A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. – Acts 17:18

Today's Scripture Reading (February 1, 2021): Acts 17

Sigmund Freud argued that "the goal towards which the pleasure principle impels us - of becoming happy - is not attainable: yet we may not - nay, cannot - give up the efforts to come nearer to realization of it by some means or other." The thought follows an Epicurean philosophy. The Epicurean philosophers believed that pleasure was the chief purpose of life. Because pleasure was the goal of life, they thought that we should pursue the possibility of living a peaceful life that minimized the pain in the present life and that we should refrain from engaging in disturbing passions and learning to overcome superstitious fears, including the fear of death.

The Stoics were almost the opposite of the Epicureans. They were believers in the gods, and they were not willing to limit themselves to just one theology. They believed in living our lives with a moral sincerity and a high sense of duty. They cultivated dignity in life and thought that suicide was better than a life lived without dignity. And for the Stoics, everything was god, and god was in everything.

It is these two groups who encounter Paul as he preaches about the resurrected Jesus. At least from their philosophical points of view, the problem was that the words of Paul made no sense. The Epicureans believed that there was nothing to fear in death; therefore, resurrection made little sense. The Stoics believed that death was preferable to life without dignity. Because the execution of Jesus revealed a lack of dignity, death was the preferable option. And as far as Paul's teaching about the deity of Jesus, their argument would have been that god is in all of us and that we are all, at least marginally, god.

To these groups, Paul was nothing more than a babbler of words. He was an exotic attraction speaking about a foreign spirituality, much like the Eastern spiritual belief systems that have infected contemporary Western culture. Some might be attracted to it because of its foreignness, but for most, it would be a momentary flirtation and not a lasting commitment.

Despite this, Paul did not change his message. He still preached Jesus the resurrected, believing that in the end, the truth about God would win the day and the people who bothered to consider the message that he was teaching.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Acts 18