Download WEEK ELEVEN: Paul and the public square of Athens

WEEK ELEVEN: The Gospel and the Public Square
Suggested readings for your own study of Acts:
Breakdown of the twelve weeks:
12 Moving Snapshots In 12 Weeks
Acts as the rest of the Good
news: Luke 1:1-4; 24:35f Acts 1:1-4
The secrete of the growth of
the church: Acts 8:1-40
The Holy Spirit, Pentecost,
and the OT: Acts 2:1-13
Peter, the Gentile mission, &
the Holy Spirit: Acts 10
Peter’s gospel and Israel:
Acts 2:14-36, 3:11-26
Paul, Antioch, & tension:
Acts 13:1-3, 13-43, 14:19-28
Luke’s church snapshots:
Acts 2:43-47, 4:32-37
Jerusalem, the Kingdom, &
the missio Dei: Acts 15:1-41
The most unnerving picture
in Luke’s history: Acts 5:1-11
The good news & the public
square: Acts 17:16-34
Stephen’s or Israel’s Trial?:
Acts 7:1-60
The ending of Acts & our
Kingdom call: Acts 28:23-31
Today’s Focus: 1) Paul & the Public Square of Athens; 2) Was Paul
Contextualizing the Gospel or giving an Apologia for the Faith?; 3) The
Cost of Compromise or the Bridge to Future Faith); and 4) Apologetics
& A Public Faith in a Secular Square.
Paul & the Public Square of Athens
READ –Acts 17:16-21
QUESTIONS FROM THE SCRIPTURE PASSAGES –
Excurses: Athens at the time of Paul’s visit
“Athens at the time of Paul’s visit was a free and allied city within the Empire, for
the Romans respected Athens because of its illustrious past. As a city of political
import Athens had passed its prime, but it continued to be a leading center of
learning. Its size seems also to have dwindled some, down to perhaps as few as
five thousand to ten thousand voting citizens in Paul’s day. Nevertheless, as Pliny
the Elder put it, her “celebrity is more than ample”; she had become something
of a museum for the world of the grandeur of Greek culture.” Ben Witherington,
The Acts of the Apostles: A socio-rhetorical commentary
How did Paul arrive in Athens, and what do the circumstances of his arrive and ministry
there teach us about the Holy Spirit’s role in missions (see particularly Acts 16:6-17:15;
Romans 1:13, 15:22-23)?
How does Paul conduct himself as a missionary in Athens, where does he go and who
does he share the good news with?
Paul goes to the agora, the cultural center of his day:
“The agora was the media-center, it was the financial-center, it was the artscenter, and it was the intellectual-center. So where did Paul go with the gospel,
he went to the religious arenas but he also took the gospel ‘downtown’ into the
cultural centers of his day. If you understand the gospel and if you live
consistently with it, it will not stay in the privacy of your worship communities but
will come through in the public squares God has put you.” Tim Keller’s sermon,
“To an Unknown God”
Who were the Epicureans and the Stoics and what did they think Paul was talking about?
What the Epicureans and Stoics believed:
“Epicureanism was a practical philosophy whose objective was to secure happy
life and to maximize the experience of pleasure. Among other things it taught that
the soul died with the body (giving freedom from fear and death), and that the
gods do not interfere with the natural world (giving freedom from fear of the
supernatural). The relevance of a message such as Paul’s to Epicureans and the
likelihood that it would find little resonance with Epicureans is at once clear.
The more influential Stoicism taught that the aim of the philosopher should be to
live in harmony with nature, guided by the reason which they identified with God
and which manifests itself both in providence and in human reason. To live in
harmony with this reason is the only good; everything else is a matter of
indifference. Here again it should be obvious where the speech of Paul attempts
to build on points of contact and commonality between Stoicism and Jewish
monotheism (17.26-29).” James Dunn, The Acts of the Apostles
What impression did Paul make on these two schools of ancient philosophical
secularism?
