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Christians Reading Classics: An Introduction to Greco-Roman Classics from Homer to Boethius
Can Christians today read the great classics of Greco-Roman pagan literature for spiritual formation and growth in the virtues?
Classical scholar Nadya Williams responds with an unequivocal "Yes!" Even in the Late Roman Empire Christian readers, like Augustine and Boethius, did just this. But reading the classics this way requires reading differently than, perhaps, most people today are used to doing.
This is a book about reading the Greco-Roman classics as Christians--the why, the how, and to a lesser extent, the when. This exercise, equal parts intellectual and spiritual, is timely. Just as our bodies are what we eat, so are our minds what we consume. The past few years have seen the appearance of books on the value of literature in nourishing our minds and souls--developing the practice of reading not just the Bible but all that we read for spiritual formation. Most such books have focused largely on medieval and modern literature, involving antiquity only occasionally.
Almost two thousand years ago, as Christianity was first beginning to spread in the Ancient Mediterranean world, the gospel came to believers who had grown up hearing and reading the great works of pagan literature and seeing the pagan gods everywhere around in their world, saturated as it was with pagan gods in literature, public and private art, coins, and more. The joy in encountering Jesus and learning of his love for all sinful humanity, stood out particularly starkly against the cruelty of the pagan worldview that comes through so clearly in the myths. And yet, they too could see hints of truth and spiritual longings for salvation in those myths.
In twenty short chapters, Nadya Williams introduces the readers to one or two different ancient authors and their key works. She offers three interrelated reasons for Christians today to read the pagan classics for spiritual reading to be surprised by joy, reading to understand the world of the Bible and the earliest Christians, and reading for character formation.
It is time Christians rediscovered the benefits of reading the great works of Greco-Roman classical literature as Christians.
Classical scholar Nadya Williams responds with an unequivocal "Yes!" Even in the Late Roman Empire Christian readers, like Augustine and Boethius, did just this. But reading the classics this way requires reading differently than, perhaps, most people today are used to doing.
This is a book about reading the Greco-Roman classics as Christians--the why, the how, and to a lesser extent, the when. This exercise, equal parts intellectual and spiritual, is timely. Just as our bodies are what we eat, so are our minds what we consume. The past few years have seen the appearance of books on the value of literature in nourishing our minds and souls--developing the practice of reading not just the Bible but all that we read for spiritual formation. Most such books have focused largely on medieval and modern literature, involving antiquity only occasionally.
Almost two thousand years ago, as Christianity was first beginning to spread in the Ancient Mediterranean world, the gospel came to believers who had grown up hearing and reading the great works of pagan literature and seeing the pagan gods everywhere around in their world, saturated as it was with pagan gods in literature, public and private art, coins, and more. The joy in encountering Jesus and learning of his love for all sinful humanity, stood out particularly starkly against the cruelty of the pagan worldview that comes through so clearly in the myths. And yet, they too could see hints of truth and spiritual longings for salvation in those myths.
In twenty short chapters, Nadya Williams introduces the readers to one or two different ancient authors and their key works. She offers three interrelated reasons for Christians today to read the pagan classics for spiritual reading to be surprised by joy, reading to understand the world of the Bible and the earliest Christians, and reading for character formation.
It is time Christians rediscovered the benefits of reading the great works of Greco-Roman classical literature as Christians.
301 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 11, 2025
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235 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 20, 2026
I really enjoyed Louis Markos' book From Achilles to Christ and thought this might be similarly interesting. So far it is. The author has a different way of writing about these things that nicely complements the Markos book. In fact, I may follow this up with a reread of that one.
The author has a knack for finding modern examples of ancient authors or plots that helped us see the context. Her easy, personal style that makes the book accessible without sacrificing the depth necessary to understand the classics under discussion. She clearly points out parallels which Christians will see differently or more fully through the focus of Christ. This makes the book valuable even if you never plan to read the classics she references. Thoughtful Christians will find much of value here.
Catholics may be surprised at Nadya Williams' continual reassurance that it's okay for Christians to read pagan authors. That's because, in general, it is a long-standing tradition in the Church, from the Church Fathers onward that truth is found in all sources. Williams and Markos, mentioned above, both are writing largely for Protestants who struggle with this issue. Regardless, both books are wonderful whether you're Protestant or Catholic.
