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A Conservative Classicist Defends The Field

He's white, Christian, and heterosexual, but he thinks that the future is bright
Onward and upward with the Classics (Gilmanshin/Shutterstock)

Reader Patrick Callahan writes, in response to this post and this post:

As a white, conservative, Christian, hetero-male, I wanted to send a few notes to your recent articles on the Classics. I believe this was the wrong fight to pick in our field, however much I may disagree in terms of approach to the field of Peralta et al.

First, I don’t think the IDing of the young women who run the Sportula should be dismissed so easily. I have been to many of these conventions and never once been IDed. It is beyond egregious that a security guard would check their IDs and gives the lie to the old “From Gatekeeper to Gateway” campaign that the national organization ran some years ago.

The Sportula itself even if it does not match up to our own moral and religious beliefs is a successful Benedict Option to an injustice in Classics. The majority of micro-grants they provide go to white students and often students who don’t agree with their identity politics. The minds behind Sportula may not like conservative readings of Tocqueville or Nisbet, but I think both authors would see the Sportula as a intermediary community that alleviates the assault of the state against the individual in the wake of the 20th century’s dissolution of communities.

Second, if you investigated Eidolon further it would have become apparent that there is no Soros-level conspiracy to be found. Yes, Donna is related to Mark (he himself dabbled in the Classics once upon a time). But Eidolon keeps me humble to see that so many intelligent people disagree with many of my own approaches to Greek and Roman literature. And very often I find extraordinarily profound things in those articles that I take up in my own readings and in my teaching. If we are going to cast Donna Zuckerberg et al. as the Pharaoh, at least allow us conservative Classicists to plunder the treasures of Egypt before we march into the desert of postmodernity.

It is impossible to read a Soros-level conspiracy behind Eidolon. Eidolon operates on the free Medium platform so their operating costs must be a staggering $10-20/year to maintain a domain name. Perhaps something more in commissioning the graphic design.

If I or others disagree with the editorial preferences of Eidolon, it is a free country. Let’s set up an alternative journal. In fact, I would love to see one that eschews both the crabbed dissertationese of the established journals and the “woke” Classics of Eidolon. And what is more, I think something more must be made. I don’t know the analytics of Eidolon, but as much as I admire the willingness to write at a “popular” level. I don’t think they are reaching as wide a popular audience as Classics deserves, mostly just high school Latin teachers who look to maintain touch with the field but don’t want to be bored to death by the established journals.

Last, contrary to your correspondent Classicists, I think the future is very bright for the Christian Classicist today. Look at the explosion of Latin in home-schools, the rapid growth of Classical charter schools (Great Hearts, Founders, etc.), and all the sources of liturgical renewal that spread the study of the Sacred Languages. We are wrong as Christians and conservatives to lament the death of the German Enlightenment model of the Classics department by the hands of the postmodernists. It was never our friend to begin with. And in its death there are amazing new endeavors (Dumbarton Oaks’ Byzantine work, I Tatti Renaissance collection, CUA’s early modern series, new journals dedicated to the study of Late Antiquity, etc.) that are rediscovering that Latin and Greek are more than just Homer and Cicero. They are also Ss. Gregory the Great, Basil, Augustine, Jerome. They are Dante (who wrote 3 major works in Latin!), the Jesuit scholastics, Erasmus, St. Thomas More, John Milton.

I do not deny that as a conservative, Christian Classicist I recognize a great divide between my approach to the field from that of Peralta et al. but I say, in the spirit of the Benedict Option, let us then joyfully create an intentional community that recognizes the shared heritage of Christianity and the Classics. Though some may spend their fury against both Christianity and Classics as a toxic and evil tradition, I will carefully sieve what is good, true, and beautiful from that tradition and build my intentional community.

You may share my notes and I do not believe they need anonymity.

What a great letter. Thanks, Patrick.

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