The Mutual Influence of Christianity and the Stoic School
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page 9
:
THE MUTUAL INFLUENCE
OF
CHRISTIANITY AND THE STOIC SCHOOL.
JMIES HENRY BRYANT, B.D.
ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
INCUMBENT OF ASTLEY, WARWICKSHIRE.
fxdvTis
itji
iadXiJov
dyuvwv.
Soph. CEd. Col. 1080.
Hontron
antt
(STninbritige
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1866.
page 11
TO HIS GRACE,
WILLIAM,
DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, K.G., LL.D.
CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE,
THE FOLLOWING ESSAY, BEING
THE HULSEAN DISSERTATION
IN
TUE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, FOR THE YEAR 1865,
BY HIS grace's kind PERMISSION,
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
IS
page 13
CONTENTS.
PAfiE
Introduction
*
CHAPTER I.
The
Stoic
13
School of Philosophy
CHAPTER II.
27
Stoicism in comparison with Christianity
CHAPTER III.
48
The Influence of Christianity on Stoicism
CHAPTER IV.
The Influence
Conclusion
of Stoicism
on the Christian Church
...
74
^1
page 15
Clauses directed hy the FOUNDER to he always prefixed
to the
HuLSEAN Dissertation.
CLAUSES from the WILL of tho Rev. JOHN
HULSE, late of Elworth, in the County of Chester,
clerk, deceased
dated tho twenty-first day of July,
:
in the year of our
Lord one thousand seven hun-
dred and teventy-seven ;
expressed
tho
in
words
of the Testator, as he, in order to prevent mistakes,
thought proper to draw and
self,
^vl•ite
the same him-
and directed that such clauses should
every
year be printed, to the intent that the several persons,
whom it might concern and be of service to,
might know that there were such special donations
or endowments left for the encouragement of Piety
and Learning,
an age so unfortunately addicted
in
and Luxury, and that oLhers might
to Infidelity
be invited to the like charitable, and, as he humbly
hoped, seasonable and useful Benefactions.
He
directs that
certain
rents and profits
(now amounting to about a hundred pounds yearly)
be paid to such learned and ingenious person, in the
University of Cambridge, under the degree of Master
of Arts,
as
Dissertation,
shall
in
compose, for that year, the best
the
English
language,
on the Evi-
dences in general, or on the Prophecies or Miracles
in
particular,
or
any
other
particular
Argument,
page 16
:
whether the same be direct or collateral proofs of the
Christian Religion, in order to evince
its
truth and
excellence; the subject of which Dissertation shall be
given out by the Vice-Chancellor, and the Masters of
Trinity and Saint John's, his Trustees, or by some of
them, on New Year's
Day annually
;
and that such
Dissertation as shall be by them *, or any two of them,
on Christmas Day annually, the best approved, be also
printed,
and the expense defrayed out of the Author's
income under his Will, and the remainder gJven to
him on Saint John the
and
who
he
shall
be
Day following;
Evangelist's
so
rewarded,
not
shall
be
admitted at any future time as a Candidate again in
the same
invited
way,
to
the
intent
that
others
may be
and encouraged to write on so sacred and
sublime a subject.
He also desires, that immediately following the last
of the clauses relating to the prize Dissertation, this
invocation
may be added
:
ing for ever go along with
may
" May the
all
the Greatest and the Best
all-wise
Divine Bless-
my benefactions
of Beings,
Providence and gracious influence,
;
and
by
his
make the
same effectual to His own glory, and the good of my
fellow-creatures
!"
Subject proposed by the Trustees for the Year 1865
The mutual Injluence of Christianity and the
Stoic School.
* By the new Regulations, the four Divinity Professors were appointed as additional Adjudicators.
page 17
"
INTRODUCTION.
It was at Atlieus, " the school of the world," that the first
and ouly contact of Christianity with Gentile Philosophy,
New Testament, took place. In "the
learned city" the mightiest efforts of the human mind liad
been made to grasj) eternal truth. But the contradictions
in the teachings of the master-minds of Greece and the
consequent doubt and unbelief so prevalent, at the same
time, with the most abject superstition, proved that the
effort had been vain to arrive at a full comprehension
recorded in the
of the Infinite from a consideration of the finite
from man to GoD.
after the birth
-
to rise
In this same city, about half a century
of the Redeemer, there
was unveiled to
human souls which had been longing for the knowledge
of the unseen, " the mystery of Godliness," that " GOD
had been " manifest in the fiesh." The eyes which had
been long looking for the day might now behold the daystar from on high who had visited and blessed the world
with light and salvation. Now there could be found
repose of soul and certainty of belief, because the Truth
had come down from heaven, from GoD to man, that He
might raise man to GoD. Heavenly wisdom at length
encountered human wisdom and pride of intellect in their
stronghold.
By this I do not mean that before St Paul came to
B
page 18, segment 1/2
INTRODUCTION.
