New Book Release:
The Gospel According to Hermes:
Intimations of Christianity in Greek Myth, Poetry
and Philosophy
by Ron S. Dart and Bradley Jersak
with Simon Oliver, Wm. Paul Young,
and Abp. Lazar Puhalo
AVAILABLE NOW!
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Description
Tertullian famously asked, “What hath Athens to do with Jerusalem?”
Perhaps the title of this work will raise the question, “What hath Hermes to do with Christ?”
Quite a lot, as it turns out, by way of comparison, contrast, illustration, and prefigurement. Hermes, herein, represents far more than a particular figure in Greek mythology. Hermes functions as a placeholder, symbolizing the legacy of ancient Greek myth, poetry, and philosophy—and also the layered hermeneutics that classical Greek education contributed to both Jewish and Christian interpretations of the Scriptures, and the development of their theology, doctrine, and ethics.
Despite the unfortunate but popular assumption of a Jewish-Greek dualism among many scholars since Adolf von Harnack, the stubborn and happy fact is that the New Testament itself already demonstrates a profound integration of the Hellenized Judaism established in Alexandria. The first Christian theologians were not contaminating some imaginary pure Jewish Christianity with Greek accretions. Rather, our authors will propose and demonstrate the confluence of both great streams in the development of the New Testament Scriptures, patristic theology, and hermeneutics.
This collection of essays is but a faint echo of Simone Weil’s formidable work, Intimations of Christianity Among the Ancient Greeks, and is certainly inspired by her insights.
Table of Contents
Preface: Bradley Jersak, “What hath Hermes to do with Christ?” / 7
FROM HERMES TO PLATO
1. Bradley Jersak, “Pushing Back: Greek Thinking vs. Jewish Thinking is a Dualistic Error” / 11
2. Simon Oliver, “The Role of Plato in the Development of Christian Theology” / 25
FROM HERMES TO JOHN
3. Bradley Jersak, “Descensus: Hermes, Hades, and Christ” / 33
4. Ron Dart, “Water to Wine, Johannine Hermeneutics, and the Alexandrian Tradition” (part 1) / 51
5. Ron Dart, “Water to Wine, Johannine Hermeneutics, and the Alexandrian Tradition” (part 2) / 63
6. Wm. Paul Young, “Fish Pi: Gospel of John (21) and Archimedes” (153)” / 75
FROM HERMES TO THE PATRISTICS
7. Ron Dart, “Heraclitus, Aeschylus, and the Jewish Zeus” / 85
8. Ron Dart, “Augustine, the Inklings, Myth, and Hermes the Trickster” / 93
9. Ron Dart, “Homerian Epic, Patristic Christian Tradition and Spiritual Formation” / 99
10. Lazar Puhalo, “Nous: The Concord of Gnosis, Theoria, and Theosis” / 109
FROM HERMES TO THE 20th CENTURY
11. Ron Dart, “C.S. Lewis and Hermes: Greek Myth and Till We Have Faces” / 119
12. Ron Dart, “Thomas Merton’s The Behavior of Titans – Sixty Year Review” / 127
13. Ron Dart, “Owls, Hegel, Castalians, Classical Myths, and T.S. Eliot” / 134
14. Bradley Jersak, “Pythagoras, Plato, and Christ: A Cruciform Cosmology of Consent” / 141
BEYOND HERMES
15. Ron Dart, “Servant Leadership in the Public Square: Four Markings” / 167
Authors / 172
