Ancient Stoics talked a lot about God or gods. But who is this Stoic God? Does the Stoic God even remotely resemble what we mean by God (in a Judaeo-Christian sense)? In this miniseries, Kai Whiting explores these questions.

Chuck Chakrapani, Editor.

Marketing the Stoic God

At the risk of sounding like a door-to-door salesman, let me explain why I think the Stoic God is all too easily dismissed. The main problem is one of marketing, which results from the near monopoly Abrahamic faiths have on the word “God”. Ultimately, this means that the term gets associated with ideas and concepts that the ancient Stoics, including Epictetus (arguably the most “spiritual” Stoic) would have found strange.

‘Theist’ vs ‘atheist’ versions of God

The second problem, I see, is that the Stoic God straddles a difficult fence. On one side, which you might label “theist,” there are people who find great comfort in the words “God,” “theology,” and/or “religion”. The great majority in this camp find meaning in belonging to a personal God who wishes to grant them an afterlife.

On the other side of the fence, in the “atheist” camp so to speak, are those people who, through a careful, deliberate, and often painful set of decisions, have chosen to move away from faith-based beliefs.

Understandably, few people in either camp would care to see the Stoic God sitting on the fence bridging the divide.

Bridging the divide, you say? That is quite a lofty claim. Yes, it is, so allow me to elaborate.

The ancient Stoics would not have recognised the modern distinction between religious thought and scientific inquiry.

God as the essence of Nature

The ancient Stoics would not have recognised the modern distinction between religious thought and scientific inquiry. This is because the Stoic God, as the very essence of Nature, was envisioned and arrived at through a naturalistic and rational framework that, apart from forming the basis of Stoic virtue ethics, provided practitioners with the rationale to study the natural world and the wider cosmos, including the celestial bodies (which were often referred to as gods).

Nothing outside Nature forms any part of what the ancient Stoics believed to exist. In other words, the ancient Stoic understanding of the universe, including God, is entirely grounded in natural phenomena that can be scientifically explored. As such, the Stoic god has a clear philosophical basis, which, necessarily, must be arrived at, and defended, via rational argument, not faith or dogma. This is clear from the Chrysippean “proofs” for the Stoic god, which are based on reason. One such argument is as follows:

If the gods do not exist, nothing in the universe can be superior to humans, the only beings endowed with reason. But for any human being to believe that nothing is superior to his or herself is a sign of insane arrogance. There is then something superior to humankind. Therefore, the gods exist.

In other words, the ancient Stoics recognised, through their theology and not in spite of it, that the best possible life a human can be expected to have relies on thinking and acting in accordance with Nature and by the facts Nature provides.

In next month’s issue, I will delve into more detail on how the Stoic god can help you connect more deeply with the environment around you.

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Kai Whiting is a researcher and lecturer in sustainability and Stoicism based at UCLouvain, Belgium. He Tweets @kaiwhiting and blogs over at StoicKai.com

 

 

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