The labels they applied to him & the conclusion they came to:
“The initial impression gained by the adherents of these older philosophies was,
however, dismissive and disparaging – particularly, no doubt, on the part of the
Epicureans. The term used of Paul, ‘babbler, chatterer’, evokes the image of one
who made his living by picking up scraps, a peddler of secondhand opinions. The
charge of proclaiming ‘foreign deities’ echoes that brought against Socrates. This
was no doubt deliberate on Luke’s part, since the trial and death of Socrates in
399 BC was one of the most famous episodes in Athen’s history. The implication
of Luke’s description is that Paul was both misunderstood and a teacher of
integrity, like Socrates himself.” James Dunn, The Acts of the Apostles
Who does Luke characterize Paul as in Athens, and how would that characterization help
Greek culture see that within the message of the apostle lied life, truth, and eternity?
Paul and Socrates, the archetypal Athenian fulfilled in the Apostle?
Points of historical association – open air disputations in the agora, the accusation
of preaching foreign deities that both men received, the difference of verdict from
the Mars Hill counsel Paul received than Socrates.
Luke said in Acts 17:21 that “all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would
spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new,” is every request for
spiritual dialogue genuine; do you think Luke wanted us to see the Athenians request as
genuine or not?
What are main perceptions or models for how religious discourse should function in the
Public Square today with our need for world peace? What do Paul’s actions with the
good news in the Public Square of Athens mean for our engagement of the Public
Square?
Three approaches for how to handle religion in the public square:
“It is widely believed that one of the main barriers to world peace is religion, and
especially the major traditional religions with their exclusive claims to
superiority…There are three approaches that civic and cultural leaders around
the world are using to address the divisiveness of religion. There are calls to
outlaw religion, condemn religion, or at least to radically privatize it.” Tim
Keller, The Reason for God
Outlaw Religion
in the Public
Square
Condemn Religion
in the Public Square
Religion fulfills
and redeems the
Public Square
Radically
privatize religion
in the Public
Square
Was Paul Contextualizing the Gospel or
Giving an Apologia for the Faith?
READ –Acts 17:22-31
QUESTIONS FROM THE SCRIPTURE PASSAGES –
What were the main points of Paul’s message to the Mars Hill court?
How does the content of what Paul shares with the Mars Hill court regarding the good
news of Jesus compare to what he shared earlier in the book of Acts (13:16-41; 14:1517)?
Was Paul contextualizing the gospel to different audiences, if so what practical value
does that have with how we share the gospel today?
What was left out of Paul’s presentation of the good news of Jesus to the Mars Hill court
that was so fundamental to Peter’s proclamation of the good news earlier in the book of
Acts?
What was left out at least in Luke’s summary of Paul’s speech:
“[Jesus name and] In contrast to other sermons in Acts, Paul made no mention
here of the miracles that attested Jesus’ authority, of his death as the way to
forgiveness, or of the testimony of the Scriptures. Instead, Paul focused on two
events: Jesus’ resurrection and the coming day of judgment.” Dennis E. Johnson,
The Message of Acts in the History of Redemption
Paul quoted two different Greek poet/philosophers treating their statements as holding
authority but didn’t quote any scripture, why? What does Paul’s approach here teach us
about the nature of persuasive apologetics with unbelievers?
On the use of “Points of Contact” and “Plausibility Structures” in Paul’s
preaching of the gospel:
“At several points, Paul’s message corresponded formally to tenets held by his
Epicurean and Stoic listeners. His affirmation of the unity of humanity and the
divine order in human affairs would strike a responsive chord in Stoic minds.
