Classics’ Daniel Crosby (M.A. ’17) Ponders Ancient Oracles and Early Church Fathers in Upcoming Book Chapter

What happened to ancient religious institutions such as the Delphic Oracle once Christianity emerged as the dominant religion of the Mediterranean world? Did oracles persist as potent, sociologically entrenched practices in opposition to church doctrine? What was the response of early Christian church fathers? These are the musings of Daniel Crosby (M.A. ’17, Classics) in his upcoming chapter " 'Arrows Fletched from Our Own Wings': Discovering a ‘Delphi of the Mind’ in the Writings of the Early Church Fathers" in the upcoming Prophets and Profits: Ancient Divination and Its Reception edited by Richard Evans. Daniel takes a look at a strange phenomenon in the writings of early church fathers in which Delphi, then a bygone center of ancient Greek religious life, remained a source of anxiety for church theological teachings.

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