St. Paul's Influence On Stoicism

There has been scholarship to align the philosophies of Christianity and Stoicism, particularly with respect to the teaching of St. Paul(Grant; Esler). Much of this scholarship has attempted to demonstrate the similarities between St. Paul’s epistles and Stoic ethics in order to argue that St. Paul derived his philosophy in part from the Stoics (Grant). Though St. Paul does not directly credit the Stoics’ influence on his work (Grant; Esler), the notion is plausible. St. Paul delivered his letters to the Romans while Seneca simultaneously held a highly respected position in Nero’s Rome (Dudley 2018; Malick 2004), used language common to Stoic ethical writings (Esler) and, in fact, quotes a Stoic thinker in his orations (Acts 17:28), indicating St. Paul’s familiarity with the field. Troels Engberg-Pedersen is an advocate for this notion and presents similarities between their writings in order to demonstrate a philosophical lineage. Though Engberg-Pedersen presents a number of similarities that appear to support the notion of a Stoic-Pauline lineage at first glance, Engberg-Pedersen

Paul by claiming that the “pursuit of a specific good” in both Stoicism and Christianity evoke similar processes of identity transition. Engberg-Pedersen presents this pattern as I  XS such an individual (I) will understand herself to belong to certain understanding of the good (X) and transition into a novel social identity (S). St. Paul expresses this sentiment with respect to Christianity to the Romans, claiming that “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13),” demonstrating how an individual (I) who aligns herself with God’s goodness (X) will adopt a novel identity as a Christian (S). Stoics follow this pattern as they contend that by living in accordance with virtue, individuals (I) who become perfectly attuned to reason or nature (X) will approach sagacity (S) (Esler); Hadot