My conversation continues with Carl Sommer, author of We Look for a Kingdom: The Everyday Lives of the Early Christians.

You give the Roman world a fair hearing and you recognize nobility in the pagans. Who is your favorite figure from pagan antiquity?

My favorite figure from pagan antiquity is the historian Livy, who understood his world so well, and wrote, “We can endure neither our vices nor the remedies needed to cure them.”

Who is your favorite figure from Christian antiquity, and why?

My favorite figure from Christian antiquity is Justin Martyr. I enjoy the thought of him living in Rome in rented rooms, over a pagan bath, quietly teaching anyone who would come to him, but also able to engage the leading pagan intellectuals of his age on equal footing.

What are the most significant similarities between the Fathers’ world and ours?

The most significant similarities between the pagan world and ours are in the prevailing sexual mores and in the fascination with violent entertainment, which shocks and numbs the soul, and requires increasingly large doses to satisfy the addiction.

What are the most significant differences?

There are more differences than similarities between the Roman world and ours. There are so many variables that no historical era can present more than a rough facsimile of another. We have defeated some evils, like slavery, and horrific forms of capital punishment such as crucifixion. But evil continues to exist, and our technological marvels present new temptations and new pitfalls to avoid. So I think one would be forced to conclude that despite our progress, we haven’t come very far after all.
 
On a philosophical plane, the biggest difference between our world and the Roman world is that the ancients, whether pagan, Jew, or Christian, saw the world as full of spirits, some good, and some malign.  They believed that what we would call “a miracle” could happen at any time. We, of course, understand the scientific laws that govern the behavior of objects in this world. We have no need of spiritual explanations for things. We accept the existence of God, for the most part, but we don’t think we have to do something specific to convince Him to cause the sun to rise tomorrow. In some ways, this change in attitude is good. God is benevolent, and He did create an orderly universe. But we’ve also lost something of poetic wonder. We can’t look at the natural world with quite the same sense of awe.

What book from ancient Christianity has rocked you more than any other, and why?

I would have to say that Eusebius of Caesarea’s Ecclesiastical History has rocked me more than any other work, for a variety of reasons. First, we learn more about the persecutions from him than from any other source. But as a historian, reading his brief quotes of lengthy documents that no longer exist has convinced me that we know only a tenth of what we could know about the first few centuries of Christianity. What would we find in, for example, Papias’s lost five volumes, above and beyond what we can learn from the brief passages that have been preserved?

How does living with the Fathers affect the way you live your life?

Living with the Fathers has taught me humility.  I have had every advantage, compared to them, and yet they attained a level of spiritual and intellectual grandeur at which I can only marvel.

How has the teaching of the Fathers — the nearness of the Fathers — influenced the way you pray?

I’m a typical modern American. I grew up assuming that spontaneity was better than repetition, that “creative chaos” was better than order, and that independence was better than submission to authority.  The years have taught me that all these assumptions were mistaken. The Fathers have given me some better assumptions to take their place. Morning and Evening Prayer are beautiful because they sanctify time. The liturgy in itself, without any trappings, is beautiful because Christ Himself is beautiful. And the apostolic authority of the bishops is a great good because it allows all these beauties to pass unchanged from generation to generation. And that is the greatest beauty of all.