An Unexpected Journal: The Ancients: Reflections on Ancient Philosophy, Culture, and Influences
About this ebook
From before the time of Christ, pagan philosophers and storytellers have been influencing thought and shaping culture. In this issue dedicated to the ancient philosophers that formed the foundation of Western culture, we examine the way Christian thought was influenced by and engaged with those early writers and how the Jewish Messiah fulfilled the best hopes raised by what C.S. Lewis referred to as the "good dreams of the pagans."
Contributors
C.M. Alvarez: "The Power of the Storyteller: Jesus and Aesop" on the ancient tales that changed the world.
Jesse W. Baker: "Listening to the Past" on the value of the Ancients.
Donald W. Catchings, Jr.: "The Chain-Breaker in Plato's Allegory" on escaping the cave, and an excerpt from the novelette, Strength in Weakness, a retelling of Theseus.
Annie Crawford: "Wisdom Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us: Pagan Dreams of the King of Kings" on Christian virtues and philosopher-kings.
Riz Crescini: "The Imaginative Strategy of Boethius" on the apologetic power of the imagination.
Joshua S. Fullman: "A Galatian Marriage / Nasoni" on pagan morals and aesthetics.
Karise Gililland: "Sede Vacante" on the Fall of Man.
Douglas LeBlanc: "Vengeance is Mine, Saith Everyone" on societal and personal judgment.
Alex Markos: "The Return of the Kings: Comparing the Homecoming of Odysseus and the Two Comings of Christ" on the tension between love and wrath, and "Persephone" on Christian re-imagination.
Louis Markos: "In Defense of Hospitality and Storytelling" on the rules of xenia.
Seth Myers: "Till They Have Faces: Lewis's Psyche Meets the Modern Helen of Troy and Circe" on different perspectives on ancient stories.
Cherish Nelson: "The Nicomachean Ethics and the Enemy Within" on horror, power, and self-control.
Annie Nardone: "Oh Brother: A Bluegrass Odyssey" on ancient morality, values, and spirituality.
Zak Schmoll: "Pius Samwise: Roman Heroism in The Lord of the Rings" on Virgil and Tolkien's chief heroes.
Jason M. Smith: "Worth Reading: The Ancients" with a list of suggestions on where to begin to read the ancient philosophers, and a review of After Humanity by Michael Ward.
Ted Wright: "Drinking from the Well of the Past: A Reflection on the Role of History in Literature & Philosophy for the Modern World" on the function of history.
Iris Zamora: "Ancients of Old," a poem celebrating the thinkers of days gone by.
Fall 2021
Volume 4, Issue 3
280 pages
Cover illustration by Virginia De La Lastra
About the author
Carla Alvarez is a mother to three and a graduate of HBU's Masters in Apologetics program. Her philosophy in both business and apologetics is if what we think affects what we do, then the "how" is just as important as the "what." As actions have a lasting impact, it is of utmost importance to develop right thoughts. She creates effective communications for clients at Legacy Marketing (www.legacymarketingservices.
Jesse W. Baker is a United Methodist pastor in North Carolina. He holds a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School and is (much too slowly) taking classes at Houston Baptist University, pursuing a Master of Arts in Apologetics (cultural track). Traveling with family, reading C.S. Lewis, preaching, and teaching are among his greatest joys in life.
Donald W. Catchings, Jr. is Founder and Board Chair of Street Light Inc. and Pastor of The True Light Church in Conroe, Texas since 2009. Donald regularly contributes to An Unexpected Journal and has published various titles including his most recent release, Strength in Weakness — a Young Adult reimagining of the Theseus Myth.
Annie Crawford lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and three teenage daughters. She currently homeschools, teaches humanities courses, and serves on the Faith & Culture team at Christ Church Anglican while working to complete a Masters of Apologetics at Houston Baptist University.
Riz is a freelance writer, photographer, and adjunct university lecturer. He once mistook wasabi for matcha ice cream. Having lived in Japan for 20 years, Riz no longer makes this mistake. He is happily married, has 3 children, and one skittish cat.
Joshua S. Fullman is Professor of English at Faulkner University, where he also teaches in the Great Books Honors undergraduate and graduate programs. He is also Director of the Institute of Faith and the Academy, a university initiative to promote faith-learning integration.
Karise Gililland has a BA in English from Southern Methodist University and a Masters in Imaginative and Cultural Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. She consumes copious amounts of time (and coffee!) shuttling her teenagers to and fro, rescuing her cats from impending peril, and writing for An Unexpected Journal. She currently teaches the most amazing third graders at a classical Christian school in Fort Worth.
Alex Markos teaches Latin at the Geneva School of Boerne, Texas. He holds a B.A. in History and Classics from Hope College (Holland, MI) and an M.A. in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Baptist University.
