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STOICS

(Gk. Stōikoi)

Stoicism, a philosophical school founded at Athens by Zeno (ca. 336-263 b.c.e.). Zeno was greatly influenced by Socrates. His teaching was a reaction against Epicurus, who taught that everything that exists is the result of the random or accidental collision of atoms. Zeno, quite the contrary, saw all the universe as governed by Reason and the purpose of life as more social, religious, and moral. The name of the school of thought comes from Gk. Stoa Poikilē, the “painted porch” or colonnaded structure in Athens where Zeno taught. Followers of this school, which appealed most to an intellectual elite, include Cicero, Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius, though the teaching of Zeno was for women and men alike. Stoicism offered to its followers a community of intellectualism, freedom from the fear of death, a philosophical outlook that involved more than personal salvation, a world in which the material order was permeated with God, a consistent and respectable ethical platform, and a philosophy with a lively mix of religion and morality.

Stoics sought happiness through wisdom and the recognition of Reason behind the universe, which supplied life with moral purpose and made the world understandable. They held that the entire material world is permeated with God, with Reason. This means that throughout all the universe is a divine and rational harmony. The Stoics called this cosmic reason Logos and saw the human soul as a spark of the universal mind. Though Logos gave order to the universe, it was subordinate to Fate. Their belief that Logos was subordinate to Fate created a tension in the Stoics’ philosophical system, for if Reason were a binding and universal Law and Fate were unalterable, how could humans have any real freedom and why should one bother to try to bring about change for good in the world? They answered that it was not the results of one’s acts and behavior but the attempt itself to live a good life and to achieve virtue that mattered finally. They saw that even if one could not choose for life to bring different circumstances to them, at least they could choose the attitudes with which they would accept the inevitable circumstances. Consequently, they sought to control what was within their power and to accept with dignity what life brought to them. They held that it is the task of humans to perceive and fit in with the universal order, to play one’s part in the human experience, and to choose how one handles events in life. The happy person, they taught, does not fight against life but accepts it with tranquility and dignity, and endures both favorable and tragic experiences with unperturbed equanimity. By self-control and stability, one attains happiness. Stoics believed that one should not fear death because the immortal soul, a part of the fiery universal principle, will live again many times. If people cannot escape death, at least they can escape the fear of death.

Stoics were in Paul’s audience when he spoke in Athens (Acts 17:18).

Bibliography. F. H. Sandbach, The Stoics (New York, 1971).

Richard A. Spencer







Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)

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