Quodlibet
Julian's Shadow
When the emperor Julian the Apostate wanted to attack the Church but not create martyrs because he remembered how the martyrs had been honored, "he enacted a law by which Christians were excluded from the cultivation of literature" lest they "be able the more readily to meet the arguments of the heathen." Thus wrote Socrates (not the philosopher but the church historian) in a.d. 479.
Isn't it sad that so many Christians voluntarily subject themselves to this edict today—with the same result as that intended by their ancient enemy? Study the Trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) as your lifeblood, second only to the Scriptures themselves. Indeed, without them, how will you even read the Scriptures, much less proclaim or defend them? Don't let Julian's evil plan succeed.
Donald T. Williams Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College and the author of Deeper Magic: The Theology Behind the Writings of C. S. Lewis (Square Halo Books, 2016) and Ninety-Five Theses for a New Reformation: A Road Map for Post-Evangelical Christianity (Semper Reformanda Publications, 2021).
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more on history from the online archives
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28.3—May/June 2015
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Things Hidden Since the Beginning of the World
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32.1—January/February 2019
on Down Syndrome & the Lives That Matter by David F. Watson
29.1—Jan/Feb 2016
on Marriage, Moral Corruption & the Christian Duty of Witness by Regis Nicoll
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