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Augustus Caesar's World and the World of Columbus
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Yesterday, I found Augustus Caesar’s World used at a local store. I thought it was a great find…..until I got it home and really looked through it. I was horrified to see the blatant challenge to the authority of Scripture in a book that is used by so many Christian curricula.
I also found The World of Columbus and Sons. I know this title is used in the SCM guide to the Middle Ages. Will it have as much objectionable material?
Haven’t read the book, but this has been on my list for our next cycle around. Can you give an example?
I have read the one and two star reviews at Amazon and decided to skip Caesar’s. But I think Columbus is supposed to be better. It is in the Beautiful Feet Jr high guide, and I plan to have ds12 read it in grade 7. If we do Caesar’s, I would go through it with him in high school.
We read through the Caesar book last year for history. I read it aloud, and I did do a fair bit of editing on the fly and also skipping some sections. All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed it because of the story-like telling of Caesar’s life.
I glossed over some the debauchery that went on in that time period (although, I realize it’s also going on today)…..and I made it work for us. I would NOT just hand the book over to someone, even a 12th grader, I think.
But, if you don’t mind editing as you read aloud, I think you’d find it a great telling of that era of history. It finally put all those Caesars into order for me, and made me understand the time of Christ’s birth better, and the era preceeding it.
I have read it. I actually edited out the sections in my plans and have used/am using it now, because the book was really helpful for me to put people and and world events in the Savior’s life in proper order and to understand the circumstances He faced. It has also helped me to be able to understand the world the apostles faced when they went on their missions, which has helped me to understand some of the things Paul talks about in his letters.
If you really find this objectionable, and aren’t willing to skip those particular sections, just use something else. Nothing is worse than trying to constantly be on your guard and adapt a resource while teaching.
Anyone want to give me some chapters/pages to look at that you skipped? I’ve got this book lined up for Makayla to begin reading in about 2 weeks and haven’t had a moment to read it yet. Or examples of what it talks about could work too…
Thanks!
Depending on the age of your child, why don’t you read it together, at least those sections? If your child is over 12 or 13, they are beginning to develop valuable critical thinking skills and it’s not as if they aren’t living in a world that doesn’t constantly undermine and mock G-D’s ways.
Use it as an opportunity for deep discussion, critical thinking, and worldview contrast and comparison. It’s in our homes where these discussions and challenges should take place because, L-RD knows, they are going to be challenged in the real world. They need to be prepared.
Just my 2 cents…
My oldest is 8 and while I was going through there were lots of sections I just thought I would skip (a lot of details about pagan gods that I just didn’t want to focus on) until it specifically said that the Gospel’s are wrong on the details of Christ’s birth. That’s when I decided we would just find something else.
My kids know that not everyone agrees with Scripture, but, to me, rejecting Scripture at that level is just too much. It’s at the beginning of Section 5 for those who want to check it out.
Just for the sake of others who haven’t read the section you’re referring to, it’s on pages 278-281.
I went back and reread it, and for my discomfort over her use of the word “story” over “account”, I’m not seeing the contradiction of the Gospels or a rejection of the accounts. In fact, the historical blunder is on calling Judea, Palestine; a name the region wasn’t given until the 2nd. cen. in 132 BC/CE.
The Gospels don’t actually say explicitly what time of the year Jesus/Yeshua (which can be anglicized to Joshua; they didn’t call him Jesus back then) was born. The 25th of Dec.. was chosen later. One can deduce the time of His birth from the account in Luke; where he details the priestly duties. Knowing the order of the service of the Temple priests that had been established can bring you to a different date-the autumn, at the time of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). However, being absolute and knowing the exact date doesn’t make or break my faith; but we history-buffs like to dig into the weeds of detail.
Plus, we truly don’t know the year of his birth, either. We have church traditions on these varying issues, but this is dealing with history, not faith or religious issues.
Also, the Gospels aren’t carbon copies of one another and there are differences.
Now, this may still be more than you want to present to your 8 year old, and you should do what you think is best; but I don’t think that makes the author “anti-Christian” or contradicting Scripture and I personally think it’s unfair to categorize her as such. She’s just challenging preconceived notions, assumptions, and/or religious traditions. She’s being an historian.
Each family should read it for themselves and make a decision.
The part where the author says that the authors of the Gospels didn’t remember what happened and that’s why the recordings of the events aren’t accurate is the part that made me decide to put the book away.
I wasn’t thrilled with some of the other things, but our family is conservative in our view of Scripture and a complete attack on the doctrine of inspiration like that does, in our home, make it not ok. I was surprised to find this in the book because conservative home school curricula (like My Father’s World) that I expect to hold to the inspiration of Scripture use it.
I wouldn’t throw something out over an unknown date. That’s not a big deal. The inspiration of Scripture is. The accuracy of the details Scripture DOES give us is. The author challenges those things. We won’t be using this book in our home….at least not while the kids are still so young and learning discernment.
Thank you everyone for your comments! As I will only have a high schooler using this book and she is a steady, discerning young lady I feel comfortable using this book and taking the opportunity for discussion along the way. I agree, it probably would not be a good fit unedited for younger kids. I have a different resource for my younger kids already planned.
My daughter read this book in the 7th grade and I was fine with it. By 7th grade a child knows that everyone doesn’t agree with their view of scripture.
We too believe that the Bible is God’s inerrant word. I think it depends on the age of the child and whether or not it is being read aloud (so that mom can skip any objectionable content) or independently.
I’ve read many books aloud in our homeschool that were worthy to be read even though there were parts in the book that I disagreed with or thought crude. I simply censor as I go. I choose Christian curriculum because curriculum is something that my student will be in contact with on a regular basis throughout the year but we read many living books where the author does not have the same worldview as we do. It gives us a chance to discuss our beliefs and differing worldviews and their consequences. However, I wouldn’t hand such a book to a young child to be read independently.
I would also like to point out that many times a curriculum will schedule only certain portions of a book and skip the parts with objectionable content. That may (or may not) be the case with My Father’s World. I know SCM and AO recommend some books but don’t put certain chapters or portions on the schedule. There will usually be a side note about the questionable content as well.
Sometimes there just isn’t another living book that covers the same material in quite the same manner and it’s better to use a great book and omit portions than to use a lesser book.
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