Doing Our Part
An op-ed piece in today’s New York Times speaks of the benefits of Latin study. (After Saturday’s op-ed on the “Gospel of Judas” and its mistranslation, does this signify that the newspaper of record has taken a promising turn towards the benefits of the study of ancient languages? Stay tuned!)
Today’s contributor finds a growing interest in Latin:
Recently there have been signs of a revival. The number taking the
National Latin Exam in 2005, for instance, shot up to 134,873.
Why
is this a good thing? Not all Romans were models of virtue — Caligula’s
Latin was pretty good. And not all 134,873 of those Latin students are
going to turn into Jeffersons.
But what they gain is a glimpse
into the past that provides a fuller, richer view of the present. Know
Latin and you discern the Roman layer that lies beneath the skin of the
Western world. And you open up 500 years of Western literature (plus an
additional thousand years of Latin prose and poetry).
Surely dotCommers can do their small part by advocating the occasional “Sanctus” or “Agnus Dei” to be sung at the Liturgy, as we whole-heartedly and with full voice embrace the new document from the bishops: “Sing to the Lord.”
What’s interesting for non-specialists like myself are the arguments that go on among those trained in classics. Like this one. Which is harder? Latin or Greek?
For an Anglophone the vocabulary of Latin is somewhat easier to acquire because the English vocabulary has been invaded by Latin, sometimes directly, often through French. The Greek words in English tend to be technical. Actually a knowledge of Greek provides a basis for guessing what your doctor is talking about.
It’s interesting to note that at the moment, the article in the Times about Latin is at the top of the list of the most e-mailed articles from the Times site.
I studied Latin for four years in high school and I remember less of it than the Italian and German I have picked up by going to the opera and listening to German leider.
Oh my, different strokes….the sound of Latin has already returned to my parish, and I do not find it a welcome development.
It is too much a reminder of the brittle, rigid spirituality of my 1940-50′s-24/7-Catholic- boarding-school-from-the-age-of-five childhood; gives me a visceral chill. One more sign of retreat, and me without a bit of nostalgia for the old days.
Perhaps I am a small subspecies of dot.commers at least, who will just grin and bear, hopefully with a modicum of charity.
“Vigorous minds will not suffer compulsion. To exercise compulsion is typical of tyrants; to suffer it, typical of asses.”
Erasmus
Jimmy Mac,
How would Erasmus enjoy going to Mass at MHR, if he didn’t sing?
Just bein’ a little provocative, no offense intended.