Stoicism For Real

Stoicism provided the ethical codes that fueled much of the Renaissance. It has been said to be the substrate underlying the ethos of the American military -- and of the American South. It had a sophisticated psych-ology -- a theory of the human soul’s parts and workings -- millennia before Freud; its theories were formed in dialogue with those of Aristotle and profoundly influenced what later ages called “Aristotelian.” Christians who encounter it often find some of its writings eerily similar to those of Paul, who did much of his preaching in an atmosphere deeply shaped by its ethics. And in our own day everyone from business gurus to self-help advisors praises, or peddles, some version of its wares.
  And yet how many people manage to sit down and read it, in context, from the sources? This group will jump in and discover what the Stoics actually said, in the hope of finding, not a quick snack or pick-me-up, but real nourishment for contemporary lives. Readings will come from fascinating figures across socioeconomic spectra, ranging from a slave (Epictetus, to whom we owe the most accessible Greek account) to a billionaire (Seneca, a sensitive observer of humanity and advisor to the Roman emperor Nero, who eventually ordered him to kill himself) to the most politically powerful human on the planet (Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome a century later). Their texts are often graceful and surprisingly accessible, even to those without a philosophical background; readers approaching from the Abrahamic religions will be engaged both by Stoicism’s many resonances with the ethics found there and by the subtle and important differences. All are most welcome!