西方文化读本

目 录

Unit 1 Ancient Greek Culture and Wisdom…1

Section A Greek Mythology…1

Section B City-States: Athens and Sparta…8

Section C Socrates …14

Unit 2 Roman Empire and Latin Culture…24

Section A History of Roman Empire…24

Section B All Roads Lead to Rome…30

Section C Cleopatra, the Egyptian Queen and Her Love Affairs…36

Unit 3 The Bible and Its History…46

Section A History of the Bible…46

Section B The Christmas Story of the Birth of Jesus…53

Section C Genesis…58

Unit 4 The Middle Ages and the Rise of Modern Europe…69

Section A The Middle Ages…69

Section B The Rise of the States…77

Section C The Rise of Universities in the Middle Ages…83

Unit 5 Renaissance and Church Reformation…95

Section A Renaissance…95

Section B The Reformation…102

Section C Henry VIII and His Six Wives…109

Unit 6 Enlightenment and the Origin of Modern Science…120

Section A The Age of Enlightenment…120

Section B On the Shoulders of Giants: Isaac Newton and Modern Science…127

Section C Francis Bacon: Fame and Disgrace…132

Unit 7 Romanticism and Realism…143

Section A Romanticism in Europe…143

Section B Romanticism in America…151

Section C Realism in Europe…157

Unit 8 Modernism and Contemporary Western Culture…172

Section A Modernism and Modernist Movement…172

Section B The Distinct Character of Contemporary American Culture …180

Section C How Contemporary American Society Tramples on Principles

of Integrity…187

Glossary…198

《西方文化读本》用英语编写，力图为学习者展现西方文化的概貌。编者在选材时尽量将历史概述与具体故事、知识性和趣味性相结合，调动学习者对阅读的兴趣，斯巴达的勇士、埃及艳后的故事、歌德的爱情、尼采的哲学等等，这些对于大部分学生来说曾是""道听途说""来的模糊形象，都可以在这本书中找到清晰的介绍。为了适应课堂教学和语言操练的需要，作者在每篇选读文章后都配备了适合的练习。练习形式丰富多样，使学生在阅读之后可以通过练习来检查和巩固所学知识。

The Middle Ages of Europe is usually regarded as a “dark period” by many historians, but it is this dark period that gave birth to the university. The European university in Middle Ages, in terms of educational conception and curricula, inherited from both oriental and western civilization, especially ancient Greece, ancient Rome and Arabian world and characterized the early form of university.
Establishment of the University
The first institutions generally considered to be universities were established in Italy, France, Spain and England in the late 11th and the 12th centuries for the study of arts, law, medicine, and theology. ①These universities evolved from much older Christian cathedral schools and monastic schools, and it is difficult to define the date at which they became true universities. Universities were formalized when they were granted charters. The University of Bologna can trace its origins back to the late 11th century and received its charter in the 12th century.
Other early universities established in Europe include the University of Paris in France and Oxford in England. Before 1500 more than eighty universities were established in Western and Central Europe. During the subsequent Colonization of the Americas the university was introduced to the New World, marking the beginning of its worldwide spread as the center of higher learning everywhere.
Characteristics
②The university of the Middle Ages was not entirely unlike the modern institution that we are familiar with today, in that its ostensible goal was to train the next generation of young minds for a career — in this case, the church.
Initially the universities of the Middle Ages did not have physical facilities such as the campus of a modern university. Classes were taught wherever space was available, such as churches and homes. A university was not a physical space but a collection of individuals banded together as a universitas. Soon, however, some universities (such as Cambridge) began to rent, buy or construct buildings specifically for the purposes of teaching.
Universities were generally structured along three types, depending on who paid the teachers. The first type was in Bologna, where students hired and paid for the teachers. The second type was in Paris, where teachers were paid by the church. The third type, such as Oxford and Cambridge, was predominantly supported by the crown and the state. These structural differences created other characteristics. At the Bologna University the students ran everything — a fact that often put teachers under great pressure and disadvantage. In Paris, teachers ran the school; thus Paris became the premiere spot for teachers from all over Europe. In Bologna, where students chose more secular studies, the main subject was law. Latin was the language of instruction throughout the middle ages, and beyond.
Curriculum and Degree
University studies took six years for a Master of Arts degree (a Bachelor of Arts degree could be awarded along the way), which entitled a scholar to teach anywhere in Christendom. By the 13th century, almost half of the highest offices and over one-third of the second-highest offices in the Church were occupied by degreed masters. The studies for this were organized by the faculty of arts, where the seven liberal arts were taught: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music theory, grammar (the art of reading and writing, focusing on the psalms, other parts of the Bible, and the Latin classics), rhetoric and logic. The primary emphasis was on logic.
A popular textbook for university study was called the Sentences; theology students and masters were required to write extensive commentaries on this text as part of their curriculum. ③Once a Master of Arts degree had been conferred, the student could leave the university or pursue further studies in one of the higher faculties, law, medicine, or theology, the last one being the most prestigious.
④Courses were not elective: the course offerings were set, and everyone had to take the same courses. There were, however, occasional choices as to which teacher to use.
Social Life
The social life at the medieval university was also quite similar to today’s system. ⑤Their rules and regulations set up provisions against gambling, flamboyant dress, staying up to all hours, and associating with loose women. Students were afforded the legal protection of the clergy. In this way no one was allowed to physically harm them; they could only be tried for crimes in a church court, and were thus immune from any corporal punishment. This produced many abuses: theft, rape and murder were not uncommon among students. And as much as modern-day professors may complain, 21st-century students who stay up late drinking in pubs are doing no more than following the tradition established by their forebears.
Significance of the Universities during the Middle Ages
⑥ The development of universities during the Middle Ages provided and still provides an important center for scholarship and intellectual exchange. It has a profound influence on the modern university and the formation of prototype of higher educational system. The modern disciplines of the sciences are particularly deeply rooted within this academic hierarchy that was initially developed in the Middle Ages.
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