The Roots of Western Civilization: The Ancient World from Gilgamesh to Augustine

Mesopotamia was centered between the Tigress and the Euphrates, and contained both benefits and challenges for the inhabitants. The fruitfulness of the land largely depended on their ability to collaborate with one another for the common good.

In this second lecture we will be discussing Hesiod's Theogony, and the Greek culture that gave Western Civilization the phenomenon of a self-governing city-state--a polis.

In this third lecture, we turn our attention to a little village on Seven Hills which will come to be the imperial ruler of the western world: Rome.

The Israelites influence on Western Civilization is not due to their genius, but rather because they were a people chosen by God to receive and proclaim His Divine Revelation.

As we continue to delve into the heart of Israel, we will take a closer look at some of the Hebrew texts that foretell the coming of the Messiah.

In this lecture we return to the Romans, to the insufficiency of their piety, and to their great epic, the Aeneid.

After having studied various messianic texts and the Greek and Roman epics, we turn now to what everything thus far has been pointing too: the Messiah Himself, Jesus.

For this last lecture, we will look at how Jesus changed the life of one man, St. Augustine of Hippo, by examining his Confessions.