LOGIA .lIAR 0 2 1999 A JOURNAL OF LUTHERAN THEOLOGY EPIPHANY 1999 VOLUME VIII, NUMBER 1 CONTENTS CORRESPONDENCE ............................................................... · ..... · .................... " ... · ........................ ~Brd;M.:; ................ 3 '}',-, ARTICLES . ' .\:., ~~i;' Preparingfor the Future (Without Succumbing to a Theology of Glory) .·· .. ··· .... ·· .... ·· .. ······· .. ··ilt;/.1····· 7 ",W;:s:/' By David R. Liefeld .................................................................................................................. , ... Gambling: Scriptural Principles , ;~;~~ By Glen Zweck .................................................................................................................................... . Melanchthon's Use of Augustine in Apology Article IV By Albert B. Collver III ........................................................................................................................................ :., ........................ 2~ Theolagkal Literacy and Lutheran Education By Erik Peder Ankerberg ............................................................... , ............................................................... '" ...... .... .................... 33 A Lutheran. Goes to Rome ' . ~ __ .".".~~ .. By John Nordling ................................................... : ......................................................................................................................... 39 COLLOQUIUM FRATRUM ................................................................................................................................................ 45 RolfPteus: A Response to Jonathan Lange Response by Jonathan Lange REVIEWS ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 49 REVIEW EsSAY: Herman Sasse: A Man for Our Times? Edited by John R. Stephenson and Thomas W. Winger Renaissance and Reformation. By Eric Voegelin. Edited by David L. Morse and William M. Thompson After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. By Miroslav Volf Come to the Feast: The Original and TI-anslatedHymns of Martin H Franzmann. Edited by Robin A. Leaver Make Disciples, Baptizing: God's Gift of New Life and Christian Witness. By Robert Kolb How the Bible Came to Be. By John Barton Postmodernizing the Faith. By Millard J. Erickson The Lutheran Confessions on CD ROM ,"/ Perpetua's Passion: The Death and Memory of a YOung Roman Woman. By Joyce E. Salisbury BRIEFLY NOTED LOGIA FORUM .............................................................................................................................................................................. 61 The Lutheran Church's Mission • Is Nothing Sacred? • Too Roman Catholic Drill and Kill? • Evil Pietism • Catechesis: Study or Prayer? Using the Liturgy • The Twisted Cross • Adjusted Gospel, Adjusted Christ Luther on Genesis 3:12 • From Reality to an Idea • Unworthy to the Altar Small Errors • Missouri: Not Just a State • What the African Bishops Can Teach Bishop Spong ALSO THIS ISSUE Baptism Hymn by Chad L. Bird .................................................................................................................................................... 20 Inklings by Jim Wilson .................................................................................................................................................................... 43 A Call for Manuscripts .................................................................................................................................................................... 44 A Lutheran Goes to Rome JOHN NORDLING ----------------------------~---------------------------- Jl ESTIVA ROMAE LATINITAS (SUMMER LATIN in Rome) is not or scribe who finally encounters Rome for the first time. How will any kind of "crash course or rushed Latin nightmare;' said my direct encounter with "the city" (as the ancients designated the program brochure, but rather a "complete and direct, Rome in antiquity, simply urbs) compare to the image of Rome in concrete and gradual experience of the entire Latin language itself my mind, shaped by Latin texts for many years? The writings of ... covering the past 2200 years." It has been held in Rome for Augustine, Jerome, Aquinas, Luther, Gibbon, et multi alii record eight weeks every summer since 1985, and I went abroad to expe- such Rome encounters, and I had envisioned a similar process of rience Latin in the manner described from June 4 to July 16, 1997. discovery for mysel£ As a Latin professor who had never been to Rome before, I was in Thus I spent the