(By Solomon Mahoi, [Pseudonym, Abck Obba])
August 15, 2024
Philosophy, whose central ideal is to cultivate in the individual an atmosphere of independent thinking, had been around as early as the 6th century during the days of Thales, ancient Greece's first philosopher. It then extends to Anaximander who was Thales' student, and along this line came Socrates, then Plato, then Aristotle, as this was during when Athens was once the Eden of great intellectual thoughts through the lens of Western philosophy. And as centuries unfold, philosophy became widespread, influencing the minds of those who find within themselves the awareness that there is more to life than the chitchat we engage in regularly, whose subject matter usually rotates around topics that are of shallow nature rather than those that can create change in society as this requires depth in logical thinking, in the thinking process. And so, philosophy being a truth-seeker as we know it to be today, in terms of the power of the mind which probes and probes to get to an expected end, philosophy therefore narrates wisdom into daily living, thereby making the truth-seeker that philosophy is, a way of life in seeking truths.
This way of life that is philosophy amongst other ways of life like Judaism, Islam, Taoism, Buddhism, or Christianity, for example, find Stoicism among the lists of ways of life as Stoicism emphasizes personal virtue and the acceptance of the natural order or natural law, through which life is operated by.
Originated in ancient Greece during a time when Greece was expanding its territories causing wars to be inevitable between Greece's neighbours, neighbours who generally the Greeks identified as the barbarians, perhaps due to the fact that the Greeks saw themselves as a civilized people who by way of their intellectuals whose ways of doing things appeared different at the time, refined the Greek city-states in the ideals of diplomacy in their day-to-day affairs, ultimately making the Greeks to grow their younglings to be academically inclined.
As the centuries continue, Rome, having been influenced by Greece in terms of diplomacy, academic pursuits, and spirituality (associated with the Greek gods and goddesses), had their own wars they were fighting too, in order to as well expand their territories or empire.
During this time Marcus Aurelius (121CE-180) was the Roman emperor, whose reign between 161-180 met him in a declining health condition including a series of war campaigns he had to fight on Rome's northern border against threats from the barbarians. And due to him being under immense pressure because of his declining health, as well as the tension he was under as a result of the wars he was fighting on Rome's northern frontier, his general wellbeing found him needing tranquility for him to be able to manage his overall health while he continues his reign as emperor. It was during these moments that he started journaling his thoughts of him managing the chaos around him. These journaled thoughts, later after his death, became documented piece by piece into a book, to what is today known as "The Meditations" as a book title.
Although Zeno (333-262BC) was the founder of the Stoic movement, yet it is believed that Marcus Aurelius being Rome's greatest emperor, influenced the movement. As centuries lapsed into the next and the next, in continuum, Stoicism became widespread, influencing kings, presidents, writers, athletes, as well as entrepreneurs, in following Stoicism's teachings only to gain the guiding wisdom which it proposes, which is for the individual to live in accordance with "virtue," through which excellence in all endeavours will not be hard to achieve.
According to the stoic philosophy, "wisdom," "temperance," "justice," and "courage," are the four cardinal points by which excellence is reached or is achieved, as these four main virtues (with "wisdom" being the principal virtue of the other three) hold morality and ethics together, as morality and ethics are the driving force for good or acceptable behaviours that influence the individual from contributing to society's moral and ethical decays.
Reflecting on this stoic's view of morality and ethics of both being a driving force that influences the individual from contributing to society's moral and ethical decays, brings me now to the correlation which Christianity has in common with Stoicism, in terms of the integral role which virtue plays toward the individual striving for a meaningful and virtuous life. But like science and religion whose enduring odds is dependent on the parallels of what side of the coin makes the most sense, Stoicism, when it comes to spirituality of the self, perhaps finds itself at a slight odd with Christianity due to the fact that Stoicism emphasizes the "here and now" in addition to it embracing a certain reality that there are certain things (or happenings of life) that human being just don't have control over as this is in accordance to natural law or the natural order in which the cosmos naturally operates by.
Christianity on the other hand, although it too embraces the natural order in which the cosmos operates by (but in the form of the cosmos' Divine order especially of the fact that the Divine is embroiled in nature of the Divine being omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient), the major parallel between the two however comes on the side of Christianity which as part of its spiritual doctrine, centers on cultivating personal relationship with God or the Divine, while Stoicism centers on harnessing personal relationship with "the self," although cultivating personal relationship with "the self" can't be achieved without one having faith and confidence in oneself, or in one's inherent abilities which in turn allows the individual to be more resilient in the face of adversity ultimately making the individual to become wiser and therefore holds himself or herself accountable on the decisions he or she makes daily, rather than the individual to cast blame on the "devil" for bad decisions he or she makes.
In spite of this major parallel between Stoicism and Christianity, Stoicism as a way of life just the same way Christianity is a way of life, Stoicism admonishes living a life of virtue and excellence in all endeavours the same way Christianity admonishes living a life of holiness and righteousness (which without deep-seated virtues in the individual holiness and righteousness could be hard to achieve as an integral part of the Christian walk or the Christian way of life), as the ultimate goal of the Christian walk is to achieve excellence which, in scriptural term, is referred to as "salvation" or "being saved" from society's "moral and ethical decays," through the teachings of Jesus Christ in the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, along with the admonishments of the prophets of old and/or the Judges in the Old Testament scriptures.
And so, either way, it is fair to say that the doctrines of Christianity are spiritual philosophies whose spiritual insights and guidance leads the individual into living a meaningful and virtuous life, pretty much the same way Stoicism's insights and guidance are spiritual philosophies which aids the individual into also living a meaningful and virtuous life. This, therefore, is the central correlating parallel which this article proposes by way of its general assessment, as explained from the article's introductory and all the way to this part of the article's conclusion.
Shalom.
~ SOURCE/REFERENCE:
The stoic movement, page 152-161, (Moore, Michael 2019): Classical Philosophy--KNOWLEDGE IN A NUTSHELL.
Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations" accompanied by A New Translation, with an Introduction by Gregory Hays: THE MODERN LIBRARY NEW YORK, 2003.
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