Primary Authors & Sources
PHIL-102 builds its reading list from required primary and classical sources in hellenistic schools and late antique christian dialogues. The authors below are read as teachers across the centuries, not as entries in a bibliography. Eduard Zeller contributes The Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, offering firsthand access to the arguments, methods, and assumptions that shaped this period of study. Lucretius contributes Of the Nature of Things, offering firsthand access to the arguments, methods, and assumptions that shaped this period of study. Cicero contributes Tusculan Disputations and De Officiis, offering firsthand access to the arguments, methods, and assumptions that shaped this period of study. Seneca contributes Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales and Moral Essays, offering firsthand access to the arguments, methods, and assumptions that shaped this period of study. Epictetus contributes Moral Discourses, offering firsthand access to the arguments, methods, and assumptions that shaped this period of study.
Taken together, these readings form a coherent conversation across centuries — students encounter real arguments, not flattened summaries. Marcus Antonius Aurelius contributes The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antonius, offering firsthand access to the arguments, methods, and assumptions that shaped this period of study. Mary Mills Patrick contributes Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism, offering firsthand access to the arguments, methods, and assumptions that shaped this period of study. James Drummond contributes Philo Judaeus, or, the Jewish-Alexandrian Philosophy in… and Philo Judaeus, or, the Jewish-Alexandrian Philosophy in…, offering firsthand access to the arguments, methods, and assumptions that shaped this period of study. Plotinus contributes The Ethical Treatises, offering firsthand access to the arguments, methods, and assumptions that shaped this period of study. Boethius contributes The Consolation of Philosophy, offering firsthand access to the arguments, methods, and assumptions that shaped this period of study.
What You Will Study
Students study Hellenistic schools including Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Skepticism alongside late antique Christian philosophical dialogues in Clement, Origen, and early Augustine. The course examines how Pauline and patristic authors engaged Stoic ethics, Epicurean materialism, and skeptical challenges to certainty about God and morality. Readings include primary Hellenistic fragments and Christian responses that model apologetic and missionary encounter with dominant worldviews. Students analyze the tension between biblical revelation and philosophical autonomy in early Christian intellectual life. Attention falls on ethical parallels and metaphysical conflicts that remain relevant for counseling, evangelism, and cultural critique in modern house church ministry throughout the Keys.
Course Objectives
Objectives include explaining core teachings of major Hellenistic schools, comparing Stoic and Christian concepts of virtue, passion, and providence, evaluating patristic use of philosophy in catechesis and apologetics, and writing essays on biblical responses to ancient skepticism and hedonism. Students will identify Hellenistic influences in contemporary self-help and spirituality movements. The course cultivates discernment when borrowing philosophical language for theological purposes. Students will articulate limits of natural morality apart from regenerating grace. Assessments require primary source engagement demonstrating comprehension of Hellenistic vocabulary and Christian rejoinders in historical context.
Ministry & Life Application
Hellenistic philosophy explains the moral and spiritual alternatives Paul confronted and that still appear in modern disguises across American culture. Pastors can counsel anxious members influenced by Stoic self-sufficiency or Epicurean escape without recognizing ancient pedigree. House church evangelism in the Florida Keys benefits when leaders understand worldviews behind neighbor's objections to faith. Pastoral ministry gains apologetic and homiletical resources for addressing fear, pleasure, and doubt with gospel truth. This course strengthens intellectual ministry that serves souls trapped in philosophies of self-salvation or despair.