first few days of my pilgrimage sleeping off je£- need of a cultural, encO\illter with the lands and peoples about lag, seeing the touristy things Father Reginald would likely not which I teach. ' want to spend time on later, and walking just about everywhere There were other ways of getting to Italy for summer study, of to orient myself ~o this impossibly huge, crowded, and over- course: NEH grant possibilities, an archaeological siteexpe~"~ -whelming... city: In' those first few days I saw the Colosseum, in Rome and Naples, an arrangement with the American Acad-Campidoglio, Piazza Venezia, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish emy in Rome. But each of these had application requirements or Steps, Castel Sant' Angelo, and the church of Santa Maria degli stipulations that, I felt, were less than ideal for me at present. A Angell. I had seen none of it before and could not risk missing former Latin professor of mine had attended SUllliller Latin in any of these places due to obligations imposed later by the Latin Rome several years ago and raved about it. It was an opportunity instruction. Rome struck me 'as a typiqil modern city such as to study the Latin language itself on location, in the heart of the exists al~o in America (Chicago, for example)-wiJll the impQr- ancient empire. The man who had organized Summer Latin was tant difference that there is in Rome a curious symbiosis between Father Reginald T. Foster, raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in a things ancient and modern. One can expect at any moment to typically American Catholic home. By a set of curiously inter- turn a corner and find crumbling Servian W.ws (378 B.C.), locked circumstances, however, young Reginald had come to excel columns of a temple built right into a modern subs,~ructure, Latin in Latin at precisely the same time as the Catholic Church was inscriptions above anyone of the open f<1un~ains flowing free as reducing Latin's significance in the mass and in the academic cur- in the ancient manner (there are few "dririking fountains" in riculum. Now he serves in the Vatican as the head of a small col- Rome), a Catholic priest hurrying off to )1lass 9.1;.,to hear confes- lege of churchly Latinists who convene each day to translate papa! sion. I enjoyed transcribing Latin inscriptions into a notebook documents into a Latin prose that rivals that of Cicero. Thus, in kept for that purpose. Latin writing is ev:erywh~~e, even on the addition to the intensive Latin encounter six days per week, seven most modern of buildings. By copying these contrived texts, an,di hours per day, participants could also tour the monuments of trying (not always successfully) to decipher their subtle meaning~; , Rome, Latin texts in hand. My heart was set: I had to go. Actually I preserved them for future students and prepared myself for the purchasing a round-trip ticket to Rome gave point to my last- eventual encounter with Father Reginald. minute requests for more money and helped my wife, Sara, and That meeting occurred on June 9, in front of the Basilica San me to plan our summer, six weeks of which would be spent apart Pancrazio, located on the Janiculan Hill of Rome. A group of from each other. The day of departure came, and off I flew. perhaps forty-five people surrounded a stout, red-complected THE FIRST FEW DAYS = DE PRIMIS DIEBUS I came to Rome five days before Summer Latin began so that I could experience Rome on my own terms. One commonplace of ancient and medieval biography is that of tlle wandering pilgrim JOHN NORDLING teaches Latin at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana. An ealier form of this essay appeared in The Cresset 61, no. 1 (Reformation 1997): 15-19· 39 man whose blue eyes glowed piercingly from deep within a bald- ing skull. Instead of priestly garb he wore denim dungarees and a long-sleeved work shirt buttoned all the way up, so that he seemed to exude sweat from every pore in the blazing sun. This was Father Reginald := Ecce! Pater Reginaldus est. As I walked up and joined the group, Father Reginald was engaged in a fre- quently self-interrupted roll call, enjoying old friends and mak- ing new while checking the names of newcomers against a mas- ter list. Fortunately, said he, the Latin proof-sheets submitted 40 months ago had already "scared off and eliminated" some par- ticipants (nervous twittering at this); then too, of the ninety to one hundred applicants from throughout the world who had expressed an interest lately, it was only to be expected that half or fewer would actually commit themselves to studying Latin in Rome