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Many educated people - though perhaps not enough - know that it was medieval monks who preserved classical culture. Between their daily offices, the monks huddled in their cells by candlelight to copy the great cultural artifacts of Western civilization. But why did they preserve works that had been produced by, and often reflected, the pagan ethos of ancient Rome?
In an essay for the August issue of First Things, professor Rémi Brague answers questions such as: What is culture? How does Christianity sustain, preserve, or facilitate culture? And why did the monks preserve the Roman equivalent of the trashy novel?
Brague, professor emeritus at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, writes:
Virgil could be read as a prophet of sorts because of the long-held misinterpretation of his Fourth Eclogue, and Seneca was believed to have had a correspondence with St. Paul. But why did the monks keep the classical historians, or the bawdy Catullus, or the lewd Ovid, let alone Lucretius, the Epicurean atheist?
The question had been raised in a lecture delivered by Pope Benedict XVI on “The Roots of European Culture.” Brague, who spoke at the Acton Institute's "Reclaiming the West" conference in London, said the reason has to do with the Christians' unique conception of culture - one which he contrasts to ancient Hellenic, Jewish, Roman, or Muslim cultures.
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