On Philosophy, Philosophers, and Poets...
Since A.D. 51 these things remain the same in the current 21st century of the 2023rd year in the Anno Domini or Common Era, under the Gregorian calendar.
What does: Woke Marxism; Epistemology; Gnosticism; Nihilism; Stoicism mean? And how do they all relate?
What is Marxism in simple terms? Marxism is a social, economic and political philosophy that analyses the impact of the ruling class on the laborers, leading to uneven distribution of wealth and privileges in the society. It stimulates the workers to protest the injustice. Woke Marxism, takes over this central Marxist theme and simply replaces economic status with race, sex, sexual orientation, and the like as the keys to demarcating oppressed and oppressing classes.
What is Epistemology? Plato, and Aristotle believed the philosophical study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge. The term is derived from the Greek epistēmē (“knowledge”) and logos (“reason”), and accordingly the field is sometimes referred to as the theory of knowledge. Epistemology has a long history within Western philosophy, beginning with the ancient Greeks and continuing to the present. Aristotle (384–322 bce) provided the answer when he said that philosophy begins in a kind of wonder or puzzlement.
Gnosticism: is derived from the Greek word gnosis, which means “knowledge”. Gnostics believed that salvation came through attainment of secret knowledge or gnosis, rather than through faith or religious doctrine.
Nihilism: is a family of views within philosophy that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as knowledge, morality, or meaning. And looks like there are five types of this philosophy.
Lastly, we have Stoicism that can be epitomized by three essential beliefs: (1) that virtue is sufficient for happiness, (2) that other so-called goods should be regarded with indifference, and (3) that the world is providentially ordered by God.
These words all ‘fit’ into the ‘same’ school of human thought-philosophy. Last week I listened to a podcast of two philosophers sharing thoughts about today’s culture. Some of the words they used I defined above. As the apostle Paul encountered the Greek philosophers of ‘his’ day back in the city of Athens, “he was well versed in their beliefs, and how he might lead the Athenians to the realization that their tenets were false and must change.” Paul quotes a famous poet called, Aratus. “He uses his poem in vs 28 of Acts 17, Phaenomena of Aratus, to note that the ideas of the Stoics and Epicurean philosophers, to refute the commonly held belief that worshiping gods in temples, statues, and alters; that they were an idolatrous people. He argued that pantheism which the Stoics taught was also a misconception of the true God.”
Paul in Athens - (Acts 17:16-29)
16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply disturbed in his spirit to see that the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace with those he met each day.
18Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods”. They said this because Paul was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.
19So they took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, where they asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20For you are bringing some strange notions to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.”
21Now all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing more than hearing and articulating new ideas.
Paul’s Address in the Areopagus:
22Then Paul 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 examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you.
24The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. 25Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone 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 their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands.
27God intended that they 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.’ 29Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.
Paul saw that though they worship many gods, Athenians do not worship the true God. As the inscription read. “Those that are divine God we should not think of the spirit family as unto gold, silver, or stone that you could engrave by art and man’s device, out of anything that would suggest any replica in the likeness of God.” (Dean Blackwell, Bible Study Date 1979) Paul told the people:
30Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30 Berean Study Bible)
28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29Being filled with all unrighteousness… (Romans 1:29,29 partial KJV).
I like to think of human philosophy as foolishness. This has been my study today, and have shared it with you all. I was thinking about this all week long after I heard the two philosophers podcast. And there were many more philosophers back in Paul’s day; poets as well, as in this 21st century that have this so called “knowledge” - "philosophy" means, "love of wisdom."
www.economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/marxism.
www.britannica.com/topic/epistemology.
www.philonotes.com/2022/05/what-is-gnosticism.
www.thecollector.com/what-are-the-five-theories-of-nihilism.
www.experienceastronomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Clarion-Volume-42-No-13.pdf.
www.biblehub.com/bsb/acts/17.htm.
www.hwalibrary.com/cgi-bin/get/hwa.cgi?action=getbstudyav&InfoID=1415715334.