The author has a knack for finding modern examples of ancient authors or plots that helped us see the context. Her easy, personal style that makes the book accessible without sacrificing the depth necessary to understand the classics under discussion. She clearly points out parallels which Christians will see differently or more fully through the focus of Christ. This makes the book valuable even if you never plan to read the classics she references. Thoughtful Christians will find much of value here.
Catholics may be surprised at Nadya Williams' continual reassurance that it's okay for Christians to read pagan authors. That's because, in general, it is a long-standing tradition in the Church, from the Church Fathers onward that truth is found in all sources. Williams and Markos, mentioned above, both are writing largely for Protestants who struggle with this issue. Regardless, both books are wonderful whether you're Protestant or Catholic.
February 20, 2026
I was looking forward to reading this book and expected it to resonate with me. And it did, in many ways. Nadya Williams clearly loves (and knows well) Greco-Roman literature, and she wants Christians not to fear it or dismiss it. So far, so good; in that regard, she succeeds. The book is an enjoyable read and introduces a wide range of classical authors in an engaging way. If you have always suspected that “the classics” are important but never known quite why or what to do with them, Williams provides a genial introduction.
And the book does work best as just that: an introduction. Her summaries are of course high-level, but they are engaging. Her thematic organization of the various works makes patterns across centuries clearer, and she invites Christian readers to read sympathetically as well as critically. Each chapter closes with explicit Christian evaluation, modeling discernment. That alone makes the book valuable.
BUT, I finished the book uneasy. It took me a while to figure out the cause of that unease.
I want to be clear; it does not come from what Williams includes or excludes. She had to make choices, and I respect hers. It does not come from her contention that pagan writers fall short of biblical truth. She is clear (and correct) about that. My unease came from a question the book never quite answers (at least not to my satisfaction): if these authors only grasp truth partially and imperfectly, why should Christians keep returning to them? How could they possibly be useful for our spiritual formation?
Williams encourages RE-reading the classics, ending with a reflection on “the virtues of rereading.” Rereading Scripture makes sense because Scripture is revelatory and inexhaustible. The classics are merely human literature. Once their worldview limitations are exposed and critiqued, it is not obvious why they deserve repeated formative attention rather than (respectful) closure.
At times, the book seems to justify classical literature (through its format and program of critique) primarily as an exercise in Christian discernment. That is of great value. But while learning to critique pagan ideas from a biblical worldview is valuable, it does not by itself explain why those ideas should continue to shape a Christian. We can practice such discernment using any world literature from any era. So, why concentrate on classical literature as the corpus on which continually hone our discernment skills?
My concern becomes sharper when Williams suggests that Greco-Roman authors sometimes glimpse truths Christians later recognize more fully in Scripture. Of course, in one sense, that isn’t controversial: general revelation is real, as is the human longing for truth. But there is a difference between recognizing that longing and treating pagan insight as a kind of proto-theology rather than as a groping. The danger is category confusion, where pagan moral or philosophical frameworks begin to feel like legitimate partners in Christian theological reflection rather than objects of judgment by it. If that line blurs, admiration can unconsciously become trust.
Williams’s chapter on Boethius brought this tension into focus for me, raising my level of unease. The Consolation of Philosophy is an impressive work, undeniably moving and historically influential. Williams handles it sympathetically and well. Still, the fact that Boethius finds consolation in philosophy without explicit reference to Christ should trouble Christian readers more than it often does. In Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer shows how easily Christian thinkers historically adopted Platonic and Aristotelian categories not merely as tools but as intellectual scaffolding, quietly allowing pagan philosophy to shape the grammar of Christian thought, becoming the default framework for explaining Christian truth, rather than tools subordinated to it. The result was often an intellectually refined but theologically thin Christianity. Boethius may be an extreme case, but he should serve as a warning. If philosophy can console without Christ, if reason can suffice where revelation is silent, then the hierarchy has inverted. Williams, in her restraint toward that danger, may underestimate the formative power of the texts she commends.
I am NOT saying we should abandon the classics. Williams is right that Christians should not fear them. Greco-Roman literature exposes the depth of human longing for truth and the seriousness with which these cultures pursued virtue, but it also exposes the ultimate insufficiency of unaided reason to achieve those ends. Read well, classical literature can and should drive us back to Scripture with greater gratitude.
