Limits6b: Athenians: the “progressives”, the “ignoramuses”; Paul's address

      This continues from Limits 6a, a 4-part appendix to the original series (Table of Contents in Part 1). — Pieper now tells his listeners to follow him to the "metropolis of learning", Athens of antiquity. And his description makes one wonder if he takes us not to antiquity, but to today's "metropolises of learning". This was the environment that the Apostle Paul faced in Athens. From Der Lutheraner 65 (1909, pp. 386-387 DE:

 

Diverse knowledge and unique knowledge.

Address delivered at the dedication of Concordia College at 

Bronxville, N. Y., by F. Pieper. (continued)

But there is another kind of knowledge against which all the above-mentioned knowledge is out of the question, a knowledge so important and so decisive for the whole of mankind and for every single member of mankind that all men who do not possess it have an entirely false view of the world and are to be called ignoramuses. Follow me to the metropolis of knowledge in so-called classical antiquity, to the city of Athens.

An apostle of Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul, also came to Athens on his first trip to Europe, as we are told in the 17th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The city of Athens was, as the Roman Cicero admits, the metropolis of intelligence. Human knowledge had plenty of representatives in the city. Socrates had taught here. Plato, Socrates' even more famous pupil, had founded his philosophical school here, the so-called Academy. A little later, Aristotle, who some have declared to be the greatest sage of the world, also taught here in the Lyceum. Worldly wisdom was also represented in several schools here in Athens at the time when the apostle Paul came to Athens. The apostle of Christ soon came into disputation with the Epicureans and Stoics. The Athenians were all, as we would say today, very “progressive”. They always wanted to hear the latest news, Acts 17:20-21. They also showed their keen intellectual interest when the apostle Paul appeared in their midst. 

They took the apostle by the hand (Acts 17:19) and led him to the place of judgment, the Areopagus, the place in the city where wise and prudent thoughts were exchanged. Here they challenged the apostle of Christ to speak, and the apostle spoke on the Areopagus. What does he have to say to the Athenians? The apostle's speech culminated in the words: “God has overlooked the time of ignorance; but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the circle of the earth [Kreis des Erdbodens] with righteousness through one man, in whom he has decreed it, and hold up to all men the faith after he has raised him from the dead.” [Acts 17:30-31]

You can imagine the astonishment of the Athenians at the apostle's words. The apostle tells the educated, scientifically-minded Athenians that they have lived in a time of ignorance, that is, they have been ignorant until now. Why? Is he denying their worldly education and their worldly knowledge? Not at all. He even quotes from one of their poets the sentence: “We are of his race” as a testimony to the natural truth that there is a God and that human beings are God's creatures. And yet he calls them ignorant. Why then does the apostle call the Athenians ignorant? Why do the Athenians know nothing? 

- - - - - - - - - - -  Continued in Limits 6c  - - - - - - - - - - -

     Pieper's description of Athens makes one feel that they have actually been there. I had to read and study Acts 17:16 ff. again to fully appreciate this. In more recent times, at the time of the Reformation, Luther had to stand up to Erasmus, a very learned man, who was "ignorant" regarding the free will of man. It seems that the world today is ruled by "progressives".  (Although the outcome of the recent presidential election in America will put a dent in it.) Even the seminaries are being taken over by the "progressives". And so our response should be modeled after Paul's address. — In the next part Limits6c…