2
Athens tliere had been no contest of the religion of Christ
with mere human conceits. Philosophy is only the endeavour to reduce the thoughts of men to a system, to find a
grammar for the language of the mind, or rather, perhaps,
Wherever there
to find a language as well as a grammar.
is mind there will be thought, either with, or without a
So that Christianity, in winning its way, had met
system.
with opposition of human thought before the great Apostle of
Jesus reached the metropolis of thought.
Indeed
the very sects of philosophy, which sneered at the revelation of heavenly truth on its introduction into Athens,
had their counterparts in Jadsea, and especially at Jerusalem.
We have the testimony of a Pharisee, that the "sect
of the Pharisees -bore a strong affinity to that called Stoic
among the Greeks \" We are led to perceive, also, from
we have of the free-living Sadducees, who
claimed absolute freedom for the human will, that the
the accounts
Epicureans were represented in some degree by them.
They were sceptics as to the providence of GoD, "believed
away all fate,
in neither angel, nor spirit^;" "they took
and would not allow it to be anything at all, nor to have
any power over human affairs, but put all things entirely
into the power of our own free wnlP."
Both Pharisees
and Sadducees, though disagreeing in other respects, yet
were united in their efforts against the spread of the truth.
From the earliest preaching of the doctrines of the Gospel,
the same spirit of self-seeking and joride of human nature
^
vri.
"H ^apiaaiuv aXpeais 7rapair\i^<ri.os iarl rrj trap "EXKrjai Srwlkj 'Keyofx^-
- Jos. in vita sua.
^
Acts xxiii. 8.
2
Irjv fiiv
elfiapfj.ii'rjv
avaipovffiv, oiihiv etvai. rair-qv d^iovvres, oire /car'
aiTT^v rd.
page 18, segment 2/2
avOpdjiriva t^Xos 'Kajj.da.vuv, atravra ik
Jos. Ant. Jud. xnr. 5.
i<p' rj/x'iy
avTo7s Ti6ivT(S.
-
page 19, segment 1/2
3
INTRODUCTION.
which animated the Epicureans and Stoics, showed themselves adverse to the humbling views which Jesus set
forth.
And we cannot forget that St Paul, immediately
been in great danger at Damascus and at Jerusalem from the rage of the Jews
because of his becoming a Christian, dwelt some time in
after his conversion, having
We have no record of
native city.
([uiet at Tarsus, his
how he spent his time there on that occasion.
less,
as at other
But doubt-
places so there, he would proclaim the
conviction which he so strongly felt of the excellence and
truth of the Gospel.
If so,
it
is
probable that he met
with the same kind of coldness and contempt for his message from the philosophers of Tarsus, as afterwards from
those of Athens.
for the
The native city of St Paul was noted
eagerness for learning displayed by
Strabo tells us " the
its
people.
men of this place are so zealous in
the study of philosophy and all other subjects of education
that they surjiass the inhabitants of Athens and Alexandria,
and every place that one could mention where schools
of philosophy
found.
are
The
difference
is
in this re-
Here they are all natives who are eager after
Icarninfj, and strangers do not choose a residence here.
They themselves (the Tarsians) do not stay, but finish
spect.
Few return home again.
their course of training abroad.
Whereas, in the other cities which I have named, except
Alexandria, there
is
a contrary practice
to them and live willingly there
:
;
for
many come
but you will see few of
those born there either going to other places for the sake
uf philosophy, or caring to study
it
at home.
The Alex-
andrians combine both descriptions, for they receive many
and send abroad not a few of their own people."
We
page 19, segment 2/2
learn also from other sources that from Cilicia, and
•strangers,
especially from Tarsu.s,
a great
many of the most cele-
b2
page 20, segment 1/2
4'
"
INTRODUCTION.
brated Stoics came, and it appears therefore extremely
probable that St Paul would meet with such in his visit to
that
city.
If
truth from his
he met with them, they would hear the
lips.
His heart would prompt him, as it
did afterwards at Athens, to proclaim glad tidings of sal-
and to those who professed to seek the
knowledge of deeper mysteries than the ignorant mass
cared to inquire about, he would declare "the mystery
which " had " been hid for ages," but was now " revealed
to the sons of men by Jesus Christ."
Of these meetings between the Apostle and the philosophers of his native city, if they took place, we have no
record.
The first account we have of the contact of the
religion of Christ and the wisdom of men is given us by
vation to
all ;
the writer of the Acts of the Apostles, in the seventeenth
We are' told that, while St Paul
waited at Athens for Silas and Timotheus, " his spirit was
chapter of the history.
stirred within
idolatry.
him when he saw the city wholly given to
Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with
the Jews and with the devout persons
;
and in the market
(t^ ayopa) daily with them that met him.
Then certain
of the Epicureans
and of the Stoics encountered him.
And some said, 'What will this babbler say ?' Other some,
He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods because
he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection." It
seems necessary in passing, to notice here the two sects of
philosophers who encountered the Apostle.
They were
then the two most prominent in Greece one might say
'
;'
;
they divided between them the adherence of all thoughtful minds.
The Epicureans were advocates of the doctrine
of the absolute freedom of the human will to choose what
is
agreeable to
it.
They denied the
page 20, segment 2/2
providence of GoD,
or that he concerns himself at all about
human affairs.