Looking for a new movie to watch? Give Agora a try. This intriguing and ultimately very moving film tells the tale of Hypatia, the (atheist) mathematician and philosopher murdered by a Christian mob in 415 AD. Silver screen historical accuracy is what it is, and Agora definitely has more than a touch of hagiography about it (it also makes some fairly remarkable—and, I suspect, unprovable–assumptions about just how far Hypatia’s mathematical research had advanced by the time of her death), but this is a story that deserves to be heard more, and with Hypatia marvelously played by Rachel Weisz, this movie is as good an introduction as you are likely to find.
Agora · Christian fundamentalism · Hypatia
5 comments
<< Re: Agora
Snippet · June 4, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Thanks for the recommendation.
I’ll wait for Netflix, but this looks like a promising and interesting tale of the clash between applied reason and a certain … ahem (cough! cough!) … nascent religious tradition.
Not exactly a novel concept these days, but perhaps a necessary counterargument to the one commonly pushed these days that a … certain … religion promoted reason and science, rather than fighting it tooth and nail (and finally, Thank God! losing the battle.)
T. Sifert · June 4, 2010 at 8:18 pm
David B. Hart today @ On The Square: The Perniciously Persistent Myths of Hypatia and the Great Library
Gracchus · June 5, 2010 at 11:03 pm
Was Hypatia an atheist or a pagan? Obviously, they are not the same.
Panglos · June 6, 2010 at 4:38 am
Interesting and voluminous comments at the link.
J. · June 6, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Not sure “atheist” works as a description of Hypatia’s alleged neo-platonism. The history of her life looks rather murky. Regardless many in college town don’t realize that pagan and neo-platonic scribes battled against the christians (and jews), even until like the reign of Justinian (and a few decades after the fall of RE, another monotheistic sect, the, mohammedans arrive)
Either way, the story of Hypatia is an interesting legend, and not exactly the normal HBO soft-porn product.