But there is also a real danger. Repeated immersion in pagan moral and philosophical frameworks can normalize assumptions we ought to question. Over time, texts we should be critiquing can begin to critique us.
Christians Reading Classics is an excellent and helpful overview of classical literature from a Christian perspective. I encourage you to read it. But read it with the same discernment with which it teaches you to read classical literature. When you do, ask yourself whether you need them once Scripture has authoritatively spoken.
And the book does work best as just that: an introduction. Her summaries are of course high-level, but they are engaging. Her thematic organization of the various works makes patterns across centuries clearer, and she invites Christian readers to read sympathetically as well as critically. Each chapter closes with explicit Christian evaluation, modeling discernment. That alone makes the book valuable.
BUT, I finished the book uneasy. It took me a while to figure out the cause of that unease.
I want to be clear; it does not come from what Williams includes or excludes. She had to make choices, and I respect hers. It does not come from her contention that pagan writers fall short of biblical truth. She is clear (and correct) about that. My unease came from a question the book never quite answers (at least not to my satisfaction): if these authors only grasp truth partially and imperfectly, why should Christians keep returning to them? How could they possibly be useful for our spiritual formation?
Williams encourages RE-reading the classics, ending with a reflection on “the virtues of rereading.” Rereading Scripture makes sense because Scripture is revelatory and inexhaustible. The classics are merely human literature. Once their worldview limitations are exposed and critiqued, it is not obvious why they deserve repeated formative attention rather than (respectful) closure.
At times, the book seems to justify classical literature (through its format and program of critique) primarily as an exercise in Christian discernment. That is of great value. But while learning to critique pagan ideas from a biblical worldview is valuable, it does not by itself explain why those ideas should continue to shape a Christian. We can practice such discernment using any world literature from any era. So, why concentrate on classical literature as the corpus on which continually hone our discernment skills?
My concern becomes sharper when Williams suggests that Greco-Roman authors sometimes glimpse truths Christians later recognize more fully in Scripture. Of course, in one sense, that isn’t controversial: general revelation is real, as is the human longing for truth. But there is a difference between recognizing that longing and treating pagan insight as a kind of proto-theology rather than as a groping. The danger is category confusion, where pagan moral or philosophical frameworks begin to feel like legitimate partners in Christian theological reflection rather than objects of judgment by it. If that line blurs, admiration can unconsciously become trust.
Williams’s chapter on Boethius brought this tension into focus for me, raising my level of unease. The Consolation of Philosophy is an impressive work, undeniably moving and historically influential. Williams handles it sympathetically and well. Still, the fact that Boethius finds consolation in philosophy without explicit reference to Christ should trouble Christian readers more than it often does. In Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer shows how easily Christian thinkers historically adopted Platonic and Aristotelian categories not merely as tools but as intellectual scaffolding, quietly allowing pagan philosophy to shape the grammar of Christian thought, becoming the default framework for explaining Christian truth, rather than tools subordinated to it. The result was often an intellectually refined but theologically thin Christianity. Boethius may be an extreme case, but he should serve as a warning. If philosophy can console without Christ, if reason can suffice where revelation is silent, then the hierarchy has inverted. Williams, in her restraint toward that danger, may underestimate the formative power of the texts she commends.
I am NOT saying we should abandon the classics. Williams is right that Christians should not fear them. Greco-Roman literature exposes the depth of human longing for truth and the seriousness with which these cultures pursued virtue, but it also exposes the ultimate insufficiency of unaided reason to achieve those ends. Read well, classical literature can and should drive us back to Scripture with greater gratitude.
But there is also a real danger. Repeated immersion in pagan moral and philosophical frameworks can normalize assumptions we ought to question. Over time, texts we should be critiquing can begin to critique us.
Christians Reading Classics is an excellent and helpful overview of classical literature from a Christian perspective. I encourage you to read it. But read it with the same discernment with which it teaches you to read classical literature. When you do, ask yourself whether you need them once Scripture has authoritatively spoken.
