4. New Testament’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew

In my rereading of selections from Great Books of the Western World guided by The Great Ideas Program, I’ve reached The Bible’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew. It constitutes the fourth reading in the fourth volume of The Great Ideas Program, Religion and Theology by Mortimer J. Adler and Seymour Cain (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961).

Adler and Cain introduce the reading by observing that the New Testament Gospels are not only historical documents and literary masterpieces but also an expression of the early Christian Church’s faith that God had directly revealed Himself in the life, teaching, and death of Jesus of Nazareth. They conclude their introduction thus:

The New Testament proclaims that God took on human form, suffered gross indignities, and died an ignominious death. In this humiliation and this death, as well as in the subsequent resurrection, lie the meaning and the glory of the Gospel story for the Christian faith. (Mortimer J. Adler and Seymour Cain, Religion and Theology, volume 4 of The Great Ideas Program, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961, pages 49-50)

Adler and Cain go on to look at the land, people, religion, and politics of Palestine in Jesus’s time. Next they explain how the New Testament came into being and why they selected Matthew for their Gospel readings. Then they summarize the events recorded in Matthew, noting their significance in Jesus’s life and ministry. Finally they ask and discuss some questions about the Gospel. Here I’ll just pose the questions which they ask and summarize what they say in response to the questions.

Why does Jesus put together the two commandments‒to love God and to love one’s neighbor? (Matthew 22:34-40)
Adler and Cain observe that some people stress one of the commandments over the other, ask a series of questions on the relationship between the two commandments, and suggest seeing I John 4:20-21 for one view of the double commandment.

Is Jesus’ commandment to leave one’s family destructive of human relations and hence contradictory to the law of love? (Matthew 10:34-39)
Adler and Cain observe that there are many possible interpretations of Jesus’s injunction, consider two of them, and suggest rereading the passage and Matthew 12:46-50 and venturing your own interpretation of them.

Was Jesus’ ethical teaching influenced by his expectation of the imminent advent of the Kingdom of God?
Adler and Cain observe that some thinkers, notably Albert Schweitzer, think so but that others think that Jesus’s ethical teaching is addressed to ordinary earthly existence.

What does the term “Son of Man” mean?
Adler and Cain observe that in Jesus’s native Aramaic “Son of Man” meant mankind but that in apocalyptic literature it signified the Messiah. They note that the phrase is common in Matthew and that in each case the reader will have to determine from the context what it means.

4. Nicomachus’s Introduction to Arithmetic

In my rereading of selections from Great Books of the Western World guided by The Great Ideas Program, I’ve reached the fourth reading in the third volume of The Great Ideas Program, Foundations of Science and Mathematics by Mortimer J. Adler and Peter Wolff (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1960), Nicomachus’s Introduction to Arithmetic.

Nicomachus of Gerasa (probably a Greek city in Palestine) flourished around the end of the first century. His Introduction to Arithmetic was the first work to treat arithmetic as a discipline independent from geometry. Setting out the elementary theory and properties of numbers, it was used as a textbook for a thousand years.

Adler and Wolff consider the first sixteen chapters in Book One of Introduction to Mathematics and divide their study of them into these sections:
I ‒ a comparison of the concerns of Nicomachus’s and today’s arithmetic.
II ‒ an explanation of Nicomachus’s classification of numbers.
III – a presentation and discussion of three questions on the reading.
Here I’ll summarize briefly I and II, present the three questions, and indicate how Adler and Wolff answer them.

Comparison of Nicomachus’s and Today’s Arithmetic
Today we expect an arithmetic textbook to show us how to perform arithmetical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. However Introduction to Arithmetic studies numbers themselves and their properties, relations, and classification. Adler and Wolff attribute this to Nicomachus’s belonging to the school of Pythagorus, a group of mathematicians and philosophers who thought that the principles of mathematics were the principles of all things.

