Anti-Epicurean Polemics in the New Testament Writings

Download or read book Anti-Epicurean Polemics in the New Testament Writings written by Stefan Szymik and published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. This book was released on 2023-10-09 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stefan Szymik analyses New Testament texts in terms of polemic and anti-Epicurean rhetoric. To what extent and how did Epicurus and his philosophical thought influence the first Christian Churches? How did Christians react to Epicureanism? Although the New Testament only includes one account of an encounter between the Apostle Paul and the Epicureans (Acts 17:18), the probability of their contacts was high, given the popularity of Epicureanism in the Roman Empire in the first century CE. As a vital component of Hellenistic-Roman culture, Epicureanism should be taken into account in research on the New Testament, becoming a point of reference and part of the content of comparative analyses.