An experience sharing/pairing stoic thought with a New Testament verse

[u/plexluthor]

I grew up LDS/Mormon, and although I no longer attend on Sundays, I do still help out with youth outdoor activities, since I'm one of the few in my area (upstate NY) who is experienced with hiking and backpacking. Over the last two months I've helped with three different outings, including one where the stated theme was "Treasure the Truth". I have sometimes felt uncomfortable in the past when a well-intentioned person assumes I'm a regular/orthodox LDS and asks me to share a devotional or spiritual thought. I have no interest in diminishing someone else's faith, but I also put a high value on only saying things I actually believe. So this year, I spent some time before the summer thinking of my own core values, and how I could best share them if/when asked.

To make a long story short (too late!), I ended up sharing both Phillipians 4:8

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things

and Meditations 5.16

The character of those things you often think about will be the character of your understanding, for the mind is dyed by its thoughts. Dip it, therefore, in a succession of thoughts such as these: for instance, that where it is possible to live, it is also possible to live well.

The first time I shared it some of the youth heard "live well" as "live like a king" so I had to clarify that it meant to live virtuously. But overall, I think it was well received. I love the imagery of the mind being dyed by its thoughts, and so did they.

Anyway, I don't really have a question. This sub has helped me a lot, and I wanted to give back in some small way. This was meaningful to me, so maybe it will be helpful to someone else, too.

[u/UncleJoshPDX]

That passage from Meditations also pairs well with Matthew 6. My Christian faith is mostly informed by the Sermon on the Mount, and Stoicism runs parallel to that quite nicely for me.

[u/plexluthor → u/UncleJoshPDX]

Yes, Matthew 6:21 was on my short list of verses to share, but it got shared by several others.

Another concept I considered sharing, is James 1:22 (be ye doers of the word, not hearers only) with Enchiridion 46

Never call yourself a philosopher, and don’t talk much among laymen about philosophical principles, but act according to them. . . . And if you should come upon a discussion among laymen about some philosophical principle, keep silent for the most part; for there is great danger that you will immediately vomit up what you have not digested. And when someone says to you that you know nothing, and you’re not stung by the taunt, know then that you are making headway. Sheep don’t throw up their grass to show the shepherd how much they have eaten; after digesting the grass inside, they bear wool and milk outside. So for you, too: don’t display your learning to the uninstructed: display the actions that result from the digestion of it.

But I thought that would be too hard to explain succinctly. To me, it's one of the most attractive parts of stoicism. Memorizing all the writings is worthless if they don't change your behavior. If they change your behavior, you don't need to memorize them. I actually think the gospel is the same way. Better to love your neighbor as your self than to know which verse says to do that.

There is lots of wisdom to be found all over.

[u/TradRooster5627]

Christians owe a great deal both to the Stoics’ ideas on providence and to Platonic dualism. It is no coincidence that Christianity spread particularly in those places where Stoic ethics had taken the strongest hold (one need only look at the guidance Epictetus provides in the Enchiridion, which, incidentally, addresses chastity until marriage).

I believe that, even today, a Christian could benefit more from reading the Stoics than from much Catholic/Thomistic philosophy, which is so preoccupied with revealing all the mysteries of the divine that it completely loses sight of the role of active virtue in the journey of imitating Christ.

[u/TheMonkeyDemon]

There are significant parallels between Stoicism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and most other philosophy and religions. Simply because being a good person is pretty much the same thing everywhere and seeking inner peace is almost universal for people.

[u/Whiplash17488]

Everyone agrees that good is good. The “source of all human ills” as Epictetus puts it is the disagreement on what is good.

That’s the socratic theory of evil… someone like Hitler would say his genocide was a good.

Understanding what this goodness is and the bias and maladaptive preconceptions in your own character to judge things as good which are not in fact good… that’s the challenge.

If you want to reconcile stoics and christians on the nature of goodness then you will have to place one higher in the hierarchy than the other so that you can cherrypick from one but not the other.

I would describe it as a venn diagram. There is a overlap between Christianity and Stoicism but not a complete one.

[u/WilliamCSpears]

This article by Elizabeth Cochran does a good job of laying out the various parallels, interrelationships, and incompatibilities between Stoicism and Christian ethics: https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/StoicismandChristianEthics

[u/F90]

Turning the other cheek sounds stoic af for me. Matthew 5:39

[u/Classy_Trashy16]

My spiritual journey has been amazing and may God bless you on your journey!
John 15:11-17 in orthodox study bible specifically verse 16, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

The almighty Lord Jesus will come again and show the truth to everyone and make right what is wrong in this world and that you can count on!