapters, which outlined the New Atheism’s present assault on Christianity, were interesting, but not phenomenal. But this quote, found in chapter 5, has piqued my interest for more.

“The Athens we know and love is not Athens as it really was, but rather Athens as seen through the eyes of Jerusalem.”

What does the real Athens look like? I wonder.

How has Christianity shaped our view of Athens? I want to know.

Tell me more, I beg the author. And I read on.

I’ll have to let you know what I find out–but I wonder, has this piqued your interest too?

Don’t forget to take a look at Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”, where bloggers collect quotes they’ve read throughout the week.