Classification of Numbers
Like Euclid Nicomachus classifies numbers as even, odd, even-times even, even-times odd, odd-times even, and odd-times odd numbers. For Nicomachus even-times even numbers are numbers that have only even factors; even-times odd numbers are even numbers that are the product of 2 and an odd number; odd-times even numbers are numbers that can be divided by 2 several times eventually arriving at an odd number; and odd-times odd numbers are numbers that are the product of two odd numbers. Nicomachus also talks about perfect numbers, which are considered below in the first question.

Questions
– What is a perfect number?
A perfect number is a number which is the sum of its factors. Examples are 6 and 28, 6 because it is the sum of 1, 2, and 3 (its factors) and 28 because it is the sum of 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 (its factors)..
– What is a prime number?
Nicomachus says that a prime number “is found whenever an odd number admits of no other factor save the one with the number itself as denominator, which is unity, for example, 3, 5, 7, …” (Nicomachus, Introduction to Arithmetic, Great Books of the Western World [Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952], volume 11, page 817). However we generally consider 2 to be a prime number too because it has no other factors but 1 and itself.
– Is the Pythagorean concern with numbers foolish and superstitious or is there some point to it?
Adler and Wolff answer, “Modern mathematicians are still concerned with numbers, and with the properties of them as primeness, evenness, perfectness, etc. All these properties are treated in the Theory of Numbers.” However they go on to concede that “perhaps the Pythagoreans went to extremes when they made number a cosmological principle and considered numbers as the elements or principles of things.” (Adler and Wolff, Foundations of Science and Mathematics, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1960, pages 58-59).

3. Old Testament’s Book of Genesis and Book of Exodus

In my rereading of selections from Great Books of the Western World guided by The Great Ideas Program, I’ve reached the Bible’s Book of Genesis and Book of Exodus. They constitute the third reading in the fourth volume of The Great Ideas Program, Religion and Theology by Mortimer J. Adler and Seymour Cain (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961).

Adler and Cain introduce the reading by describing Abraham and Moses, identifying the former as “a patriarchal ancestor” and the latter as “the founder of a people and a religion.” They conclude their introduction thus:

The Bible deals with the whole of human life as imbued with religion: mating and begetting, war and work, historical events and communal acts. In the Bible, domestic, ethical, and political activity‒as well as religious worship‒express and embody the service and imitation of God. These early books of the Bible help us to realize the full scope of the religious life. ( Mortimer J. Adler and Seymour Cain, Religion and Theology, volume 4 of The Great Ideas Program, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961, page 32)

Adler and Cain go on to explain what the Old Testament is and why they chose the passages that they did for the reading, to seek the “special Old Testament version of the relation between God and man” (Adler and Cain, Religion and Theology, page 34). Next they comment on the passages which they’ve chosen from Genesis about Abraham‒12:1-9; 13:14-18; 15; 17; 18:17-33; and 22:1-19. Then they comment on the passages which they’ve chosen from Exodus about Moses‒3-4 and about the Israelites‒6:1-8; 14-15; 19-20; and 24. Finally they ask and discuss some questions about the passages. Here I’ll just pose the questions which they ask and summarize what they say in response to the questions.

What, exactly, is a covenant, in the Biblical sense?
Adler and Cain had considered the Covenant on Mount Sinai in their earlier comments. Here they look at a few other covenants in the Bible, most between a higher party and a lower party. They describe the one at Mount Sinai as “a binding relationship with a people, bestowed by the higher power [God]. The higher power rules and guides; the lower one serves and obeys.” (Adler and Cain, page 42)

What is the religious meaning of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac?
Adler and Cain identify the two main interpretations of the episode, one seeing it as an advance from human sacrifice to animal sacrifice and the other stressing Abraham’s utter obedience and trust.

Is Old Testament religion essentially personal or communal?
Adler and Cain note that, although the experiences of Abraham and Moses were personal, they were done in the context of Abraham’s seed and the people. They ask a number of questions on the personal and communal elements of religion.

