Dr Paul Allen

Many are well aware of Galatians 5:22–23, where Paul speaks of the fruit of the Spirit. Yet, very rarely do we make connections between that passage and a popular philosophy that reigned in Paul’s day, namely, Stoicism. While Stoicism was a school of philosophy that included several perspectives, a popular consensus among these Stoic philosophers was the notion of the unity of virtues . Within Stoicism, it was widely accepted that if one did not possess all the virtues, one did not possess any of them. This sounds odd to modern ears since it seems to imply the necessity of perfection in order to be truly virtuous, but even the Stoics acknowledged that such perfection was nearly unattainable in this life.  Yet while in the pursuit of the virtuous life, the Stoics believed that if one claimed to have possessed some virtues but did not possess others, then it would be questionable as to whether the Stoic sage possessed any of them. I believe that a similar notion could be ...

Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor  (Ps. 39:5). The futility of life can be ignored, but it can’t be denied . Everyone who does not have Jesus Christ as their Savior feels the meaningless of life, and they’re doing everything possible to run from it. Today we will examine two of the most common ways people try to escape the futility of life as they search for happiness. Some turn to stoicism. Stoics try to maintain an emotionless outlook on everything. They don’t let the woes of life penetrate their iron-clad veneer. Stoics believe that happiness resides in rigid self-control. Just stay cool and don’t let anything bother you. Another more common way people try to find happiness is through the maximization of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. The ancient Greeks who held to this hedonistic philosophy were called Epicureans . They did not want to overdose on pleasure—and thus become bored with life—but they wanted to maintain just the right amount of pleas...

The "Hospitality of Abraham" by Andrei Rublev. The three angels symbolize the Trinity, which is rarely depicted directly in art. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In  Torn to Heal: God ’s Good Purpose in Suffering , Mike Leake offers a “bare bones theology of suffering.” He does this by reflecting on the idea that “God uses the tearing of suffering to provide healing—a healing that goes far beyond the wound that is claiming our immediate attention.” He begins with examples from the lives of Abraham , Hosea , Gideon , Joseph, and Job. He shows that God fulfills his promises, but does so in ways that seem (to us, anyway) counterintuitive. Then, in the heart of the book, he shows two ways Christians can get things seriously wrong: dualism and  stoicism . Both ways of thinking are faulty, both are partly correct, and both come in semi- Christian versions that run rampant in the church and do great harm. The dualistic Christian acknowledges that evil is something to stri...