Laudator Temporis Acti

Peter Brown, Journeys of the Mind: A Life in History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023), pp. 87-88:

Greek opened other worlds to me. It had begun as a slog. My very first act of conscious impiety was to decide, on a strict cost-opportunity basis, to devote my attention in school chapel not to the Psalms but to the silent recitation of Greek irregular verbs. But even this grind added a further dimension to my heart. When muttering verbs, I would stare at the stained glass windows of the school chapel. These were classic examples of what could be called "Anglican Hellenism." Here was an idealized ancient world, in which Apostles and Fathers of the Church were dressed in impeccable togas. In scenes of the life of Saint Martin or of the confrontation between Saint Ambrose and Theodosius I, holy persons in pure classical garb appeared before emperors and their soldiers, who were dressed in uniforms taken straight from our textbooks of Roman history. Eventually, Greek and Latin would open up for me not only the road back to Athens and Rome, but also (and just as importantly) the road to Galilee and to Saint Paul.

Cf. Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion (Princeton: Princeton University Press,1978), on classical scholar Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve (1831-1924):

A regular churchgoer, he kept himself awake during sermons by mentally translating them into Greek, sentence by sentence as uttered, a practice he recommended as "a peculiarly rewarding means of grace."