Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

EPICUREANS

(Gk. Epikoúreioi)

Epicureanism, a philosophical school deriving from Epicurus (341-271 b.c.e.), who founded a school of thought ca. 306 in Athens, based on his appreciation for nature and for practical philosophy as the medicine of the soul. Epicurus distrusted scholarly philosophy as commonly practiced and had only bad things to say about other teachers of art and science, including Plato and Aristotle. He offered a philosophy of life for simple people, intending to lead them to enjoy happiness.

Epicurus believed that the only trustworthy guide was sense perceptions. Men, women, and slaves were part of his community, which assembled in his garden. Epicurus proposed an atomic theory, that everything in the world is made of atoms, which are eternal, indestructible, and unchangeable. He accounted for difference in the nature and appearance of things by their being differing clusters of atoms. The eternity of the atoms and the randomness of their creative collisions eliminate any need for a God or Reason behind the universe. The theory also makes humans an atomic accident and their death nothing tragic or moral, but rather the alteration of atoms.

The Epicureans believed that there were gods, but that they were removed from and unconcerned with human existence, not engaged in providence or intelligent involvement with the operation of human life or the universe. Epicurus taught that one should seek pleasure and happiness — not hedonistic selfish satisfaction, but pleasure as the norm of goodness in the universe. He defined pleasure as the absence of pain and the ordinary anxieties of life. People would be happy if free from the fear of the gods and of death. In the quest for what is good, one could trust the inner sensations as a trustworthy guide. The Epicurean quest for personal pleasure led to a retreat from public activities and participation in government, which was contrary to the Greek expectation that one should be active in public life. This philosophy was a system of thought focused on the individual and mostly unconcerned with society. It was pursued by the intellectual elite and maintained that there was no universal law or moral order to the universe. The teachings of Epicurus were presented to the Roman world in the 1st century b.c.e. through Lucretius’ philosophical poem, De Rerum Natura.

Epicureans debated with Paul at Athens (Acts 17:18). Although he used their vocabulary (e.g., Gk. átomos, 1 Cor. 15:52; cf. Tit. 3:3), his message of divine judgment and resurrection was contrary to their beliefs.

Richard A. Spencer