Το τρέχον τεύχος είναι αφιερωμένο στη σχέση Χριστιανισμού και Στωικισμού. Κάποιες από τις μελέτες αφορούν την εποχή της Καινής Διαθήκης:
Joshua W. Jipp, "Does Paul Translate the Gospel in Acts 17:22–31? A Critical Engagement with C. Kavin Rowe’s One True Life," 361–76
In this essay I engage the important recent work of C. Kavin Rowe’s One True Life who argues that Christianity and Stoicism are “theologically incommensurate traditions” and that neither tradition can be translated into the other. I engage in a close reading of the Lukan Paul’s sermon at the Areopagus and argue that Rowe’s reading ultimately fails to convince as an explanation for the way in which Paul’s sermon functions as a piece of intercultural missionary communication. Drawing upon recent work in the study of missiology, particularly that of Kwame Bediako, I argue that missionary proclamation involves both convergence and conflict. Rowe is right to draw attention to the way in which Paul’s sermon functions as a critique of Greco-Roman polytheism. But he has not successfully accounted for the ways in which Paul’s speech draws upon some of the best features of Hellenistic philosophy, especially Stoic traditions, as a means of exalting the Christian movement as a superior philosophy.
Timothy A. Brookins, "Mode of Discourse and the “Material” Spirit in Paul and the Stoics," 377–88
Timothy Brookins evaluates Troels Engberg-Pedersen’s claim that the apostle Paul, like the Stoics, viewed the s/Spirit as a material entity. Assessing “mode” of discourse in Paul’s discussion of anthropological and s/Spirit language, Brookins suggests that Paul’s language of the s/Spirit functions within a substantially figurative/mythical/unreflective /unofficial mode, and therefore that his language of the s/Spirit was underdetermined and not definitely material in reference.
Joseph R. Dodson, "New Friends and Old Rivals in the Letters of Seneca and The Epistle of Diognetus," 389–405
In response to C. Kavin Rowe’s dismissal of comparing the rival thought worlds of Stoicism and Christianity based on the arguments of Wittgenstein and McIntyre, this article considers how rival traditions compared themselves with each other before Wittgenstein and McIntyre said they could not do so. It specifically examines the interaction between philosophical and religious rivalries as evidenced in Seneca’s Letters and in The Epistle to Diognetus with the hope of extrapolating implications from these ancient authors regarding how to be faithful in one true life while engaging—more or less—with other competing beliefs and opposing traditions.
