"THE GREAT TALES": ST BASIL, THE ILIAD PART 1

Father Andrew Stephen Damick, known from podcasts like The Lord of Spirits with Father Stephen De Young (link), and talks on his YouTube channel (link), has a new podcast. He is running it with filologist Richard Rohlin, well known from his association with Jonathan Pageau on The Symbolic World (link). Both men are Eastern Orthodox Christians. The new blog, called The Great Tales is about "myth, legend, and story telling of history, meaning, identity, and the highest truths about both the seen and unseen world. Both ancient Israel and the Christian Church recorded, preserved, rewrote, commented on, and found edification in the great, epic tales (as well as the lesser ones), whether they originated inside or outside the people of God." Father Andrew Stephen Damick and Richard Rohlin read the great tales together. The podcast goes live every first and every third Thursdays of the month on Ancient Faith Radio (link) and on The Great Tales YouTube channel (link). 

Nov. 7, 2024 The Great Tales: St. Basil and the Pagans [Ep. 1].

The first posting entitled, St. Basil and the Pagans shows how the eminent early Church theologian and bishop St. Basil the Great makes the case that Christians not only can but ought to be reading and interpreting non-Christian literature as beneficial to their life in Christ.

St. Basil says that Moses knew Egyptian pagan lore, while Daniel was versed in Babylonian paganism. But what is the use of that kind of learning for a Christian? And does that approach still work in the 21st century? Father Andrew Stephen and Richard Rohlin explain the matter in the first episode.

 

Nov. 21, 2024 The Great Tales: Sing the Rage (Iliad Introduction Part 1) [Ep. 2].

The Homeric epics are the founding stories of Western Civilization. Romans, French, Britons, Russians, Lithuanians traced their origins back to the Iliad, which medieval Europeans considered the most important part of what they called "The Matter of Rome".

But Homer isn’t an easy read for modern people, as anyone knows who has tried to sit down and read The Iliad the first time.

In the second episode Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick and Richard Rohlin are introducing the poem, its themes and characters, and offer clues to delight and virtue for those keen-spirited enough to listen to the song of the Rage of Achilles.

- More on Christianity, literature, Father Andrew Stephen Damick, Richard Rohlin -