The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

II. Widespread Opposition by Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics

The inability of Platonic philosophy as an ethical system to give that rest and assurance to the soul that it professed to provide, and the detached devotion of the Peripatetics to science and history, created a distrust of all existing systems and a skeptical questioning of all philosophical claims and certainties. This gave rise to three significant movements—the Stoics, the Epicureans, and the Skeptics. CFF1 607.1

1. STOICISM: MATERIALISTIC PANTHEISM; ULTIMATE LOSS OF PERSONALITY

The Stoic School was launched by ZENO of Citium (c. 355-c. 263 B.C.), contemporary of Aristotle, when the populace had grown weary of the endless bickerings between the conflicting schools of philosophy. Zeno’s disciples, first called Zenonians, received their permanent name, Stoics, from Stoa, the “painted porch” where they first assembled for instruction. And Stoicism, it is to be noted, came to exert a profound influence in both pre-Christian and early Christian times, for it persisted aggressively for centuries. (See Tabular Chart A, page 532.) CFF1 607.2

Stoicism was basically a materialistic pantheism, and was the direct antithesis of Platonism. It not only proclaimed the freedom of the human will but professed to explain all life, as well. In it Fate played a major role. From eternity everything is “determined by an infinite chain of foregone causes.” ³⁰ CFF1 607.3

The Stoics regarded “matter” (motionless, passive, unformed) and “force” (active, moving, molding) as the two ultimate principles, yet actually one, with God as the working force of the universe. And according to Ritter, they regarded the soul, which concerns us, as— CFF1 607.4

“an emanated portion of the universal fire, or universal reason, which encompasses the heaven, and rules All; and therefore it can only be preserved by the constantly accruing fire.” ³¹ CFF1 607.5

2. PERIODIC REABSORPTIONS INTO DEITY

The entire cosmos was regarded as conscious. And consciousness was considered as synonymous with Deity. God, they held, is the World-Soul, and the world an organized living being. The “soul” of the world was therefore everywhere present—which belief, of course, is simply pantheism. Furthermore, all things were, the Stoics believed, destined to be periodically reabsorbed into the Deity, with the process beginning all over again after each conflagration. ³² CFF1 608.1

But the human soul, believed to be none other than the “warm breath” within us, was considered part of the World-Soul, or Deity. And though the soul survives the body, it is absorbed back into the World-Soul at the end of each cosmic period, where it is to be noted, its individuality is lost. That should ever be remembered. To the Stoic, therefore, immortality meant extension of life, but not an absolute personal or individual immortality. CFF1 608.2

The Stoics considered all substances—including the human soul and the Deity—as “bodies,” something corporeal. Whatever was real was material. And specifically, the soul was regarded as warm vapor, or “fire,” with the World-Soul having the same relationship to the universe as the human soul to the body. It was believed to permeate and interpenetrate the whole body. And this “fire” of the soul was believed to be nourished by the blood. And as to its ultimate, Zeller puts it in this form: “After death the souls were supposed to endure until the end of the world, when they returned with everything else to God.” ³³ That was the declared end. CFF1 608.3

3. THE SOUL A FRAGMENT OF THE DIVINE

According to Stoicism, “the Universe is God. God is thus not only the matter but the form, the life and the power of the world.” Deity was considered the original matter, the “fiery breath” of life that maintains and changes the world. Rohde states it this way: “The universal deity ... is thus at once matter, mind, and formative principle.” But “the soul of man, ... endowed with reason, is a fragment of the divine, and is itself divine like everything else in the world”—only in a purer degree. CFF1 608.4

Lower matter “degenerates progressively as it gets farther and farther from the divine fire.” The individual soul, though distinct from the body, dwells in the body. Yet it is not thereby completely detached from the universal life, and remains subject to “universal Law.” It is an emanation, the Stoics insisted, from the “universal Reason.” Nevertheless, the soul has self-determination, and is responsible for its own decisions and acts. ³⁴ CFF1 609.1

4. ETERNAL SOUL-ESSENCE LOSES PERSONAL INDIVIDUALITY

It is to be observed that the Stoics held the concept of a single and absolute Being, refusing to recognize, in contrast to some, a paralleling, dualistic principle of evil. They did believe, however, that the individual is capable of violating the laws of the all-embracing Deity. Rohde calls attention to the important tact that pure pantheism cannot postulate a paralleling principle of evil, through the overthrow of which a lost unity of God is restored. ³⁵ CFF1 609.2

In common with others, they held that death is the separation of the soul from the body. This soul-essence does not, they taught, perish with the body. But God, the Soul of the world, is “eternally indestructible.” Furthermore, no underworld was recognized by the Stoics. To them the extension of life was in the ethereal heavens. Thus we see that the Stoic doctrine of immortality never extended to personal, individual immortality. ³⁶ And Stoicism, it should not be forgotten, projected its weighty influence for several centuries into the Christian Era. CFF1 609.3

5. HOPELESSNESS AND INADEQUACY OF STOICISM

Summarizing: The soul of man is regarded as a portion and fragment of the divine principle of the universe. It has no independent existence of its own. But it is not destined to perish with the body. When the cycle of duration is accomplished, it is destined after death to reabsorption into the Source whence it came. Stoical philosophy held that whatever had a beginning must perforce have an end, and that there is but one real existence. CFF1 610.1

According to Zeller, the “one” remains, while the “many” change and pass. Deity, the active power of the universe, produces all things from himself. But, after a certain period, Deity draws them back into himself. Then he produces a new world in a new cycle—and so on forever, repeating endlessly. ³⁷ That was the disillusioning essence and the stark hopelessness of Stoicism. It has been aptly said that its materialistic divinity, its unspiritual humanity, and its fatalistic universe separate it completely from all revealed religion, Jewish or Christian. Such was one of the reactionary, divisive forces now operative against Platonism. CFF1 610.2