Gods & Philosophers 2

Platonism, Stoicism & Græco-Roman Religion

In the first part of this series, we looked at the clash between philosophical speculation and religious practice, especially between the pre-Socratic philosophers of ancient Greece, and the polytheistic culture of Greece and Rome. What we found, first and foremost, is the precept that we always need to bear in mind the difference between our current understanding of religion versus that of the Hellenistic cultures of the Classical period. Religion at that time was very much a thing of action, not of belief, and thus, there was room for a nuanced cohabitation of philosophies and the worship of the gods—within certain limitations. But that is not to say there were not tensions, as we will discover.