Why Study Pagans?

I had a friend email me today to pick my brain on why a Christian should study people like Shakespeare, Aristotle, or Socrates in depth. She wondered if it wouldn't be better to have less deep of an understanding of these writings and spend the extra time studying Scripture or books that teach us about Scripture. Pages and pages have been written on this topic and I don't pretend to be able to address it adequately (or before bed!), but I thought she (and the rest of you) might enjoy this quote from R.C. Sproul, Jr...

So why bother? The Bible is all wheat, no chaff. Shouldn’t we just teach our children the Bible? We must teach our children the Bible. We must see our calling as parents to teach our children the very oracles of God. We must steep them in that one book which stands above all others, which is sui generis-self generated. Only in this book has God spoken directly, and inerrantly. But as we read our Bible, as we shape ourselves and our children with its wisdom, we discover something confusing. We discover that God sends His rain on the just and the unjust. We discover that all men bear the image of God. We discover that God speaks through His creation. And we discover that the great heroes of the Bible had the courage and knew enough of the cultures around them, to fight them. We find Paul quoting the Greek poets, and John alluding to the Greek philosophers. We find our calling to know to whom we are proclaiming the good news.

I’m not suggesting that we wallow in the muck of contemporary pop culture. This is but the fruit of an older, higher culture, the culture that shines through the great books. We don’t need to be hip to reach the lost. Neither am I suggesting we toss our children into the deep water in the hopes that they will learn to swim. My goal is not that as my children age they will read the great books, but rather that as they age I will teach them to listen in, with their parents and their Bibles beside them, on the great conversation, and respond with the authoritative voice of God. Our goal is not to raise highbrow pagans, but soldiers who not only know their enemies, but know where their weaknesses and strengths lie.

That quote is from Sproul's article "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book?" from the 2001-02 Veritas Press catalog, by the way. (They are a classical publishing house for Christian schools and homeschools.)

I believe that being able to intelligently confront the culture is important if we are to be equipped for the battles we will face in this world for the Lord. Thinking through the ideas in the "Great Books" (often termed the "great conversation") with our children as they mature is key to educating them to respond to the challenges of this world. Someone who has wrestled with the arguments of the centuries, and has clarified their faith under those circumstances, will not be easily swayed and will recognize the age-old arguments against the faith as they recur.

It is also important to point out that all truth (in all branches of learning) is the Lord's, not just that Truth contained in the pages of Scripture. Of course, the Bible contains all we need to know about salvation. It details everything about the history of God's redemption. But God also has given us truth in many other areas of this world -- the natural world speaks of his glory. We need not be afraid of learning ALL the truth God reveals to us or of learning to utilize it to respond to error.

Also, again in response to my friend's question, here's a link to another interesting article from Veritas Press, indentifying the study of Shakespeare to be the next priority after the study of the Bible: http://resources.veritaspress.com/Mar06%20epistula.htm. Very interesting!