for several weeks during the hot summer. So perhaps there might be room for us after all. In a few minutes we would cross the street and "begin immediately . .. [glimpsing] the whole Latin language, in active and passive exercises and fun, from the first hour" (final letter to participants, April 1997). And that is exactly what happened. DAILY INSTRUCTION = DE INSTITUTIONE COTTIDIANA The hours of Latin instruction were to take place in a children's school run by the Sisters of the Divine Love, a teaching order located in Italy and Peru. All forty to sixty people who might comprise the Latin group at anyone time (participants, sweet- hearts, occasional parents, friends from previous years, and curi- ous hangers-on) would convene in the school's auditorium, seated at desks and tables sized to elementary school-aged chil- dren. It was hot in there, and noisy, but Reginald thought street noises and children screeching outside honed the ear to listen more carefully to instructions spoken in both Latin and Eng- lish-rather the way children were taught the Latin language long ago, right off some busy thoroughfare. Instruction for the Iuniores ("Junior Latinists") would begin each day at hora secunda post meridiem (2 P.M.), Father Reginald explained, and would extend until 3:30 P.M., at which time there would be an interval- lum of perhaps thirty minutes. At 4 P.M. instruction began for mixed Juniors and Seniors, and at 6 P.M., for the Seniores. Of course, participants were free to attend any or all of the sessions they desired, regardless of ability, but teaching would be adjusted to the two levels identified. For those who could not get enough at the regular sessions, there was the more informal setting known as sub arboribus ("Under the Trees") where, from 8 P.M. to dark, the really hard-core Latinists could gather around a jug of wine, randomly chosen texts, and spoken Latin fellowship as the sun sank upon the darkening hills. What is needed now are teachers who courageously dare to have students read, speak, and even t~ink living Latin thoughts. LOGIA period of church history (Vulgate, hagiographies, papal pro- nouncements, chanted canticles, medical texts, epitaphs, abecedaria, and more). Fifty-four sheets in toto had been pre- pared, each sheet twice the size of a legal pad, and completely cov- ered with fine Latin script on one side. "Lest we run out:' Father Reginald said. "And there's a lot more where that came from!" Such a vast collage seemed to suggest that there is much more Latin in the world than anyone person can possibly read, even in a lifetime so completely devoted to Latinity as Father Reginald's has been. Yet Latinists ought to become aware of this abundance because it will all be so excellent, superb, brilliant, and worth- while for our students (evaluations proffered by Reginald, no matter the text). What has hurt the study of Latin everywhere is the emergence within Latin literature of so-called classic texts that all readers of the language are expected to "master." This has lead to an unfortunate emphasis upon the rote memorization of stan- dard forms for their own sake, boring vocabulary and grammar shoved at students for many years, so that perhaps eventually one may slog through the same hackneyed passages of Virgil's Aeneid or Caesar as one's own pitiable ancestors did. What is needed now in the successful teaching of the language, fulminated Father on more than one occasion, are teachers who courageously dare to have students read, speak, and even think living Latin thoughts from day one! Put the "standard texts" away and pull out some- thing else (there's so much from which to choose!). Allow your students to see that Latin has had many forms and colors and tex- tures, like music resounding down through the ages. So if they are having trouble with Bach and Haydn (c£ Cicero and Caesar), let them indulge in the language's other styles and textures and rhythms. They'll like this approach and teach themselves the forms and grammar with which we used to punish them. Get out of the way, 0 stodgy Latin professor, and trust that the Latin lan- guage itself will motivate, heal, convert, and inspire your diverse ii. students just as it always has, long before you came along! Know !: what texts to use and how to present them, but allow your stu- 1, dents to rise to the high level Latin requires. They will rise, you r know; they have to. Trust me in this: Credite id mihi! ): Frequent tirades along these lines were intended-obvi- r ously-for the Latin teachers of our group, and Reginald's whole Ii attitude implied that if you weren't teaching Latin