New Humanists

• Sparta Before the Reactionary Turn | Episode XCII

  Send us a textWe think of Sparta as a grim place, more of a military barracks with some civilians attached than an actual city. Its inhumane marriage laws, nauseating eugenics program, brutal educational system, obsession with military training, and paranoid suspicion of non-Spartans all led French historian Henri-Irénée Marrou to label Classical Sparta as an ancient fascist state. But there was a time, as Marrou argues in his history of ancient education, when Sparta was the cultural center of ancient Greek life. Artists and musicians flocked to pre-Classical, archaic Sparta to find a population more appreciative of fine poetry and music than anywhere else in Greece. Jonathan and Ryan turn to the Spartan lyric poets Tyrtaeus and Alcman to investigate what Spartan education and society was like in the archaic period, before the city closed in on itself.Henri-Irénée Marrou's A History of Education in Antiquity: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780299088149Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780199537341New Humanists episode on Homer's Contest: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/13949908-nietzsche-homer-and-cruelty-episode-lviM.L. West's Greek Lyric Poetry: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780199540396Richmond Lattimore's Greek Lyrics: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780226469447New Humanists episode on Benjamin Constant: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/16302266-what-the-modern-world-lost-episode-lxxxThe Anti-Federalist Papers: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780451528841Thomas Babington Macaulay's Horatius: https://englishverse.com/poems/horatiusPlato's Republic: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780465094080New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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• How to Raise an Achilles | Episode XCI

  Send us a textPlato called Homer "the educator of all Greece." But what is a Homeric education? What were the Greeks learning from their supreme bard? Furthermore, the phrase "Homeric education" contains within it a second meaning as well. What kind of education were Homer's heroes getting? In other words, how did Achilles become Achilles? In this episode, we take a close look at Chapter One of A History of Education in Antiquity, in which Henri-Irénée Marrou describes the character of Homeric education, in both its senses, focusing in both cases on "words and deeds," the two fields of excellence every hero must master. Additionally, Jonathan tries to convince Ryan that Iliad Book 9, central to Marrou's explanation of Homeric education, is a story about the triumph of rhetoric.Henri-Irénée Marrou's A History of Education in Antiquity: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780299088149Robin Lane Fox's Homer and His Iliad: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781541600447Robert Drews's Militarism and the Indo-Europeanizing of Europe: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780367886004Caroline Alexander's translation of the Iliad: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780062046291Thomas à Kempis' The Imitation of Christ: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780141191768New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Come read Homer with us. Starting in September, we launch Homer Seminar, a book-by-book sequence of courses reading and discussing Homer's epics, all in Ancient Greek: ancientlanguage.com/homer-seminarLinks may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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• Gamble, Marrou, and the Uses of History | Episode XC

  Send us a textWhy study history? To understand ourselves? To pass on the tradition of our ancestors to our progeny? To build something new? Jonathan and Ryan compare Richard M. Gamble's and Henri-Irénée Marrou's attempts to answer these questions. They look at Gamble's introduction to his anthology The Great Tradition, and then at Marrou's introduction to his scholarly masterpiece A History of Education in Antiquity.Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnOEvelyn Waugh's Scott-King's Modern Europe: https://amzn.to/43GcAvpHenri-Irénée Marrou's A History of Education in Antiquity: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780299088149Eric Hobsbawm's The Invention of Tradition: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781107604674New Humanists episode on Zwingli: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/13263919-only-the-weak-desire-a-quiet-life-episode-liiiNew Humanists episode on Melanchthon: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/13181921-return-of-the-old-gods-in-germany-episode-liiHenri-Irénée Marrou's The Meaning of History: https://amzn.to/4kGYbFrNew Humanists episode on Benjamin Constant: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/16302266-what-the-modern-world-lost-episode-lxxxEdmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France: https://amzn.to/3TlJM5jNew Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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• Philosophy Versus the Liberal Arts | Episode LXXXIX

  Send us a textThe wise man, like Abraham, does not spurn Hagar. For she is merely preparatory to Sarah. This is the analogy that the great Jewish Platonist, Philo of Alexandria, makes when discussing an education in the liberal arts versus the life of philosophy. While the liberal arts have the dignity only of the concubine, Philo says, education in the liberal arts is nevertheless a necessary step before one can ascend the ladder to Sarah, i.e. philosophic contemplation. Jonathan and Ryan discuss selections from Philo's writings on education and philosophy.Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnOACCS Repairing the Ruins Conference 2025: https://classicalchristian.org/repairing-the-ruins/New Humanists episode on Justin Martyr: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/10722142-justin-martyr-s-first-apology-feat-calvin-goligher-episode-xxivNew Humanists episode on Clement of Alexandria: https://newhumanists.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/17146921-christian-gnosticism-episode-lxxxviiiCicero's Pro Archia Poeta: https://amzn.to/4dyxeASAGOGE Symposium: https://www.agogeclassical.org/notes/education-always-political-symposiumNew Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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• Christian Gnosticism? | Episode LXXXVIII

  Send us a textClement of Alexandria was one of the many luminaries of the Catechectical School of Alexandria, one of the early church's most distinguished centers of learning and theology. His argument that all truth, whether found in the Bible or in Greek philosophy, issues from a single source, namely Christ, potentially marks him as one of the earliest exemplars of "Christian humanism." But Clement is not without some controversy, including in his attempt to appropriate the label "gnostic" for himself and bring it into harmony with Christianity. Richard M. Gamble's The Great Tradition: https://amzn.to/3Q4lRnONew Humanists episode Newman on Knowledge for Its Own Sake, feat. Dr. Robert Jackson: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1791279/episodes/11151960Clement's Christ the Educator: https://amzn.to/4jR8B4NClement's Stromateis: https://amzn.to/43rB9MrC.S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780060653200New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

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