Event Description
Join the Paideia Institute for the second installment of A Conversation on the Future of the Classics, a two-part lecture series on the future of the Classics as a field of academic study and as a Western cultural paradigm. As technology and politics reshape our world in real time, how should we approach the study of antiquity to make sense of the remote past, and the turbulent present? Is it time to deconstruct the culturally segmented study of history in favor of a more catholic humanistic method, or should the cultural legacy of the Greco-Roman world continue to occupy an exceptional status in our academic institutions and civic identity?
In his new book, The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition (Encounter Books, 2025), James Hankins traces the origins and development of Western civilization from classical Greece through Rome and Christendom to the Renaissance, showing how their interwoven traditions laid the foundations of the West’s political and economic dominance in the modern era and the ideas, arts, and institutions that continue to shape our world. Hankins will discuss his methodology and his vision for the future of Classical education in dialogue with Walter Scheidel, whose recent book, What is Ancient History? (Pricenton University Press, 2025) offers a differing view of the study of antiquity.
Hankins' talk follows a lecture by Scheidel presented in a similar format, on Sunday, September 28th at 1:00pm ET.
Abstract
Where do the threads that form the Western tradition originate, and how were they woven together over the two and a half millennia before 1500? What are the sources of our modern ideas about science, freedom, equality, law, good government, and virtue? These are the questions explored in The Golden Thread, Volume I: The Ancient World and Christendom. The story begins with the seminal culture of the classical Greeks and moves through the Hellenization of the east following the conquests of Alexander the Great. Hankins then narrates the rise and dominance of Rome and the fusion of Greco-Roman and Judea-Christian cultures in the Christian empire of the fourth century AD. The volume follows the history of Christendom from the fall of the Western Roman Empire, charts its centuries-long rivalry with the Islamic world, and culminates in the emergence of European civilization in the Middle Age and Renaissance.
Event Info
Oct 02, 2025 at 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM EDT
Online
Guest Speaker
