Medieval Civilization: Millennia in Microcosm Week 152

Join us for an exploration of Kenneth Smith’s analysis of hamartia, the tragic flaw that turns intelligence against itself. In this session, we’ll examine how early Christianity redefined sin—not as mere wrongdoing, but as a profound misjudgment rooted in ego and blindness to the essential. Drawing from Greek tragedy, Smith presents Oedipus as the ultimate case of hamartia in extremis: a man who mistakes his cleverness for insight and brings ruin upon himself despite every warning. Through this lens, sin becomes not just moral failure but a spiritual pathology—a corruption of perception, of self-awareness, of the soul’s capacity to recognize what truly matters. We’ll discuss how this tragic blindness speaks not only to individuals, but to cultures that exalt ego over wisdom and mistake fragmentation for strength.
C: Selfless Love and The Encompassing https://kennethsmithphilosophy.com/end07.php