Exploring Early Christian Identity (WUNT 226)

Seeking to debunk Rodney Stark's theories about the uniqueness of early Christian ethics, Thorsteinsson provides a detailed analysis of ethics drawing from Seneca, Epictetus, and Musonius Rufus and locates Stoicism as the source of some of the so-called distinctive Christian ideas about love of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Catholic Biblical quarterly 2009, Vol.71 (4), p.932-934
Main Author: Witherington, Ben
Format: Review
Language:English
Subjects:
Christianity
Collected Essays
Epictetus (55-135)
Essays
Ethics
Jesus Christ
Jewish people
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Summary:Seeking to debunk Rodney Stark's theories about the uniqueness of early Christian ethics, Thorsteinsson provides a detailed analysis of ethics drawing from Seneca, Epictetus, and Musonius Rufus and locates Stoicism as the source of some of the so-called distinctive Christian ideas about love of enemy, nonretaliation, and the like, or at least sees that the Stoic advocacy of these ideas predates the Christian one. [...] this tradition of love in action, often given with no thought of return, is thoroughly Jewish; if there is any influence, it must be in the opposite direction, since all the aforementioned Stoics knew something of Judaism.
ISSN:0008-7912
2163-2529