Justin Martyr was an expert in Middle Platonism and Stoicism. Augustine's knowledge of the
classics ran deep, as did Luther's and Calvin's. Whether or not they agreed with everything in
the classics, the theologians of past centuries understood that they must study the works that
have made such a seminal impact on their society.
The Bible itself is a Great Book, the greatest of all. Since the time of Wyclif, Hus,
Luther, and others, Protestants have affirmed that all believers should read the Bible itself, not
have its meaning mediated for it by others. Protestants into the twentieth century readily applied
this to other classics, though for the most part with the firm understanding that only the Bible
was spiritually authoritative. It was clear to them that if what Augustine or Luther or Plato or
Virgil said mattered, then one should study them directly, and in the original language if
possible. Grammar schools in America, as late as the nineteenth century, were teaching Greek
and Latin so that their students could read the classics in the originals.
But a utilitarian view of education was coming to dominate Germany in the nineteenth
century, and began to change college education in America by the end of the Civil War. The
purpose of British-based education in the classics was to produce a well-rounded, educated
person who could think clearly and succeed in any occupation. German higher education, more
influenced by Enlightenment philosophy, had come to believe that more contemporary and
practical knowledge, especially scientific knowledge, could both help students learn to think
well and more adequately address the needs of society. The truth of this utilitarian approach
seemed to be confirmed by the increasing pace of technological advancement in the West in the
nineteenth century.
Along with this is the sense of social progress coming out of the Enlightenment and
reinforced by Darwinism, the idea that we are more advanced than those who went before us. As