Epicureans, picturing the gods as aloof in their self-sufficiency and uninterested
in mere humanity, would have mentally applauded Paul’s insistence that God has
no need of man-made shrines and sacrifices (vs. 25). Both schools could have
agreed that the insight of the Stoics Cleanthes and Aratus, “We are all [God’s]
offspring,” shows the folly of equating a gold, silver, and stone image with the
divine being (vv. 28-29) – the Stoics, because they equated “God” with the fiery
Reason that permeates the universe; the Epicureans, because their gods were far
removed from the grosser forms of matter from which the statues on the Acropolis
had been sculpted…On the other hand, the “unknown God” proclaimed by Paul
was profoundly unlike the deity imagined by the philosophers.” Dennis Johnson,
The Message of Acts in the History of Redemption
“By such maxims, Paul is not suggesting that God is to be thought of in terms of
the Zeus of Greek polytheism or Stoic pantheism. He is rather arguing that the
poets his hearers recognize as authorities have to some extent corroborated his
message. In his search for a measure of common ground with his hearers, he is,
so to speak, disinfecting and rebaptizing the poets’ words for his own purposes.
Quoting Greek poets in support of his teaching sharpened his message. But
despite its form, Paul’s address was thoroughly biblical and Christian in its
content.” Richard Longenecker, EBC Acts
Paul closes his speech to the Mars Hill court by saying in Acts 17:30-31, “30 The times of
ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31
because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man
whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the
dead.” What did Paul mean by “The times of ignorance God overlooked”?
The Times of Ignorance:
“Just as God’s control over human affairs was all-inclusive during the “times of
ignorance,” so his summons to repentance in the present time includes all…The
religious pluralism of the past was not a beautiful manifestation of cultural
diversity to be celebrated, but a pitiful expression of human folly and ignorance.
From Paul’s perspective, the age of religious pluralism is over, for now God is
calling those who have worshiped idols of stone and wood (or images of the
mind) out of their darkness and into his light. His message of salvation reaches as
far as his worldwide authority in creation and providence.” Dennis E. Johnson,
The Message of Acts in the History of Redemption
Paul had several points of contact with his Mars Hill audience, was the mention of a final
judgment by a man who was resurrected a point of contact or a great offence (also see 1
Corinthians 1:17-25)?
The anti-resurrection viewpoint of Athenian philosophy and history:
“Five hundred years earlier that tragic poet Aeschylus (525-456 BC), when
describing the institution of the Athenian Council of Mars Hill, made the god
Apollo say, “When the dust has soaked up a man’s blood, once he is dead, there
is no resurrection.”…the idea of resurrection was absurd [to Athenian
philosophical and cultural thought].” Richard Longenecker, EBC Acts
The Cost of Compromise or the Bridge to
Future Faith
READ –Acts 17:32-34
QUESTIONS FROM THE SCRIPTURE PASSAGES –
Did Paul fail in his mission at Athens (see 1 Corinthians 16:15)?
Is 1 Corinthians 2:1-4 evidence that Paul’s contextualized gospel or defense of the faith
to the Mars Hill court was a pattern of mission he latter abandoned and regretted?
One perspective on answering this difficult question:
“While some have suggested that 1 Cor. 2:1-4 indicates that Paul renounced his
approach in Athens when he arrived in Corinth, and instead resolved to stick with
the heart of the early Christian preaching of the gospel, this is probably reading
too much into this text. In fact it would appear that Paul adjusted his missionary
strategy due to the situation he found in Corinth, not as a reaction to supposed
previous failures. It is hard to doubt that Luke sees this speech in Acts 17 as
something of a model for how to approach educated pagan Greeks, and means it
to reflect positively on his hero Paul, especially since he records only three major
speech summaries from Paul’s travels, and this is the only major one specifically
directed at Greeks.” Ben Witherington, The Acts of the Apostles: A socirhetorical commentary
Apologetics & A Public Faith in a Secular
Square
Suggested Readings on Apologetics:
Suggested Readings on A Public Faith in a Secular Square:
Questions regarding Apologetics & A Public Faith in a Secular Square:
What basic presuppositions do we need to have in order to defend our faith?
What does it look like to do apologetics by looking for points of contact and moving from them?
What are the basic questions to ask in order to better understand and clarify the worldviews at
work in the argument?
Is it possible to have a ‘private’ faith in Jesus while living the public arena?
What does it mean to reason for Christ in a post-Christian culture?