Dear friends,
In the coming weeks, I’m beginning a new Art Lectio series for paid subscribers called Ancient Civilizations.
In this series, we’ll travel through the ancient world through its art. Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Persia, Assyria, the early Christian world, and beyond. We will move slowly through artworks, objects, monuments, carvings, vessels, frescoes, icons, temples, tombs and fragments, asking what they reveal about the people who made them and the worlds they inhabited.
This will not be a tour of curiosities. It will not be a way of standing above the past, congratulating ourselves on what we think we have outgrown. It will be a practice of attention. We will look at what ancient peoples loved, feared, imagined, and prayed for.
Some of these works were made for worship. Some for memory. Some for beauty. Some for the ordinary rituals of daily life. Each one carries a trace of human seriousness. Each one asks us to slow down and wonder what kind of world could have made it.
That is the heart of the series. Not simply ancient art history, though there will be history. Not simply symbolism, though we will attend carefully to symbols. Not simply aesthetic appreciation, though beauty will guide us. The deeper question is this: what wisdom has the ancient world preserved in its art, and what might it still teach us about being human?
For paid subscribers, this series will offer a slower and more substantial journey than the daily reel format allows. There will be room for context, visual analysis, reflection, and the kinds of questions that need more space than a caption can hold.
Because this note is being sent to everyone, some of you reading this are already paid subscribers.
Thank you.
This series is being made for you.
Your support makes it possible to devote time to deeper research, slower writing, and work that is not entirely shaped by the demands of the algorithm.
For those who are not yet paid subscribers, I’d love to invite you to join in. A paid subscription is not just access to extra posts. It is a way of helping this work remain what it is meant to be: slow, thoughtful, formative, and rooted in the belief that beauty can train us to see more truthfully.
The ancient world has not finished speaking. Its ruins still hold forms. Its fragments still carry questions. Its artworks still ask us to become the kind of people who can look with care.
I hope you’ll come with me.
Ancient Civilizations begins soon for paid subscribers.