yet you soon t would be; it was thus the sacred duty of each of us to export (i Latinitas to the four corners of the world, like triumphing legion- t' 1:' naires in Caesar's army. Quite a few of the participants were in r: fact high school or college teachers, graduate students seeking to r internalize the language, and undergraduates from throughout Ii:, the United States who contemplated a career in classics. But not L everyone fit this profile. Several more were Roman Catholic i! parish priests, monks, seminarians-in-training, and area students f attracted to Summer Latin from the Gregorian University in ~ Rome (Reginald teaches there during the academic year). One fi, No textbook existed for any of the sessions. Each time he was a Supreme Court Justice from Sydney, Australia, and four or I;: teaches a Latin course, Father Reginald ransacks monastic libraries five hailed from the great universities of England. About the same [. and archives to bring together a great chorus of Latin texts and number of Germans attended, striving to add English as much as I:; authors from throughout the ages. It would be tedious to list them Latin to their arsenal of active languages. r all, but for our reading pleasure he had assembled a few rarely read A young Russian named Igor knew at least five modern lan- 9: "classical" texts (for example, Cicero letters, Lucan, Publius Syrus, guages fluently: En~lish, .Russian, French,. German, I~alian. li,:i ... pI.au.tu.s)., .an.d.a.lo.t.m.o.re.eC.C.les.i.as.ti.cal.L.a.tin.texts •• fr.om •• ev.e.ry •• Al.th.O.U.gh.h.e.lO.O.k.ed.lik.e.M.lC.k ::::.:J A LUTHERAN GOES TO ROME occasionally as a musician in a rock band, Igor was preparing to take monastic vows and needed Latin to Wlderstand the divine liturgy. Igor thought that the mass should always be conducted in Latin, no matter where public Christian w(;>rship may occur on earth. Always trying to understand the mysteries of the mass, to get a lot out of the service, to like the sermon are annoying Protes- tant intrusions that should be recognized as such and so expunged. If worshipers need to understand, let us prepare a ver- nacular translation of the mass and place it in a parallel column beside the superior Latin vocables, averred Igor during one infor- mal discussion outside of class. The beauty and the majesty of the mass will sustain the worshipers, elevating them from petty con- temporaneousness to worship that is timeless, holy, and eternal. During that same discussion Father Reginald told the idealistic Igor not only that he disagreed with such views himself, but that Igor was crazy for holding them: amentissimus est ("You are quite out of your mind!"). Father Reginald enjoyed locking horns with people on any subject, tossing his own flamboyant ideas into some mix without taking himself or an antagonist too seriously. Only Latin mattered, and this for its own sake; all other opinions, convictions, and even heresies could be tolerated, provided only 41 Latinist, could get to Italy on one's own, and feed and house one- self somewhere in modern Rome, there was no charge for the Latin instruction itself-although "free and totally anonymous contributions" to the purse were certainly acceptable (program brochure). Two sets of worksheets were prepared each week, and meticulously corrected, but there were no grades assigned as such, and absolutely no academic "credit" given for the class ("damnable obstacles" to the cause of true learning, huffed Regi- nald when asked about this once). So the course was somewhat open-ended and could be adapted to the changing interests and abilities of those who participate each summer. Texts were not to be studied before- hand but approached spontaneously, as if for the first time. that they contribute positively to the learning environment. Te:lI.is Th<;> schedule suggested that there should be six days of Latin were not to be studied beforehand (as in most LatirfaaS'SIOb1TIS')---·jnstruction to one day of travel. Early Sunday morning was but approached spontaneously, as if for the first time. Reginald Father Reginaid's preferred time for gathering the group at one of would help with the problem areas, but he was far more inter- Rome's train stations and then leading us off on an excursion of ested in our coming to terms with the fine points of a Latin pas- either full- or half-day duration to some famous locale. Although sage, or appreciating a style, than simply deciphering broadly these trips constituted a refreshing change from the regular rou- what it meant. Any text provided an opportunity to Wlderstand tine, they were not a vacation from the