Detectives in Togas

Pastor Allen's reference to the conditions of slavery in Roman times provided a useful historical frame of reference for his exposition of Ephesians 6:5-9 for us this past Sunday. While he was correct in transposing this into "employers and employees" for our own contemporary application, it is good for us to realize that Paul had a particular challenge in interpreting the gospel to his own world and time.

As a defender of classical Christian education, I am often asked why we would have children learn so much about the Roman and Greek world. These two great civilizations and cultures still impact much of what we know and practice even today. They are particularly relevant to Christians in helping us understand the world to which the New Testament writers were speaking.

The book depicted here, Detectives in Togas, is a standard curriculum item in most classical Christian schools. Besides being a ripping good adventure yarn for pre-adolescents, it provides invaluable insights into the role of slavery (Allen's theme in the message), the geography of Rome, upper, occupations and life styles of Romans in the various social classes, and hosts of details about daily life in those times. As one student put it after reading the book, "I ended up never minding to learn Latin at school; after all it was the language of Caius, Rufus, and the rest of the gang." (Charlotte Esser, Germany).