Epictetus (55-135) was one of the leading lights of the Stoic school of Greek philosophy. He became a Stoic while still a slave in Rome. Later freed, he was kicked out of Rome with all the other Stoics by Domitian in 90. He went to Greece and started his own school. We have two of his books, the “Discourses” and the “Encheiridion”.
If you have read the Bible, you should read Epictetus: he is the missing chapter between Socrates and the New Testament. In the time of St Paul Stoic philosophy affected people’s everyday thinking like how Freud and Marx affects ours. Stoic thought was the mental background noise of the age.
Surprisingly, Epictetus often makes a stronger case for what we would call good Christian living than the Bible does – because he gives down-to-earth reasons for it, not those of heaven and hell.
At times in Epictetus it almost seems as if Christianity is just Stoic philosophy for the masses.
At times, because they part ways on two very important questions: sin and death.
Sin:
Epictetus says that you can become a good person by an act of will, through self control and right reason. Christians say that is impossible: it takes an act of God – what is called grace. To a Christian, the whole point of the Old Testament is that man cannot make it on his own, that just knowing what is right and wrong and wanting to do good is not enough. If it were, we would all be Jews. Or Stoics.
Death:
Both Epictetus and Christians see that death is at the root of our fears and drives us to do senseless things. For example, people do not become famous, get rich, own large houses and fancy cars because they need them in and of themselves. At root, they do it because they are afraid to die. The fear of the abyss ruins our character. We will never live right, we will never be all that we should be, till we face death and somehow overcome it.
Part of what makes Christ stick out so much in people’s mind is how he was so unafraid of death and lived life accordingly.
Where the Stoics and Christians part company is how they overcome death. Christians overcome it through faith in God and his promise of a blessed afterlife for the faithful. Stoics, not believing in an immortal soul, have to come to terms with death head on.
Epictetus cares little about nature – for him the burning question for philosophy is how best to live. In this he is a child of his age. Yet his answer is hard to take since it means giving up everything we have built our lives on.
Epictetus, like Plotinus, unwittingly shows you how to put together the best of Greek philosophy with Christianity; how they are not really all that far apart.
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I like what you say about Epictetus being “the missing chapter between Socrates and the New Testament”. What a tragedy that a lot of Christians don’t know all that great writing and wisdom that came before with the ancients. The little courage in the face of death I have, I got from him. Thanks for post.
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Epictetus or Christianity? The hocus-pocus of religion kicks the stuffing out of a sound philosophy — every time.
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ManAlive:
Wow, thank you for your comment! It is mainly just spambots who take an interest in the ancients these days.
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@abagond
I have only read his text “On Freedom.”
I like some of it, yet sometimes his idea of freedom is a buit too extreme, in my opinion:
= = = = = = = = = = =
A: ‘Yes, but I want my wife and my children to be with me.’
Epictetus: Are they yours? Are they not His who gave them? Are they not His who has made you? Will you not give up what it not yours, and give way to Him who is stronger than you?
= = = = = = = = = = =
And for the translation: see: http://sacred-texts.com/cla/dep/dep087.htm , p. 416
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@ Abagond
Please consider adding categories to your sidebar. There are lots of wonderful posts like these that languish in obscurity because they are not searchable by category.
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@ Jeff
That’s the Stoic in him. Not terribly popular in these Epicurean times.
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@ Afrofem
I am terrible when it comes to tagging! I have over 3,000 posts and maybe only the 1,000 oldest ones are tagged as something more interesting than “stuff”.
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@ Abagond
Understood. That would be a big job to retroactively categorized those posts.
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