The Legacy of the Ancient World

by W.G. De Burgh

The Legacy of the Ancient World

Genres: History, Nonfiction

607 pages, paperback

First published January 1, 1923

About the author

William George de Burgh FBA (24 October 1866 – 27 August 1943) was a British philosopher. Educated at Winchester and Merton College, Oxford, he was a founding member of the University of Reading, where he became Professor of Philosophy in 1907. His works include Towards a Religious Philosophy, 1937; From Morality to Religion, 1938; and The Legacy of the Ancient World, 1923. A committed Anglican, he endeavoured to justify the revealed truth of the gospel in terms of rationalism, and thereby defend it against both the contemporary Protestant theological trend for anti-rationalism and the dominant philosophy of logical positivism.

(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Shimaa Mohamed]

بلقط معلومات كتير منه الصراحة
المشكلة في ترتيبه
بس هو حلو جدا

[Steve Groves · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little dry, but for a book originally published in 1923 it still stands up. Some more recent findings and scholarship would update some of the discussion, but overall a good summary of the three civilisations that formed the basis of the modern western world and thought.

“The civilisations of Israel, Greece and Rome are the basis of our world; and since it is in relation to our world that we think and act, they are the basis of ourselves.”

The author, while identifying the building blocks of modern politics, thought, laws and individuality is careful to highlight that we should not be slavish imitators of the past, but be willing to step out in new pathways.

“If the past were no more than the historic groundwork of the present, its appeal would be less insistent. It is interesting to learn our origins; but, after all, they belong to a bygone age, and it is in the present that we are called upon to live. We have to create the future; and there is peril, as well as profit in the study of the past. The richness of the inheritance may serve but to paralyse the energy and enslave the mind. History itself points a warning, when it tells how the Jews of the dispersion and the Greeks in the last days of Hellenism were stifled by the hot air of anarchism. They had not the strength to let the dead bury their dead, but squandered their declining energies in building in building the sepulchres of their forefathers.”

[Mohamed Karaly · Rating 3 out of 5]

ينبع إرثنا الثقافى من ثلاثة مصادر أساسية: الأدب العبرى (الديانة اليهودية)، الفكر الإغريقى، التشريع والتنظيم الرومانى. ويتناول الكتاب بنظرة مجملة وتركيز انتقائى على نقط بعينها، هذه المصادر الثلاثة. يعيب الكتاب عدم ترتيب الأفكار، ولكنه محتواه فى العموم شديد الصقل والعمق، وأمتع الأجزاء الثلاثة هو الجزء الذى تناول فيه الأدب العبرى وتطوره، فكل فكرة فى اليهودية نشأت فى عصر معين بلسان نبى معين،لم تكن موجودة قبله. بداية من الشكل البدائى الأول لليهودية وتصور يهوه كإله حرب يناصر قومه لا أكثر، مرورا بسائر التطورات والتصورات الأخرى التى انتهت بما يسمى أسفار الرؤية فى القرون الأولى قبل الميلاد. ١

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good sound history. De Burgh demonstrates how Roman, Greek and Hebrew cultures were the foundation of European culture and shaped the future for centuries, even today.