Corpus-Paul

[Markus McDowell <mhmcdowe AT pepperdine.edu>]

On 4/6/99 1:29 PM, Sheila E. McGinn, Ph.D. (smcginn AT jcu.edu) wrote:

>Thanks, Licia, for raising this.  I think it is helpful to remember that 
>Paul is
>strongly influenced by Stoicism (as seen in his ethics, e.g.) and that the 
>Stoic view
>is that there exists "spiritual matter."

I am not sure that Paul was 'strongly influenced by Stoicism" in his 
ethics as much as it was that these ideas, concepts, and esp langauge 
constructs were floating around the Hellenistic world. I wrote a paper on 
the prayers of Stoicism about a year ago, and came to the conclusion 
that, while Paul may have employed similar langauge to Stoicism, and 
maybe drew from some of the same concepts, his thinking is primarily 
jewish/OT - certainly his ethics are the same (of course, one needs to 
then determine if the Judaism of Paul was infleunced by stoicism). 
I think a note of caution is needed when one sees "stoic langauge" in 
Paul, and then goes on to draw conclusions about Paul's theological 
constructs based on Stoicism. It may (and i repeat 'may') just be a 
surface connection only.


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MARKUS H. MCDOWELL
Adjunct Professor            PhD student
Religion Division            Center for Advanced Theological Studies
Pepperdine University        Fuller Theological Seminary
Malibu, California           Pasadena, California   
http://home1.gte.net/markusm/
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