Olympia- sanctuary of Zeus, one of the ancient wonders, 6-7th c bc, Panhellenic center to discuss and participate in religious festivals, heras temple before Zeus, perhaps female deities arises before male? With the incoming warrior identity, so comes the male. Gymnasium for preparation. Palaistra sports field for wrestling and boxing. Competition tradition between cities, men, trade. Aristocrats mostly, cities proud to have Olympic champions. Pancration is toughest game without rules, the dead man is champion. Wet area, serious flooding issues, with the decline of paganism, the days of Olympia are over and buried in mud, treasuries, embassies, offices, storage for gifts, hotels, and the stadium: first in the world, where Olympic Games are born, damage with floods and earthquakes, most remains in this country, phydias was the top sculptor of this time, brink of archaic and classical, strong links to Middle East through trade and myth, pelops
Nike of Victory over Death
Church in Olympia
Commercial Agora
Treasury
Temple of Zeus
Augustine sets up a framework in this book where he develops the different philosophies of his time. From Stoicism to Epicureanism, he critiques the philosophies of the day as they deny the necessity of God for happiness and instead decide to put so much faith in material goods to fulfill themselves by pushing for interests politically and socially rather than just spiritually. Investing so much in this world, they are denying themselves the pleasures of the only truth that is found in being a citizen of the only true people, the only true city, the City of God. In the earthly city, Augustine states that true good is the most perfected form of goodness, whereas true evil is the most harmful form of badness. To seek these ends, there are three kinds of life on could lead. The first is leisurely, not in a slothful sense, but for seeking truth, much like a philisopher. The second is actively and concerned with human affairs, much like a politician. And the last is a mix of the two. None of these paths for life are guaranteed lead to true happiness. However, the City of God guarantees a a school of thought and beliefs that will lead to true happiness. In the City of God, eternal life is supreme good, whereas eternal death is supreme evil. It would be not only shortsighted to aim for the final good and evil in your life in God's city as you do in the city of earth but it would also be vain because you were made happy through your own actions rather than His grace. While we search for happiness and truth and perfection and goodness in this life, we will not find it here but in the next everlasting life. Every glimpse of these forms that God gives us while in the city of man is not due to our efforts but is according to His influence. What is in our power to achieve whatever fraction of goodness we can in this life is by overcoming our vanity and recognizing His beauty.
Biblical Heritage (Finish Corinthians)
As Erastos' health worsens, Julia and Camilla put a lot of faith in his material salvation in this life rather than eternally. We saw in Julia's prayer to God earlier in the book that she requests that He makes him better and she has faith that He will do this because God does all things good. To me, this shows how much further Christians have to go in understanding how God saves. He doesn't necessarily have to save him in this sense if his eternal soul is saved in heaven. "The Lord Jesus needed to do something and hurry," says Nicanor, but they put so much faith in miracles and acts. Paul even reinforces this earthly saving as he brings Erastos back to life through his prayer. While this follows the theme of A Week in the Life of Corinth's extremely convenient story line, where everything always falls into place right where it should for these characters, I think it neglects how God usually works in real life. While His miracles are evident, we must not rely on them to be so physical. The first thing I was taught in Sunday School was that God works behind the scenes in so many unimaginable ways that our prayers often do not get answered in the way we imagine. This is not to neglect the power of prayer but to enforce it. Even Nicancor, who is skeptical of Paul's intentions at first- calling him a charlatan who preys on the vulnerable- is stunned when he sees that dramatic effects of a simple prayer. While this helps everyone see Gods power and his interventionist abilities on earth, it seems to me to have some negative side effects on their faith long term. I learned quickly as a child not to pray for tangible earthly things because although God can work in that realm He has more concern for our everlasting salvation than our immediate wants. At the same time, however, perhaps Gods healing of Erastos is indicative of how much work is left to be done by him through his Christian influence in the higher classes of the Roman world.
Another special thing to note is Paul's astonishing ability to heal others, but he never heals his own impediment. This prompts us to ask what kind of messenger of the word is he? He didn't have a domineering or impressive stature to his critics in the synagogues and the agoras. Rather, he had a diminutive character and was not persuasive in speaking- nonetheless, he began using his vocation and overcoming impediment. Socrates has similar weakness.
It is interesting to see that even little Julia can pick up on the importance of a grounded faith "that is real rather than myth" as we see in Nicanor's telling of her bedtime story of Persephone. This is something that many Romans either neglect to recognize or put concern into with their reliance on pagan myths of questionable morality.
An interesting contrast follows as we compare the meal shared at Erastos' house on Sunday's to the feast devoured by Gallio earlier in the book. Rather than leaving the worst food or leftovers for the lesser of the visitors as we saw in the poem that mirrored Gallio's meal, Paul necessitates that everyone, especially the slaves that are late to the meal because of work, wait to eat together to reinforce that he wanted them to be treated as equals, sharing it in common as they drink from the same cup and tear from the same bread.
