ATHENS & JERUSALEM

Philosophy, Theology, and the Mind of Christ

Gerald Bray

Athens and Jerusalem: Philosophy, Theology, and the Mind of Christ

Copyright 2024 Gerald Bray

Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225

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Print ISBN 9781683597728

Digital ISBN 9781683597735

Library of Congress Control Number 2024930867

Lexham Editorial: Todd Hains, Elliot Ritzema, Katrina Smith, Mandi Newell

Cover Design: Sarah Brossow

AO Almighty God, you make the minds of all faithful believers to be of one will;

grant that your people may love what you command and desire what you

promise, so that despite the many and varied changes of the world, our hearts

may be fixed where true joys are to be found, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

—Adapted from the collect for the Fourth Sunday after Easter in the Book of Common Prayer (1549)

CONTENTS

I. A TALE OF TWO CITIES

II. ATHENS

III. JERUSALEM

IV. ATHENS MEETS JERUSALEM

V. JERUSALEM TRIUMPHANT

VI. THE REVENGE OF ATHENS

VII. WAR—AND PEACE?

VIII. THE TWO CITIES TODAY

IX. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

FOR FURTHER READING

SUBJECT INDEX

NAMES AND PLACES INDEX

SCRIPTURE INDEX

I

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Sometime around the year AD 200, Tertullian of Carthage (ca. 160–ca. 220), a convert to Christianity who became one of its greatest apologists, wrote in exasperation: “What has Athens got to do with Jerusalem?”1 Tertullian was a master of the pithy statement, and his outburst has become famous over time. For him “Athens,” the university town of ancient Greece, stood for philosophy in all its many shapes and sizes. Not all the Greek philosophers came from Athens, and many never went there, but the city was famous as the meeting place of ideas. The New Testament (NT) writer Luke captured its aura very well when he wrote: “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new” (Acts 17:21). The occasion was the visit of the apostle Paul to the city, when he was able to present the gospel of Christ to an eager crowd of listeners on the Areopagus (Mars Hill), the ancient equivalent of the courthouse. Paul had no trouble at all in getting an audience and nobody tried to drive him away, which is more than can be said of his attempts to preach in most other places. The Athenians were remarkably polite and inquisitive, but at the same time they were also noncommittal. To them, Paul was just one more eccentric who had come to share his ideas with people who would listen to anything—and believe ...