Ancient Greece offers modern-day lesson

"Ever more insulated by our material things from danger, we lack all appreciation of the eternal thin veneer of civilization ... So we are on dangerous ground. History gives evidence of no civilization that survived long as purely secular and without a god, that put its trust in reason alone, and believed that human nature was subject to radical improvement given enough capital and learning invested in the endeavor."

So wrote Victor Davis Hanson recently in the Wall Street Journal. Last Wednesday, the University of Utah College of Humanities gave us and its students the treat of bringing Dr. Hanson to Utah for some lectures. He is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and a nationally syndicated columnist. His public lecture, "Why Greece Matters," was delivered at the Hellenic Cultural Center in Salt Lake City.

Ancient Greece matters vitally to us today because it laid the foundation for Western civilization. In Hanson's view, the modern West, built on the foundation put in place by the American founders, is really rooted in principles framed by the Greeks. The notions of individual and inalienable rights, private property, free market, civilian control over the military, religious tolerance and self-critique all had their origins in Greek thought. However imperfectly implemented, these ideas were thoroughly debated and first given concrete expression in ancient Greece.

An essential element of Greek thought is the idea of eternally expanding democracy and equality. This secular prophecy has become true. Born more than 25 centuries ago in a tiny spot in what is now southern Europe, and with no evidence of a prior civil society so organized, the democratic idea spread. Its spread was fitful and somewhat episodic. Sometimes going to ground for centuries. But the spark lit in ancient Greece burst into full flame with the American Revolution.

Though he only briefly touched on the role of Christianity, Hanson understands that Athens alone cannot account for Western civilization. Jerusalem was also an indispensable element in the rise of the West. It is often argued that the early church fathers, Orthodox and Roman, but especially Augustine, rescued Athens from obscurity and melded it with Jerusalem to, in fact, lay the foundation of the West.

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