Latin enterprise. Far from the Latin language inside and out. Therefore, actually say, in it. Each trip was "scripted" (iter litteratum), meaning that archae- Latin, the passive of that active form, the plural of that singular. ological site plans, relevant pictures, and pages of pertinent Latin How might that verb sOWld in the subjUJlctive mood? in the verbiage had been compiled beforehand into neat little booklets indicative? What would it look like in the infinitive, future active for every tour. To the casual eye we resembled just one more participle, gerWldive, supine? If given this English sentence ("He tourist group to accost the monuments of Italy. But our guide was loved the Latin language the older he became"), Latinize it now different: a Latin instructor who used the very ruins of Roman and do so correctly! After the shock of such confrontation before antiquity to elucidate Latin texts we held in hand. This method of fifty pairs of staring eyes, the mind would kick in and Latin would teaching Latin had an impact even upon complete strangers who come welling forth from deep inside: Latinam eo magis amabat happened also tV'be on site. Tourists craned to listen. Museum linguam, quo senior fit. "Good!" Father Reginald would beam. curators and archaeological site directors paused in their work to "You can't go any further in Latin than that!" It was supremely say hello, for most of them knew or had heard of the fa~O'·iJ.s gratifying to survive a Father Reginald barrage with some trace of Father Reginald. Even children came rWlning to listen to ;fuis dignity intact by providing correct, rapid-fire answers to each one man who could prattle on and on in lingua Latina. of his questions. But those who put on airs of Latin superiority Under such guidance I was privileged to visit Roman Ostia, could be humbled, quickly. He knew each Latinist's name and Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli, the probable place of Caesar's murder, breaking point by the end of the first week, encouraging the Rocca Secca, Formiae, and Fossa Nova (the last three associated weak, challenging the strong, ignoring no one. Our collective goal with St. Thomas Aquinas), Alba Longa, and the Capitoline Hill of was to become "the best Latinists in all the world" == ut fiatis Rome. At Ostia we sat amid the weedy ruins of the inn where optimi discipuli Latini omni in mundo. Daily progress was made Monica, st. Augustine's mother, died, and read the full accoWlt of to this end. her death in Confessions 9. Looking up, I was startled to see sev- TRIPS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES == DE ITINERIBUS ALIISQ UE ACTIS Such Latin feats exacted a toll from people, not least from Father Reginald himself. As he constantly reminded us, he had been teaching the Latin course these many summers not for his own benefit, but for ours, and for the sake of the glorious Latin language itself, which he hoped would last in saecula saeculorum ("forever and ever"). Provided that one was a properly prepared eral of my colleagues weeping quietly at the beauty and humanity of the piece. We concluded the Caesar tour beneath a massive bronze statue of Julius Caesar overlooking the Forum, right hand raised in the posture of adlocutio ("address"). Chaplets had already been set adoringly at Caesar's feet by modern Romans, so we added a burning votive candle and toasted Caesar's ghost with fine red Falernian. Our tour of the abbey at Fossa Nova where St. Thomas Aquinas died in 1274 was capped by a hearty banquet of pasta, vegetables, cheese, stone-baked pizza, and gelato. Then the I. ! 42 trip home on one of Italy's ultra-modern electric trains. All the fleeting impressions and experiences cannot now be described, although I did thankfully write some of it down in the same red notebook that contained my transcriptions. Many of the undergraduate Latin- ists had never engaged "a real Lutheran" before. Another dimension of Rome that Summer Latin revealed to me with clarity was the Roman Catholicism of the place. Rome continues to draw millions of pilgrims from throughout the world. Monks and nuns, many resplendent in bright robes and habits, flock regularly to the city to keep in touch with monastic superiors, consult the Vatican archives, fulfill some spiritual quest Most of the Latinists in my immediate group were devoutly Roman Catholic, and I came quickly to realize that I was the only Lutheran of the bunch. So I became something of a sounding board for the Lutheran faith. Many of the undergraduate Latinists had never engaged "a real Lutheran" before, and some came to me with specific