It may be because I grew up reading Greco-Roman classics, but this book touched me deeply. At first, I thought it was one of the many books underlining the importance of reading the classics— and this book certainly does this. But it does more. It leads readers into a fresh exploration of the classics from both our modern perspective and the viewpoint of their first readers.

I have not often thought of the influence the Greco-Roman classics had on early Christians. I knew of people like Tertullian, who wondered what Athens had to do with Jerusalem. I was also familiar with Emmelia, mother of Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Macrina, who went against societal norms by keeping her children away from the works of Homer. But even Basil became steeped in the classics when he continued his studies in Athens. These people’s world, Williams tells us, was saturated “with pagan gods in literature, public and private art, coins, and more.”

“The joy in encountering Jesus and learning of his love for all sinful humanity,” Williams continues, “stood out particularly starkly against the cruelty of the pagan worldview that comes through so clearly in the myths. And yet, [the early Christians] too could see hints of truth and spiritual longings for salvation in those myths” (xiv).

Going beyond a simple literary appreciation of the classics, Williams communicates both the questions and challenges experienced by early Christian readers and the comparisons and answers they found in the Scriptures. Ultimately, she demonstrates that Christians have an advantage over pagans in interpreting the classics. Where pagans were left with “hints of truth and spiritual longings,” Christians could point to their fulfillment. To Tertullian’s question, “What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?” she answers: “Athens needs Jerusalem” (250).

A clear example of this is in chapter 7, “Aristophanes and Euripides: Remember the Ladies,” where Williams draws attention to different Greek depictions of women—some positive, some negative, and some raising questions and failing to find answers. Against this world of uncertainty about women’s lives and place in society, Williams quotes Mary’s Magnificat in Luke’s Gospel. Placed at the end of this moving, thought-provoking chapter, Mary’s words assume new nuances.

“Mary, politically powerless in her own society just as these other women were in theirs has something—someone—greater to look to. God’s tenderness and care for her, so unlike the treatment she could expect from her society, move her to this song of joy and gratitude” (99).

The pagan gods were limited and capricious, intervening in human lives according to their unpredictable moods. Christians, instead, made sense of evil by recognizing man’s culpability on one hand and the inalienable justice and love of an unchanging God on the other.

That said, Williams is firm in believing that “Jerusalem needs Athens.” “Jerusalem without Athens,” she says, “is ignorant of the physical and spiritual dangers of this world” (253). Likewise, she shows how the Greco-Roman classics provided models of virtue for Christians throughout the centuries. And I would add, as Williams proves throughout her book, Jerusalem without Athens is ignorant of the physical and spiritual yearnings of non-Christians.

Each of the twenty chapters in this book is equally compelling—each devoted to one or more ancient authors, ending with engaging “questions for discussion and reflection.” It is a book best read slowly and revisited several times.

Williams includes a bibliography but notes that reading the quoted works in their entirety is not required. Not all of them, she notes, may be everyone’s cup of tea. Readers can choose to read this book as it is, with its selected quotations, or as a springboard for deeper studies. Either way, it will be rewarding.

Parents and teachers can also choose to use this book as a teaching resource. It will obviously take some adaptation, but the stories are fascinating for young and older readers alike—including heroes and rogues, poetry and fart jokes, exciting duels, and the patient study of bees. Children will be surprised to learn that the heroes of the Greco-Roman epics are not superheroes relentlessly battling evil. They are also tender fathers, ready to comfort their children. Children (and grown-ups) will learn that their natural impulse of becoming superheroes “can be good and true and beautiful—but only if we direct it to serve the world rather than our own selfish desires and only if we give God the glory” (15).

Overall, letting the early Christians lead us in a fitting evaluation of the classics is a valuable exercise that trains the mind and sharpens critical skills.

“When we look at the world around us as believers,” Williams says, “this changes everything, including how we read fiction and nonfiction from over two thousand years ago. Instead of mocking the sorrow of unlikeable characters, we are moved with compassion for them; instead of decrying injustices as mere affairs of this world, we see them in a cosmic light as part of the fallenness of creation; and instead of idolizing the great powers of the past, we see God’s plans for them together with all nations past, present, and future” (xvi–xvii).

Nadya Williams is both an excellent and enthusiastic writer and a knowledgeable scholar, the author of other masterful works on the early church and the context in which it grew. This book is well organized and easy to read. I especially appreciated the spiral binding, which is very convenient for an 8½˝ x 11˝ book and can withstand frequent handling. The text includes a glossary, a subject index, and an index of quoted works.

In her conclusion, Williams explains that the goal of her book is to help her readers “see the value of these [classical] texts for seeing God” (275). By masterfully highlighting these works’ longings and anticipations of the gospel, Williams has done just that.

© Simonetta Carr. All Rights Reserved.

Nadya Williams, Christians Reading Classics: An Introduction to the Greco-Roman Classics from Homer to Boethius (Zondervan Academic, 2025).

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Post authored by:

• Simonetta Carr

  

  Award-winning author Simonetta Carr was born in Italy and has lived and worked in different cultures. A former elementary school teacher, she has been a homeschooling mother for many years. As a writer, she has contributed to newspapers and magazines around the world and has translated the works of several Christian authors into Italian.

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