I am a moderately competent academic with a B.A. (Biblical Greek, Abilene Christian University), M.A.R. (Biblical Studies, Yale Divinity School), and Ph.D (Classics, The University of Texas at Austin). I am also a person of faith--a Christian in the style of the philosophical Christians of the second century and of C.S. Lewis.
As an academic "humanist" (a scholar in the humanities) I find much of contemporary Christianity shallow, embarrassing, and offensive to any decent person who actually listens to its message. On the other hand, both as an academic humanist and a person of faith I also find much of contemporary academic work in the humanities shallow, embarrassing, and offensive to any decent person who actually listens to its message. I am convinced, however, that polemic is not the proper antidote either for bad religion or bad humanities. What is needed is careful, constructive thinking in the best spirit of Socrates: a determination to understand the great mysteries that tantalize us, but that we know we have not grasped; a desire to share with others in that quest to understand; a willingness to have our ignorance and misunderstandings exposed.
In particular, the quest for a better understanding of the great religious and humanist mysteries requires that we put a stop to the silly hostility towards science that has for so long infected people of faith. Scientists are not at fault for the difficulties that face religion and the humanities: Religious people and humanists are. The scientists have done such a wonderful job of understanding matters of material causation that they can save us and our children from the most dreadful accidents and illnesses. We humanist scholars and religious people, on the other hand, have done such a terrible job of understanding the mysteries of goodness that we can do almost nothing to save either the scientists' children or our own from such plagues to the soul as acquisitiveness, fear, and slavery to comfort and pleasure.
"Beauty and the Boy" is a story I wrote for my children--an attempt to pass on to them what little I think I have come to understand about those mysteries that I consider particularly important. It is not just a simple piece of entertainment. I hope you will see in it terrors so great that few people dare face them and hopes so wonderful that few people dare speak of them. I hope that Beauty and the Boy will help you talk with the people you love about those deepest of human fears and desires, the fears and desires that unite us and (on occasion) motivate us to truly human greatness.
This summer I expect to bring to press a very different book, a Greek grammar named "Greek Before Christmas," which builds on the brilliant work of Gareth Morgan, formerly of The University of Texas at Austin and now deceased. I hope that some of you who read Beauty and the Boy will fall so deeply in love with Beauty that you will want to study in their original language the thinkers who saw her most clearly--such authors as Plato and Saint Paul. I will be particularly gratified if some of you kids whose hearts burn with desire for Beauty choose to come study Greek and the Classics with me here at Ohio University in Athens. Feel free to drop me a note if you're interested.
In case you would like to read some of my shorter papers and sermons, a few are linked to my faculty web page at the Ohio University Department of Classics and World Religions. And (since some people have inquired): No, I am not the same Steve Hays as the Calvinist blogger whose name shows up quite a bit in Google searches.
Well, enough rattling on. That should give you some idea of what makes me tick. Soon I will link this page to some of my other writings. I also intend to set up a bulletin board linked to this site that will allow both adults and kids to share ideas with people of similar interests.
Well, Friend and fellow dreamer, hold tight to your dreams--the very best and truest and most wonderful dreams. And never give up. Never give up. Never give up.
Steve