The document summarizes a study brunch session on the Gospel of Matthew held at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church. It discusses how Matthew incorporated Jewish and Greco-Roman philosophical thought, specifically Stoicism, into his gospel. Stoicism was a prominent philosophy during Matthew's time that believed the universe is rational and humans can attain virtue by aligning their intentions with nature or God. The document then provides a more in-depth description of Stoic philosophy and its views on logos, or reason, being embodied in both humans and the universe, with the goal of achieving complete harmony between one's actions and world events.
The document summarizes a study brunch session on the Gospel of Matthew held at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church. It discusses how Matthew incorporated Jewish and Greco-Roman philosophical thought, specifically Stoicism, into his gospel. Stoicism was a prominent philosophy during Matthew's time that believed the universe is rational and humans can attain virtue by aligning their intentions with nature or God. The document then provides a more in-depth description of Stoic philosophy and its views on logos, or reason, being embodied in both humans and the universe, with the goal of achieving complete harmony between one's actions and world events.
The document summarizes a study brunch session on the Gospel of Matthew held at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church. It discusses how Matthew incorporated Jewish and Greco-Roman philosophical thought, specifically Stoicism, into his gospel. Stoicism was a prominent philosophy during Matthew's time that believed the universe is rational and humans can attain virtue by aligning their intentions with nature or God. The document then provides a more in-depth description of Stoic philosophy and its views on logos, or reason, being embodied in both humans and the universe, with the goal of achieving complete harmony between one's actions and world events.
The document summarizes a study brunch session on the Gospel of Matthew held at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church. It discusses how Matthew incorporated Jewish and Greco-Roman philosophical thought, specifically Stoicism, into his gospel. Stoicism was a prominent philosophy during Matthew's time that believed the universe is rational and humans can attain virtue by aligning their intentions with nature or God. The document then provides a more in-depth description of Stoic philosophy and its views on logos, or reason, being embodied in both humans and the universe, with the goal of achieving complete harmony between one's actions and world events.
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 3
St Timothys Episcopal Church
Study Brunch Fall 2013
The Gospel of Matthew Session 3: September 25, 2013 Seneca: Philosophy . . . moulds and constructs the soul; it orders our life, guides our conduct, shows us what we should do and what we should leave undone . . . Ep. 16.3
Introductions and Opening Prayer
Matthew remembers Jesus combining Jewish and Popular Greco-
Roman Thought The Antitheses: Building a Stoic fence around the Law
The Stoics: Developed from 300 B.C.E. to be the leading
philosophy in Matthews time
Key Stoic philosophical tenets in three sentences:
This is the best of all possible worlds
The universe is suffused with the pneuma or spirit that
brings the logos or meaning, or rationality into the universe.
Events are inevitable; therefore, virtue comes not from
actions but from intentions
Stoicism in the New Testament
What from contemporary culture should we incorporate in our faith life? A Description of Stoicism
The Stoics . . . prided themselves on the coherence of their
philosophy. They were convinced that the universe is amenable to rational explanation, and is itself a rationally organized structure. The faculty in man which enables him to think, to plan and to speak -- which the Stoics called logos -- is literally embodied in the universe at large. The individual human being at the essence of his nature shares a property which belongs to Nature in the cosmic sense. And because cosmic Nature embraces all that there is, the human individual is a part of the world in a precise and integral sense. Cosmic events and human actions are therefore not happenings of two quite different orders: in the last analysis they are both alike consequences of one thing -- logos. To put it another way, cosmic Nature or God (the term refers to the same thing in Stoicism) and man are related to each other at the heart of their being as rational agents. If a man fully recognizes the implications of this relationship, he will act in a manner which wholly accords with human rationality at its best, the excellence of which is guaranteed by its willing agreement with Nature. This is what it is to be wise, a step beyond mere rationality and the goal of human existence is complete harmony between a man's own attitudes and actions and the actual course of events. A. A. Long, Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics. (New York: Charles Scribners' Sons, 1974), page 108.