questions. Such learning is always a two-way street, of course. So I'd ask members of our group about specific items in the ecclesiastical texts we were reading, or about rituals of the daily office I had observed in churches throughout the city. One evening after supper I witnessed a spirited discussion among my Catholic friends as to whether the (traditional) Tridentine Mass, or the (more innovative) novus ordo, is best suited for the church at this time. (A similar debate rages in Lutheranism between Church Growth proponents and liturgical purists.) Father Reginald realized that, in my case, a "Lutheran minis- ter" had been admitted into his fold of mostly Catholic sheep. For the most part I comported myself appropriately, although I could not keep from wincing visibly at the works-righteousness evident in a series of sermons prepared by Pope Leo the Great to inspire the faithful to generous almsgiving: "by your offering God will liberate the poor man from his toil, and you from the multitude of your sins" (Tractatus 6.11). There is an accent here which many Lutherans would find disconcerting, as though one's forgiveness before God depends on almsgiving. But sound Christian teaching properly elevates Christ, for "He is the propitiation for our sins" (1 In 2.2). Lutherans have always stressed that alms and service really "good" in God's sight proceed after coming to a joyful faith in Christ, never before-as though one could earn or merit favor in God's sight on one's own, apart from Christ (Ap IV, 81, 165). The good works proceeding from Christ -centered faith do, to a point, "liberate the poor man from his toil," as Leo says, and may even exert a salubrious effect upon the structures of this world. But moral and social improvements are always secondary, incom- plete, and provisional-even among Christians, who remain sin- ners until the end (LC II, 57-58). Only Christ remains forever. Of course, Christ's people accomplish good works in the world, but these remain largely hidden from outward discernment and are LOGIA holy in God's sight only by virtue of a faith that clings to Christ alone (Ap IV, 189-191). This is the type of theological reaction a Pope Leo sermon on almsgiving might provoke from many pris- tine Lutherans such as myself. Reginald noticed my discomfiture and asked if it was a case of Lutherans not paying alms for theological reasons, or perhaps they were just plain greedy! This had a pleasantly explosive impact upon the group. He was jerking my chain to complete a synapse between the scruple of a modern Lutheran and the glori- ous Latin of an earlier pope who had produced a piece well worth reading, matters of doctrine aside. Father Reginald avoided "pointless theological argument" (as he called it), yet was con- stantly on the prowl for those Latin texts that he knew would stir individual members of our group. So for my benefit we read a superb Luther-Erasmus exchange. Another Latin-Astronomy major from Harvard insisted that we read a portion of the Sydereus Nuncius in which Galileo excitedly describes his discov- ery of the perspicillum ("telescope"). Still another college student recited perfectly from memory a large chunk (one legal-sized page, very small script) of Laurentius Valla's In Sex Libras Elegan- tiarum Praefatio. Marvels of memory and other feats of Latin vir- tuosity were not uncommon in a group so completely devoted to the one enterprise. Several of the participants were resolved to converse only in Latin during class, at meals, or on a trip, and I myself delivered a twenty minute oration de Latinam docendo lin- guam ad Universitatem Valparaisiensem ("About Teaching the Latin language at Valparaiso University"). This talk by "the Lutheran boy" (puer Lutheranus) was enthusiastically received by an overflow crowd in the auditorium, but other colleagues spoke with equal Latin facility on other themes too. THE FINAL DAYS AND RETURN HOME = DE DIEBUS ULTIMIS ET DOMUM REDITU My time in Rome was over almost as quickly·as it had begun. Time passed rapidly because every available moment was spent to the full on Latin endeavors. I missed Sara, and wrote fifteen post- cards home to her. (She could not write back because, when she finally learned my Rome address, it was almost time for me to leave. Mail from the U.S. to Italy requires at least two weeks.) I departed Rome two weeks early in order to attend a family wed- ding in Wisconsin, so spent my final days in Italy on places not yet seen or on others requiring more attention: St. Paul's outside- the-walls, Appian Way, Museum of Roman Civilization, Circus