January 7, 2026
"someone who has read much is never alone"
i wanted to like this book much more than i did (it really is only an introduction), but it did stoke my desire to read way way more classics. loved the scope, all things considered. both the actual introductions to the books and the Christian lense to the good, true, and beautiful felt like they were barely scratching the surface, but alas, that is probably the point.
honorable mention to undesirable flashbacks of college classmates arguing over what a chair IS
i wanted to like this book much more than i did (it really is only an introduction), but it did stoke my desire to read way way more classics. loved the scope, all things considered. both the actual introductions to the books and the Christian lense to the good, true, and beautiful felt like they were barely scratching the surface, but alas, that is probably the point.
honorable mention to undesirable flashbacks of college classmates arguing over what a chair IS
November 9, 2025
Each short chapter of this new book reflects on a different classic text or pairing of texts, many of which I teach to high school students at a Classical Christian school. The style is approachable, even conversational at times, despite the author holding a Ph.D. in classics from Princeton U. Williams describes the content and context of the work while showing how pre-Christian Greeks and Romans wrestled with the great questions of living as a human in this world. The propositional truth of Christianity fulfills these innate longings. As an example, here’s how Williams reflects on Plato’s Symposium:
“When Christians talk about love, such a conversation should begin with recognizing the unfathomable love of God for us—something unthinkable in any other religion. And so, as we read the Symposium we see all the more clearly the importance of Socrates’s general practice of asking questions while simultaneously also seeing the shortcomings of such a practice if it is separated from belief in God. What is love? How can we talk about love without acknowledging that ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and lonely Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ Such a love offers a foundation for who we are as citizens and political beings. No less significant is the search for the missing half [a reference to on of the dinner-guests’ theories about love]—we all do feel that we’re missing something. We feel that yearning that we cannot articulate and which so often ends up being described as romantic love. But as Augustine will write eight centuries after Plato, our souls are restless when apart from God. It is God alone who completes us, not other people.”
Although I am already sold on reading the classics as a Christian, and despite having expected closer readings of the selected texts, I have been quite pleased with this book. (As a note, Williams organizes her book into five parts, each containing four chapters; they are ordered chronologically as well as being thematically united. Despite this neat sequencing, it is possible to read the chapters out of order, if you want to use the book as a reference on particular works.)
Perhaps the most exciting thing to me about Williams's book is the publisher. There have been many good books in the last 20+ years advocating a return to the classics, but it thrills me to see the movement gaining more traction with a bigger, broader publishing house like Zondervan!
I am recommending this book to the parents of my students, as I believe it is accessible, broad in coverage, and could extend the great conversation beyond the classroom and into the home. It also makes a subtle case for Classical Christian Education without feeling like propaganda.
“When Christians talk about love, such a conversation should begin with recognizing the unfathomable love of God for us—something unthinkable in any other religion. And so, as we read the Symposium we see all the more clearly the importance of Socrates’s general practice of asking questions while simultaneously also seeing the shortcomings of such a practice if it is separated from belief in God. What is love? How can we talk about love without acknowledging that ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and lonely Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ Such a love offers a foundation for who we are as citizens and political beings. No less significant is the search for the missing half [a reference to on of the dinner-guests’ theories about love]—we all do feel that we’re missing something. We feel that yearning that we cannot articulate and which so often ends up being described as romantic love. But as Augustine will write eight centuries after Plato, our souls are restless when apart from God. It is God alone who completes us, not other people.”
Although I am already sold on reading the classics as a Christian, and despite having expected closer readings of the selected texts, I have been quite pleased with this book. (As a note, Williams organizes her book into five parts, each containing four chapters; they are ordered chronologically as well as being thematically united. Despite this neat sequencing, it is possible to read the chapters out of order, if you want to use the book as a reference on particular works.)
Perhaps the most exciting thing to me about Williams's book is the publisher. There have been many good books in the last 20+ years advocating a return to the classics, but it thrills me to see the movement gaining more traction with a bigger, broader publishing house like Zondervan!
I am recommending this book to the parents of my students, as I believe it is accessible, broad in coverage, and could extend the great conversation beyond the classroom and into the home. It also makes a subtle case for Classical Christian Education without feeling like propaganda.
November 27, 2025
This is a very enjoyable and thoughtful book. Its thesis is that Christians can enrich their understanding of their own faith through engaging with the great pagan writers and thinkers of Antiquity. Modern believers, Williams suggests, ought to emulate the early Christians, who encountered the Gospel through the prism of their own [pagan] cultural and literary milieu.