Douglas LeBlanc is a high school humanities educator and choir director. He is also a PhD student in Humanities at Faulkner University. His research interests include Classical Christian education and language arts pedagogy. He has been published by The Imaginative Conservative, Catholic Journal, and others.
Louis Markos, Professor in English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University, holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities; he is the author of 22 books, including The Myth Made Fact: Reading Greek and Roman Mythology through Christian Eyes, From Achilles to Christ: Why Christians Should Read the Pagan Classics, Literature: A Student’s Guide, and three Canon Press Worldview Guides to the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid.
Seth Myers completed his MA in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Baptist University in 2017. As a power systems engineer, he has been involved with transformer diagnostics and rural electrification projects by partnering with NGOs in West Africa. A volunteer with international students through local churches, he enjoys conversations with friends from all cultures. He considers himself rich in friendships across time and space, including but not limited to C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Bede the Venerable, Augustine, Ravi Zacharias & friends, and many student friends (chess-playing when possible, but not required) typically from throughout Asia. He has recently begun taking online courses in Faulkner University’s Doctor of Humanities program.
Annie Nardone is a two-year C.S. Lewis Institute Fellow with a Master of Arts degree in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. She has homeschooled her three kids for twenty-five years and taught art and humanities at her local co-op. Her heart is for Rohan, Narnia, and Hogwarts, far fairer lands than this. Annie contributes and edits for An Unexpected Journal at www.anunexpectedjournal.com. She publishes online at www.literarylife.org, www.theperennialgen.com, and most recently began writing for the online magazine Cultivating at www.thecultivatingproject.com. She also wrote an historical cookbook for Bright Ideas Press. She can be contacted at: the.annie.nardone@gmail.com.
Cherish Nelson is an Adjunct Professor of Humanities and the Director of Youth Ministries in the United Methodist Church. She has a B.A. in English from Olivet Nazarene University and a M.A. in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University, where she specialized in Cultural Apologetics. Cherish also creates and shares apologetics curriculum for youth groups. Her apologetic interests include the historicity of the resurrection, the problem of evil, and imaginative apologetics.
Zachary D. Schmoll earned his Ph.D. in Humanities at Faulkner University and his M.A. in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. He serves as the Managing Editor of An Unexpected Journal, a quarterly publication of cultural and imaginative apologetics. His academic work has been published in Christianity & Literature, Mythlore, Cistercian Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Faith and the Academy, and Fourth World Journal. His essays have also been featured at Public Discourse, Front Porch Republic, and The Federalist.
Jason Smith serves on the board of An Unexpected Journal and as senior editor for acquisitions and development at Wootton Major Publishing. In his spare time, he works a day job as a technical writer and marketing strategist for a medical device engineering firm, where he writes about fun things like FDA regulations and embedded cybersecurity. He is the pseudonymous author of the much-loved young adult fantasy series Fayborn and reviews every book he reads at www.goodreads.com/mrwootton.
After retiring from a ballet career, Jacqueline Wilson became an assistant pre-school teacher and bachelor student of English Literature at Houston Community College. At Houston Community College she was nominated “Student of the Year” and received the creative writing “Voices Without Boarders” award. Upon graduating from HCC, Jacqueline continued her studies in English Literature at the University of Houston-Downtown, where she received first place in an essay contest for her writing on George Herbert’s “Easter Wings” and graduated Magna Cum Laude. While working on her bachelor’s degree in English Literature Jacqueline frequently guest wrote for Red Letter News Blogs and created a blog of her own titled, Beneath the Dogwood Tree. She has recently been accepted in Houston Baptist’s University’s Cultural Apologetics program and is excited to begin classes in Spring 2022. She is currently working on receiving her teaching certification with Texas Teachers of Tomorrow and hopes to one day teach middle school or high school English.
Ted is independent scholar, writer, and founder of EpicArchaeology.org. For over a
decade, Ted has been a speaker on Christian apologetics as well as Biblical Archaeology across North America & internationally. In addition to public speaking, Ted was the former Executive and Teaching Director of CrossExamined.org. Ted has also appeared on numerous television and radio programs including the History Channel’s TV miniseries – “Mankind: The Story of All of Us,” as well as CNN’s documentary on the historical resurrection of Jesus, “Jesus: Faith. Fact. Forgery.” Ted has also served as adjunct professor of apologetics at Southern Evangelical Seminary as well as Charlotte Christian College and Theological Seminary, where he has taught for over a decade.
Iris Zamora is from a small town in deep south Texas called Mission where she has been an AP World History teacher for eleven years. She is a current graduate student in the Master of Apologetics program at Houston Baptist University. She is blessed to be a mother to a beautiful and adventurous daughter and herself a daughter to wonderful and loving parents who have always done their best to show her the way of God. She is sister to a brother that is her best friend and guardian angel. She has been a parishioner of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church for over 30 years.
