Genesis and Metamorphoses

[26 minutes] In this book club for East and West Learning Connections, I discuss the book of Genesis and the first 200 lines of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. This is the first in a series of lectures in which we will be looking at books from the past 2000 years that influenced English literature. Some of the themes we will be looking at are the importance of free will, the individual in society, the role of the gods and fate, the nature of virtue, and love, happiness, and gratitude. Next month we will carry on discussing Ovid’s Metamorphoses but we will look at Book 10. We will also discuss the Bible book of John. After that we will read Dante, Virgil, Chaucer, Plato, and Aristotle, among others.  Membership in the East and West Learning Club is available to the public here.