Excellent work! As a former atheist myself, I get where you're coming from. Atheism is purely negative, lacking any positive beliefs of its own, especially moral values. Without God, we're all just random blobs of matter and morality is purely relative. I think you're right that the modern world is Epicurean, even if it likes to present itself as Stoic. It could even be called Cyrenaic in its hedonism. The Church Fathers also had some pitfalls sanctifying Platonism, as the medievals did with Aristotelianism, so Stoicism can be sanctified too, so long as we're guided by Church teaching. One interesting parallel are Stoic ideas about the Logos.
Yeah, it seems like the Stoics had some hints of what God would do, but they didn’t quite connect the dots. The Logos is a nice tie-in. It’s like, oh that’s what that means!
There is an element of stoicism in abandoning oneself towards God, because we are casting all of our care on Him. This is the relationship with God that produces virtue for sustaining the stoicism in a way that is not otherwise possible. The peace and strength from the Holy Spirit is required to sustain it. The Law of Sin, which is our human weakness, prevents us from being truly stoical. Christ is what is lacking in non-Christian stoicism.
Interesting and fascinating! I think your statement that "grace means God saves us from drowning even though we have fallen short of His perfect goodness" says it well!
Great article, Dave!
Thanks!
Excellent work! As a former atheist myself, I get where you're coming from. Atheism is purely negative, lacking any positive beliefs of its own, especially moral values. Without God, we're all just random blobs of matter and morality is purely relative. I think you're right that the modern world is Epicurean, even if it likes to present itself as Stoic. It could even be called Cyrenaic in its hedonism. The Church Fathers also had some pitfalls sanctifying Platonism, as the medievals did with Aristotelianism, so Stoicism can be sanctified too, so long as we're guided by Church teaching. One interesting parallel are Stoic ideas about the Logos.
Yeah, it seems like the Stoics had some hints of what God would do, but they didn’t quite connect the dots. The Logos is a nice tie-in. It’s like, oh that’s what that means!
There is an element of stoicism in abandoning oneself towards God, because we are casting all of our care on Him. This is the relationship with God that produces virtue for sustaining the stoicism in a way that is not otherwise possible. The peace and strength from the Holy Spirit is required to sustain it. The Law of Sin, which is our human weakness, prevents us from being truly stoical. Christ is what is lacking in non-Christian stoicism.
Stoicism is like a black and white photo, and Christ puts it in color.
Interesting and fascinating! I think your statement that "grace means God saves us from drowning even though we have fallen short of His perfect goodness" says it well!