We looked at Acts 17 this past Sunday, particularly this passage:
16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” 21(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
This is interesting. I like that Paul, distressed as he was, took the time to not only talk to the Jews and God fearing Greeks, but also to the philosophers hanging out in the market. Paul gets a bad rap for some things that he writes and I won’t say that some of it isn’t well deserved. He seems to have been a very opinionated man to say the least. He wasn’t afraid to go out and talk with people that disagreed with him though.
22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
He sees that they were a religious folk in their own way. I believe that the new atheists (it’s what they want to be called) that are followers of Hitchens and Dawkens are also very religious in their own way. They make statements of faith, meet and talk about their beliefs, quote their own passages of “scripture”, and wear and carry their own symbols. This passage also brings to mind my deist friends who believe in a god that they say they can’t know. They don’t go so far as to build “altars”, but those that attend Unitarian churches might at least identify with the Atheneans.
24″The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28′For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Here, according to the teacher, Paul was quoting their own beliefs back at them. He was engaging them where they were at. I think that’s important. If you are going to build relationships with people that you disagree with then it’s important to find common ground. From there you can have fruitful discussions.
29″Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
Now this is where the rubber meets the road. Paul has talked about some common ground they might have and here is where he lays out the differences. I know from conversation upon conversation that the “proof” of the resurrection doesn’t sit well with the Athenean’s modern day counterparts. I mean after all, we’re dealing with supposed eye-witness testimony that’s a couple thousand years old. I wonder if the philosophers would have had the same objections?
32When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33At that, Paul left the Council. 34A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
I guess not all of them did. Some sneered, but others wanted to hear more about this god Paul preached about. I hope that this particular example that is laid out is one that we as Christians can emulate. Paul sought out people that were if not overtly hostile at least in opposition to him. He didn’t shy away from conversing with them. He wanted to find a common ground to get the discussion going. That’s what I try to do here.