What does the name I AM THAT I AM mean?
Adler and Cain identify and discuss the two main interpretations of God’s giving it as His name, one holding that He is announcing Himself as eternal being (I AM) and the other that He is announcing His continual presence with Israel.

How can the God of one people be the God of the whole world?
Adler and Cain reword the question “[Is] the idea of a special revelation of the Eternal Being to a particular people at a particular place and time…not offensive to reason‒especially when the claim is made that this revelation discloses God’s nature, will, and purpose for all men at all times and places?” and discuss it at length.

2. Plato’s Euthyphro and Laws

The relation between the good and the holy, between the ethical and the religious, has perplexed men for thousands of years. Is holiness or piety a matter mainly of ceremonial correctness and ritual purity, or is it above all a righteous life? Does the ultimate power over things care what men do or do not do on this earth? Why do the wicked prosper if there is a righteous divinity overseeing things? Plato takes up these and other questions in the Euthyphro and in the famous Book X of Laws. (Mortimer J. Adler and Seymour Cain, Religion and Theology, volume 4 of The Great Ideas Program, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961, page 17)

In my rereading of selections from Great Books of the Western World guided by The Great Ideas Program, I’ve reached Plato’s Euthyphro and Laws. They constitute the second reading in the fourth volume of The Great Ideas Program, Religion and Theology by Mortimer J. Adler and Seymour Cain (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961).

After a brief introduction, which opens with the passage quoted above, Adler and Cain (I) explain why Euthyphro charged his father with murder, (II) summarize Socrates and Euthyphro’s discussion of piety in Euthyphro, (III) present Plato’s views on religion given in Book X of Laws, and (IV) ask and consider six specific questions on religion raised in Euthyphro and Laws. Here I’ll identify Plato, summarize briefly what Adler and Cain say in (I) to (III), and pose the questions which they ask in (IV).

Plato

Plato was a Greek philosopher who lived in the city-state of Athens from 428/427 to 348/347 B.C. For several years he operated a school of higher education, called the Academy, in his home. He composed a number of dialogues in which an earlier philosopher, Socrates, discusses philosophical topics with various people.

Euthyphro

Socrates and Euthyphro meet on the porch of the chief magistrate of Athens in charge of religious matters. Socrates is there for preliminary hearings on a charge of impiety, and Euthyphro is there to lay a charge of murder against his father. A field labourer on the father’s estate had died of neglect while being held for the murder of a domestic servant. Viewing his father as responsible for the labourer’s death and thus involved in religious pollution, Euthyphro thinks that he must prosecute him even though he is his father.

Socrates and Euthyphro’s Discussion of Piety

In the discussion Socrates tries to arrive at a general definition of piety. Euthyphro auggests, “Piety, then, is that which is dear to the gods, and impiety is that which is not dear to them” (Plato, Euthyphro, Great Books of the Western World, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952, volume 7, page 193). Under questioning by Socrates, he suggests two alternate definitions of piety, “Piety or holiness, Socrates, appears to me to be that part of justice which attends to the gods, as there is the other part of justice which attends to men” (in the same work, page 197) and “piety or holiness is learning how to please the gods in word and deed, by prayers and sacrifices” (in the same work, page 198). However before leaving, he returns to his first definition, that piety is what is pleasing to the gods.

Plato’s Views of Religion in Laws

The people engaged in dialogue in Laws are an Athenian stranger with experience somewhat like Plato’s, Cleinias (a Cretan), and Megillus (a Lacedaemonian). Book X deals with religion and theology and is the only systematic presentation of Plato’s views on religion. The Athenian argues against three positions which he thinks are irreligious: (1) that Gods do not exist, (2) that if they do, they don’t care for man, and (3) that they may be swayed by sacrifice and prayer. He also considers the penalties that should be meted out to those who hold these positions.

Questions

Should filial piety outweigh all other religious and ethical considerations?

What kind of service should men render the gods?

Are the mental aspects of reality primary, rather than the physical?

Is the world ruled by a supreme will?

Does God care about human affairs?

Do sacrifice and prayers have any ethical and religious value?