BELIEFS AND TEACHINGS
Greco-Roman religion was more concerned with ritual rather than theology. The average person, just wanting to avoid upsetting the gods, would seek to keep their favor by offering sacrifices and performing the correct rituals. But the more intellectual sought to explore such deep issues and questions as those involving the nature of the body and soul and the relationships of the gods with the universe. As a result, the ancient Greeks developed several philosophical schools that have continued to shape human thought. As the early Christians encountered such philosophical concepts, it led to some heated debates between representatives of the church and the Hellenistic thinkers. That interaction began even in the earliest days of the church. The book of Acts records the encounter Paul had with some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Athens (Acts 17:18).
It is essential to know the basic tendencies of such philosophical schools because they have profoundly influenced some Christian thinking. During the church’s early history, its defenders frequently adapted Christian doctrine to Hellenistic philosophy in the hope of making it more understandable to the pagan world. Unfortunately, the use of Greek or, later Roman, philosophical concepts to communicate biblical teachings began to distort those Christian understandings themselves. Such mixing of ideas could create serious and even heretical distortions—some that continue to trouble the church.
The first Greek philosophical schools emerged during the sixth century BC. A number of them sought to understand and explain the origin and functioning of the universe through natural processes rather than supernatural agencies such as gods—an approach that continues today in the approaches of modern materialism and scientism. Often such philosophers viewed some natural elements or phenomena as underlying everything. To Thales of Miletus, it was water. For Diogenes of Apolonia, it was air which he regarded as endowed with intelligence. Heraclitus of Ephesus considered that the fundamental element behind everything was fire since everything is continuously changing as flames do. The Pythagorean School taught that number or mathematics was the key to the universe, for it seemed as if every relationship of beings and activities could be expressed through numbers. The Eleatics differentiated sensory knowledge from the rational, concluding that the former merely captures the appearance of things while reason suggests the truth behind them. Democritus of Abderas taught that the universe consisted of eternal and immutable corpuscles of different shapes and sizes called atoms. Even the human soul was made up of atoms.
The period of classical philosophy began with the teachings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Although they employed several approaches, a common theme among them appears to be a search for God. Socrates extolled the moral as the standard of virtue and claimed that He was assisted by a daimon, a “supernatural being,” who was speaking to his conscience. He recognized the validity of an unwritten law behind the universe and acknowledged the existence of a Higher Mind.
Plato taught the existence of two worlds: one of the ideas and the other of physical objects. In the world of ideas, whose number is infinite, there exists the concept of Good. He saw an intimate connection between the idea of Good and an intelligent God. Aristotle believed that to philosophize was to pursue the principle of things. Everything that exists must have had a first cause. The universal cause of all that exists must be God.
Two schools of thought followed the classical period: Stoicism and Epicureanism. Stoicism, which would have the greatest impact of Christian thought, concluded that because humanity can conceive of the idea that gods might exist (a concept called “cognitive impression), therefore they really must exist. Thus, Stoicism could acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being who is manifested throughout nature and who takes providential care of nature. Whatever happens in the universe is the will of that Being. Human happiness consists of voluntary submission to fate.
The idea of being impervious to the blows of fate especially appeared to ascetic elements in the early church. Unfortunately, that idea, especially a related aspect—that the truly wise person could be self-sufficient—would undercut the Christian concept of love and concern for others. Epicureanism, however, denies the existence of supernatural beings. The universe consists only of eternal material particles. The purpose of life is the prudent pursuit of pleasure. Naturally, it would have little influence on Christianity.
Hellenistic thought continues to influence the modern Western mind, especially those concepts focusing on materialism and rational approaches and understandings. The more theistic elements of Greek philosophy still linger in some forms of Christian thought and theology.
Dillon, “Philosophy,” Dictionary of New Testament Background, 793-796.