Heroes of the City of Man

Heroes of the City of Man

A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

by Peter J. Leithart
Publisher: Canon Press
Trade Paperback, 393 pages
Price: $25.00

In this book, Leithart analyzes some of the grand classics of ancient literature—Theogony, The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, and four prominent Greek dramas from Aeschylus (Eumenides), Sophocles (Oedipus Tyrannus), Euripides (The Bacchae), and Aristophanes (Clouds), commenting on each, section-by-section. He doesn't simply discuss the intricacies of the texts, but goes farther by commenting on each and contrasting their pagan worldview to the biblical worldview. If you fall asleep in your English classes, this book is like drinking ten cups of coffee. Maybe eleven, depending upon your body weight. For high school students and up.

"The most obvious virtue of Leithart's book is its scope. In a single volume he provides a defense for the value of reading classical literature, a methodology for integrating that literature with the Christian faith, and a reader's guide to the works of classical literature that a contemporary reader would most benefit from reading."
—Leland Ryken, Wheaton College

"[A]nyone can read this volume and expect to gain a heightened awareness of the importance of Christian thinking to all of life and the great void that exists in societies that are not undergirded by such thinking."
—Byron Snapp, Calvary Herald

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Summary: Leithart examines several Classical texts in-depth, contrasting their pagan worldview to the Christian alternative.

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