Maximus, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museum. One cannot see it all. Indeed, it is exhausting even to try. Four days before departure I was pickpocketed late one evening aboard Bus 64. It is especially this bus that conveys first-tinle pilgrims from Termini Station to St. Peter's Basilica; on it wolves often fleece the unsuspecting lambs. Thus was I obliged to spend several prime hours of time at the end finding the Divi- sione Stranieri (''Aliens Department"), and there filed a police report. On my final day Father Reginald insisted that I be the last to translate a bit of De Apostolatu Maritimo, a papal encyclical Regi- nald and his associates had Latinized earlier in 1997. The para- graph describes how even sailors, far out at sea, can "earn a full indulgence" (indulgential11 plenariarri JIA.cra!i) by attending to A LUTHERAN GOES TO ROME various disciplines a pope may impose. This was Father Regi- nald's way, I think, of saying goodbye to the lone Lutheran Latin- ist. Friends of the summer crowded around to wish me well: Vale! Fac ut valeas! Then the flight home and preparations to teach my own Latin students at Valparaiso University. This is a holy undertaking, and important at a university sub cruce ("under the cross"), as Valparaiso claims to be. The chapel is not St. Peter's Basilica, nor is Valparaiso Rome, but pilgrims and scholars are drawn here too, and the glories of Latin literature need to be taught well on this campus for serious minds to pon- der and engage. So goes the argument for inner truth, beauty, humanity, which one hopes will continue to be part of any education worthy of the name. 43 literature that has mattered deeply to western peoples over the past 2,200 years. Of course, one can read much of this literature in translation! Yet such literature loses much in translation, to repeat that tired cliche. What is lost is not merely the technical skill of translation, the mental rigor of engaging Cicero in his own language, to cite but one author-but also the ability to see the world from the perspective of the ages, sub specie aeternitatis ("under the gaze of eternity"). It is a curious fact that most of what mattered to Cicero thousands of years ago matters still today, and always will matter. That is because an unbreakable humanity unites such a one as Cicero to all those people, ancient and modern, who are privileged to study his literature. So goes the argument for inner truth, beauty, humanity, which one hopes will continue to be part of any education wor- thy of the name (from educo -are == to bring up, rear, educate). But even pure education pragmatists should pay attention to the skills and abilities that c~m enable thbse who study Latin to get ahead, also ih our time. As I constantly tell my students: if you succeed at Latin you can succeed at anything you set yOl,lr heart upon. Learning this language requires a superior charac- ter, if not intelligence, diligence over the long haul, attention to detail, an ability to read between the lines, and a host of other Why Latin in 1998? Why should such diligence and-4f~l;t"he _____ .Yktues that will enable any student to succeed at life, regardless expended nowadays upon a discipline that apparently has no of c1:ios'iiqjrofession. immediate, tangible, or financial reward? This is the question that Why Latin? Here is my final parting shot, drawn this time from education pragmatists continue to pose with increasing intensity. the latest syllabus revision of Latin 101 (I had my beginning stu- This whole essay has been a kind of response to that question. If dents stand and recite this paragraph on the first day of class): education is only a means of making a living, of acquiring skills needed to succeed in to day's workforce, then Latin (and related courses) may seem indeed to be a waste of time. But if education is more than this, if it is a precious time in one's life to consider what other men and women, in other ages, believed was good, holy, and true-then perhaps disciplines like Latin still have much to offer. I often think of Latin as a kind of time machine that links properly prepared modern readers to nearly all of the THE WORK OF THE SEMESTER Our goal: A stimulating, joyful, and experiential en.counter willi the Latin language and just a few of those millions of people who thought, spoke, and wrote in this glorious language .... It is a rare privilege and a prlceless honor to study Latin at all in lliis day and age. Therefore, we shall engage ourselves to the full as we embark upon this lifelong adventure! IE!!III'I You know! Pasto~ there IS something to be said for cold formality.