Williams argues that despite disagreements, the early Church ultimately decided not to jettison its pre-Christian inheritance. Homer and Vergil may have been ignorant of revelation, but as humans, they were made imago Dei and thus their stories can point toward goodness, truth, and beauty, however incomplete (Williams does not explore it, but it would be fascinating to contrast the very different institutional attitudes Christianity and Islam adopted to their respective pagan pasts).
Perhaps just as importantly, acquainting ourselves with the pre-Christian world helps to demonstrate just what a radical departure Christianity was from what came before it (the “weirdness” of the Gospel message as Tom Holland argues in his book). The basic ethical assumptions about the value of life, the means of attaining eternal glory, and the conception of virtue were markedly different in the Greco-Roman world, and nowhere is this clearer than in the epic poetry of these ancient civilizations.
Williams argues that despite disagreements, the early Church ultimately decided not to jettison its pre-Christian inheritance. Homer and Vergil may have been ignorant of revelation, but as humans, they were made imago Dei and thus their stories can point toward goodness, truth, and beauty, however incomplete (Williams does not explore it, but it would be fascinating to contrast the very different institutional attitudes Christianity and Islam adopted to their respective pagan pasts).
Perhaps just as importantly, acquainting ourselves with the pre-Christian world helps to demonstrate just what a radical departure Christianity was from what came before it (the “weirdness” of the Gospel message as Tom Holland argues in his book). The basic ethical assumptions about the value of life, the means of attaining eternal glory, and the conception of virtue were markedly different in the Greco-Roman world, and nowhere is this clearer than in the epic poetry of these ancient civilizations.
January 18, 2026
I approached this book with high expectations (it has raving reviews from the crunchy classical homeschool mom blogosphere after all!). I was not disappointed with the content itself. For what it is, it's a good appetizer. When you're expecting a 5-course meal (slight exaggeration), a dainty appetizer does not quell your hunger for good plat(o)f steak. Or more Plato. Or more Plutarch. As the final chapters suggest, I think the author would agree that every author she discussed, among many excluded, deserve lifelong contemplation and assiduous study. As a survey of Greco-Roman literature this is fantastic. This will not equip you to articulate Aristotle's natural philosophy.
December 29, 2025
This was such a wonderful read! Williams, who holds a PhD in Classics, masterfully navigates readers through a dense literary canon through humor and relatable language. While managing this feat, she also relates everything back to Scripture which is the cherry on top. Highly recommended if you have any interest in Greco-Roman literature.
December 23, 2025
Through the deeper writings of CS Lewis, I discovered the thin vale between Heaven and earth. The echos that so mysteriously reverberate from a mouth we can’t quite see fully, but see well enough. This essential genre of Christian (and I would argue, human) writing is one that Nadya Williams has wonderfully added to with her book, “Christians Reading Classics”.
I was excited simply to read new scholarship on the topic of Christian’s reading classical books, an art in desperate need of reviving. But what I found in this book was far more than I hoped for. It is a stake in the sand for all people to be assisted in understanding why things are good, true, and beautiful in the realm of this revered literature. Nadya Williams helps the reader to extend the stories of antiquity into the bigger story of Christianity by helping them understand the deeply Christian answer to the questions that so many Greco-Roman writers groped for.
With expert knowledge, purpose, and a refreshing lightness of writing, Christians Reading Classics is a spectacular introduction to this literary foundational era of the west. But more importantly, it is written to help the reader hear the echo of a God who so purposefully is calling to you. I am grateful for this book and recommend it heartily to you.
I was excited simply to read new scholarship on the topic of Christian’s reading classical books, an art in desperate need of reviving. But what I found in this book was far more than I hoped for. It is a stake in the sand for all people to be assisted in understanding why things are good, true, and beautiful in the realm of this revered literature. Nadya Williams helps the reader to extend the stories of antiquity into the bigger story of Christianity by helping them understand the deeply Christian answer to the questions that so many Greco-Roman writers groped for.
With expert knowledge, purpose, and a refreshing lightness of writing, Christians Reading Classics is a spectacular introduction to this literary foundational era of the west. But more importantly, it is written to help the reader hear the echo of a God who so purposefully is calling to you. I am grateful for this book and recommend it heartily to you.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews