Stoicism is an ancient way of life, but as American as cherry pie. Most of the U.S.’s founding fathers were, in fact if not self-consciously, practicing stoics. Many Americans today are also stoics of one kind or another, including significant numbers of those who identify as Christians, it appears to me. I would venture to say, indeed, that Stoicism is the most popular religious faith in America today, an observation that I am by no means the first to make.
This is how your reference book in the sky, AI, defines Stoicism:
Stoicism is an ancient Hellenistic philosophy emphasizing a disciplined approach to life to achieve happiness (eudaimonia), focusing on virtue (wisdom, justice, courage, temperance), accepting what cannot be controlled, and managing what can. Developed by Zeno of Citium, the philosophy teaches that one’s inner state is determined by their judgments and actions, not by external events, and that a fulfilling life comes from living in accordance with nature and reason.
Call Stoicism an ethos of wisdom, which is not all bad by any means. Recall that the Bible has a number of writings often called “the Wisdom Literature,” such as the Book of Proverbs. The way of wisdom, I believe, is by no means a wrong way, whether that way is defined by the stoic or the biblical canons.
But remember, too, those two famous biblical wise-guys, in this case not self-consciously stoics, but rather leaders in the mainstream Judaism of their day, who are depicted in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan: that priest and that levite, both of whom “passed by on the other side.” Didn’t they assume that that was a wise choice, given all the important and beneficial things that they had to do?
Thereafter a despised practitioner of a sectarian Judaism that many of the sophisticated in those days typically scorned, a Samaritan, responded to the, to him, obvious needs of the man fallen among thieves. This ordinary, perhaps unthinking, good guy made sure that the injured man received the caring attention that he needed.
We have every reason to believe that when Jesus told this parable he was responding to a then well-known critique of his own ministry. Jesus was in fact a scandal in his time – an unwise guy – precisely because he reached out to the fallen, the despised, the no-accounts. Jesus even seemed to flaunt it all, at times, as when – in violation of Jewish law in those days – he talked in public with a scorned Samaritan woman at the town well, thus affirming her as a conversation partner in her own right. Such was Jesus’ shocking wisdom! Had there been a Mt. Rushmore in Jesus’ era, he surely would never have made it up there.
Then there’s the case of the Apostle Paul and his understanding of wisdom – as foolishness. Again, checking out AI: “For Paul, the ‘wisdom of the Cross’ signifies that the crucifixion of Jesus is God’s true wisdom, which appears foolish and scandalous to the world but is the divine power for salvation. God, in his wisdom, used this seemingly weak and foolish act to shame the proud wisdom of the world, demonstrating that true power and wisdom are found not in human intellect or status, but in humility and dependence on God, which is revealed through Christ crucified.” Which, I believe, was Paul’s way of recalling that Jesus consistently went out of his way, foolishly, to minister to the lost, the godforsaken, and all those who could do nothing other than silently suffer.
In a word, the Jesus we know from biblical sources did not contemplate the so-called “natural order of things” and then try to teach folks how to live according to that so-called order. Jesus did not stand for doing what came naturally. Jesus wasn’t a stoic. Rather, Jesus was a rebel. He stood for standing with the poor and the oppressed and the disinherited. And you? And me? Where do we stand?
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