The Acts of the Apostles is one of the great literary sequels of all time.

The author, Luke, picks things up immediately after the startling conclusion of his Gospel – the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. 

After recounting Jesus’ ascension into Heaven, Acts then covers the first few decades of the remarkable Christian story, providing a window into the first churches, their unlikely leaders, and perhaps most interestingly, how Christians took their message throughout the Roman Empire.

Chief among these early evangelists was the Apostle Paul – arguably the main character of Acts (check out our episode on Paul here).

Two-thirds of the book is devoted to Paul’s extraordinary missionary journeys, taking him thousands of miles throughout the Mediterranean and Asia Minor – a feat possible due to the Pax Romana (Roman Peace) imposed across these territories.

This partially explains the spread of the Christian faith; in the first century, a Christian living in Jerusalem could feasibly travel to the edges of Eastern Europe, fringes of North Africa, or the borders of the Central Asian steppes in relative security.

However, another key aspect was the early Christians’ cross-cultural engagement.

This is best seen in Acts 17, where Paul delivers his famous speech at the Areopagus in Athens.

Athens – First Century

Two philosophical schools were dominant when Paul arrived in Athens around AD 50 (with a possible third). 

First came the Stoics – a group that has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years.

The Stoics believed there was a universal Mind behind all of Nature. 

Humanity’s goal, therefore, was to conform our minds’ logos (logic) with the logos of the ultimate mind. 

This often involved moderating everything, curbing passions, and avoiding both ecstasy and sorrow; in other words, living a “stoic” life. 

The second group were the Epicureans, who took a very different approach. 

They argued that people shouldn’t worry about the gods – who could possibly know if they even existed?!

 But if they did. they wouldn’t be into mere mortals, so don’t fret; try to find your path to honourable pleasures – mainly through great food and friends and conversation. 

From these guys came our third group, the Skeptics.

Much like the New Atheists of the early 00s, they argued that there’s probably no god worth worrying about, so get on with your life.  

Cross-cultral Evangelism

In Athens, Paul had to find a way to interact with these great philosophical traditions, especially Stoicism and Epicureanism. 

What follows is what New Testament scholar N.T. Wright calls “one of the most fascinating chapters of the New Testament”.

“Paul immediately begins by saying, ‘I’ve seen you’ve got this altar to the unknown god’ … it’s coming out right from the start and saying … ‘I’m not talking about a foreign god; you’ve already got an altar to an unknown god, and I’m just telling you about who he is”. 

In his speech, Paul goes on to simultaneously address the leading three schools of thought at the time, showing how the Gospel message is the answer all three were searching for. 

Areopagus Hill in Athens – the site of Paul’s famous speech before the Athenian High Court

“Paul basically says ‘Yes’ to the Stoics – God is all around, He is everywhere, and we are his offspring, but He is not the same as the world … he gives us all that we need, but he then wants us to relate to him.

“He says no, but yes to the Epicureans; God is very different from us, but he does want to be in a relationship with us.

“Then to the Skepitcs, Paul says, ‘Yeah, okay, there have been times of ignorance, (but)  … enough of that – I am now telling you the fresh evidence that if you are good philosophers, you ought to be very glad to receive’”.

The abbreviated speech concludes with Paul proclaiming that the true God will return to judge the world – and that all peoples (not just the Jews) were called to repentance.

“There is a court Hosted by the God who made heaven and earth, and this God has given assurance of his coming, putting everything right by raising his son from the dead, and his son is going to be the one who will administer this justice and put everything right at last,” surmises Wright.

The Truth In (Almost) Everything

A key theme is that there was some truth to the popular ideas in Athens at the time; part of Paul’s job was to clarify the truth behind them.

Certain Christian traditions sometimes frown upon this idea that there is truth in other belief systems.

Some insist that all the other religions are a big “no” to reality; they’re a way of denying God rather than reaching out to Him.  

People also hold the not entirely outlandish view that “religions” aren’t in any sense positive things like art or music; they’re sinful attempts to avoid the truth about God. 

But the counter-argument – one that you could say is more “mainstream” – is that some other beliefs contain kernels of truth; they might just miss the mark on who the great Mind behind it all is.

This was one of the key arguments the great J.R.R. Tolkien employed to convince his friend C.S. Lewis about Christianity. 

Lewis was complaining that some core Christian ideas were also found in Greek myths and Norse legends— and this diminished Christianity, in his view. 

But Tolkien showed Lewis that Christ is the great myth made fact. 

More to the point, this is precisely the case that the first Christian public intellectuals made to the Greco-Roman world in the first few centuries of Christianity.

St Augustine, Minucius Felix, Tertullian, and Justin Martyr all pointed out that Greek and Roman philosophy and religion contain nuggets of truth more fully revealed in Jesus Christ. 

They learned this approach from … none other than the apostle Paul’s speech in Athens. 

In that speech, Paul also quotes a hymn to Zeus by Cleanthes and another hymn to the stars by Aratus – two pagan writers who were popular at the time. 

He pointed out that these ancient Greek thinkers had stumbled on a truth that all their other speculations had partly obscured. 

That truth, Paul insisted, has been fully revealed in the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus. 

Adapted by Alasdair Belling from the Undeceptions episode ”Second Act’.  Listen here

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