Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
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Seneca: His Character <strong>and</strong> Environment<br />
writings <strong>of</strong> Virgil to mark him a Christian, or rather<br />
as a writer who was in a sense divinely inspired,<br />
than there is in Seneca to stamp him as a man who<br />
had accepted the new faith. The rise <strong>and</strong> persist<br />
ence <strong>of</strong> such a literature is not an anomaly in the<br />
history <strong>of</strong> thought. It is not out <strong>of</strong> harmony with<br />
the spirit <strong>of</strong> an age when the church was supreme in<br />
everything; when all questions were viewed from the<br />
theological st<strong>and</strong>point, <strong>and</strong> when every means were<br />
employed to gain support for the existing ecclesias<br />
tical organization.<br />
It was honestly believed that the<br />
practice or pr<strong>of</strong>ession <strong>of</strong> a high morality, except<br />
under the sanction <strong>and</strong> guidance <strong>of</strong> the church, was<br />
impossible. It was taken as a matter <strong>of</strong> course, that<br />
a good man, one who eloquently preached righteous<br />
ness, who seemed to be conscious <strong>of</strong> a struggle with<br />
in himself between the flesh 1 <strong>and</strong> the spirit, must<br />
have been enlightened from on high. Given the in<br />
ternal evidence <strong>of</strong> Seneca s own writings, it was not<br />
difficult to supply the complementary<br />
external testi<br />
mony.<br />
This all=embracing <strong>and</strong> all-absorbing power <strong>of</strong><br />
the<br />
church lasted about a thous<strong>and</strong> years <strong>and</strong> ended with<br />
the Reformation, though it had begun<br />
to decline<br />
some two centuries earlier. For this condition <strong>of</strong><br />
things the Roman empire had prepared the way. It<br />
was the prototype to which, in part unconsciously<br />
<strong>and</strong> in part consciously, ecclesiastical authority was<br />
Seneca is generally regarded<br />
coro, flesh, as distinct from, <strong>and</strong> opposed to. spirit.<br />
as the first Roman writer who