Rewriting History - Faltonia Proba

FOURTH CENTURY

What if you took various lines of Shakespeare and put them in a different order to tell a biblical story? That’s essentially what was done by Faltonia Proba, a Roman noblewoman. The middle of the fourth century was a time of great change. Under Emperor Constantine, Rome was now officially Christian, though there were still many who honored the traditional gods. Faltonia was brought up in a pagan family, and some of her early poetry apparently reflected those beliefs. But then she became a Christian, and that new commitment inspired her masterpiece, “De Laudibus Christi” (essentially, “In Praise of Christ”).

This epic poem begins with creation, moves through some Old Testament stories, and continues with the ministry of Jesus. But here’s the tricky part: Faltonia used lines from Virgil’s Aeneid, pulling them out of order and reassembling them (and changing a few names) to tell the biblical stories. It’s called a “cento,” from a Greek word meaning “needle.” This form was occasionally used by ancient writers, sometimes in theatrical comedies, stitching together lines from a well-known text to tell a new story.

Faltonia’s “needlework” proved quite popular—and controversial—in the following centuries. Jerome panned it. Popes banned it. Emperors asked for copies of it. Historians praised Faltonia’s “ingenuity” and included her in an early “Who’s Who.” Her masterwork was studied in medieval schools. In the fifteenth century, it was probably the first printed work written by a woman.

So let’s think for a moment about what she did. Rather than completely rejecting non-Christian culture (as many Christians have done, then and now), she used it to create a new story: the Good News of Jesus. Her work had a ring of familiarity in the ears of the pagans who heard it, but it communicated far more than the lines originally did. Isn’t this something like Paul’s strategy in Athens, where he quoted Greek poets to express truth about the Creator?

How can we do this sort of thing in our day? Can we take bits and pieces of our culture—hashtags and sitcoms, ads and rap songs—and stitch them together to communicate the amazing story of Jesus? You don’t need to write an epic poem; just start seeing the whole culture as a grab bag of gospel sharing.

This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.

Acts 17:23