By D.S. Cook for Apostoic Venn.
I identify publicly with Stoic philosophy in my social media bios. In my case, this identification is transparently partial; Christ first. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Stoicism, to the extent that I value it, is a system of character development that I find useful and supplemental in pursuing Christ-likeness. It is no substitution to true religion, but a helpful approach to behavioral thought and rational action. For a clear layout of how I do and do not view Stoicism, please read 8 Church Fathers and Theologians that Held Deep Appreciation for Stoic Philosophy here on Apostoic.com. To myself, and to anyone who publicly aligns with Stoic thought, there is a common critique in the comment sections. If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a hundred times now. It runs something like this, though often with a good deal less articulation and a good deal more expletives:
“If a person truly practiced Stoic philosophy, he would detach completely from the moral, social, and political turmoil of the day. He would make no statements on the morality or wisdom of current thought and action in the wider community, withdrawing entirely into the pursuit of personal virtue, and leave moral debate to others.” In other words, “A real Stoic would shut up and mind his own business.”
This conception misreads Stoicism at its core. Or perhaps more accurately, does not read Stoicism at all; an assumption made on cliff notes or a google search.
You see, isolationism is not a Stoic pursuit. Retreat from the cares of the world, giving over to the enemies of reason and decency and letting them do what they will, these are not Stoic concepts. No, instead the philosophy encourages a concept called “Apatheia,” and lest you confuse the roots of that word with our modern understanding of apathy, please let me distinguish them.
Apatheia vs Apathy
Due to a common reappropriation of the word, a layman might think of a “stoic” individual as one who has divorced himself from emotion. One who is apathetic toward the churning and roiling of the community in which he lives. A man who does not sorrow with the grieving and laugh with the joyful. A nihilist devoid of concern for his surroundings. But these are descriptors of the term “apathy,” a disconnection from life that generally trends from hopelessness. It is, essentially, a great throwing in of one’s towel. Stoic apatheia shares the same root word, but is quite unreconcilable with this attitude toward the world. There is no recommendation to kill emotions within Stoicism; it is neither such an inhuman, nor such an impossible, practice. In fact, a Stoic might even consider emotion to be an indifferent, a thing that is bound to happen, or not, as the result of external circumstances. The Stoic does not practice eliminating this as an unwanted intruder, but rather controlling his reactions to its inevitable occurrence. He is training to be free from irrational or overly impassioned response to the things he will encounter, including the emotions that will well up within him. He cannot avoid feeling them. He can control how he perceives his feelings, and what he does with them.
Why is this such an important distinction? Well, when considering whether a Stoic is behaving inconsistently by engaging in the culture war, laying intellectual siege to the perpetrators of unnatural and unreasonable ethics, understanding the contrast between apathy and apatheia is vital. The outcome produced by these could not be more opposite.
Precisely because the Stoic trains to focus only on his input and not on the outcome, he enjoys liberation from all concerns over reputation, popularity, and “worse” indifferents such as imprisonment or death. He is not only free but compelled, by love for the brotherhood of man, to speak truth and reason into the culture. He must not regard his ultimate success, or the social danger into which it may place him. Put clearly:
1. The man practicing apathy does not care whether truth is upheld and wisdom pursued in his homeland.
2. The man practicing apatheia does not care what is done to him as the consequence of speaking wisdom and upholding truth in his homeland.
If you are familiar with the death of Socrates, you know it to be a shining example of what stoic apatheia truly produces. Socrates, despite threat to his freedom and then his very life, refused to stop speaking out. He refused to roll over and abandon the town square to the enemies of sense and sobriety. Finally, he was given a choice by a tribunal of his opponents. Choose exile and live, or continue speaking and die. With very little deliberation by all accounts, Socrates chose to speak and die. He did not decide, in the end, to put on the armor of courage and candor that he might die well. No, he determined to be as courageous and candid as he had been, until the moment of death. This, friends, is stoic apatheia; refusal to be deterred from truth and reason no matter how big the bandwagon grows, or how big the stick may be that the enemy wields.
A man, speaking in the public square against an injustice such as American infanticide (abortion), will almost certainly meet the comment section antagonist who screams hypocrisy. “Stoics do not engage with the thoughts of others, or comment on their behavior,” they will claim. Such a one has fundamentally misunderstood apatheia for apathy, and the pursuit of virtue in Stoicism with the emotional absenteeism we sometimes mean when we describe a personality as “stoic.”
Where the apathetic nihilist disengages from the hard battle over truth in order to avoid pain, the Stoic engages despite pain. One who is practicing it will stand in that square, under the hail of rocks, and keep speaking. Outside of his control is the reaction of the listener to a run-in with reason and righteousness. Inside of his control is whether he speaks it. And speak it he must.
Apatheia Redeemed: The Christian Parallel
Some of the Christian faith mistake Stoicism for apathy and internal withdrawal, having read the cliff notes of the Stoic thinkers or having not read them at all. This too is a criticism I have received from allies within the true religion, displeased with my love for an ancient group of pagan wisemen. As it happens, they are missing out.
In the same way that practicing apatheia liberates the stoic to speak boldly in the face of reprisal, the follower of Christ is called to speak the Gospel in season and out of season, in peace and on the martyr’s stake (2 Tim. 4:2). Paul does not command us to keep our silence in love, but to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15), and again to be lights; not when attending a peace-pipe passing drum circle, but when surrounded and accosted by a “crooked generation.” If the Christian is to be silent whenever his words might offend, he may as well never learn to speak. And, we have far greater assurance than our pagan Stoic pals; that while they trust all of their outcomes to fate, we trust ours to the sovereign God who directs and purposes all fates. The Christian knows that the power to convict, to regenerate, and convert lies not in their eloquent words or persuasive dialogue, but in the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. Yet, their small part is still to speak those words, in whatever degree of eloquence has been gifted them.
Our duty is that of the witness on the stand. Ours is to speak what we know. We are not the jury and judge as well, and we certainly have no power to change the heart of the accused. This is the prerogative of the Holy Spirit, and as such, is an external to our obedience.
So Christians, do not be tempted by the comfort of silence, or cowed into it by threat. Certainly not into apathy. Instead, practice the excellent Stoic principle of apatheia, baptized and repurposed to obedience to Christ. Not one hair can fall from your head without His permission. So speak, and trust the Holy Spirit to effectualize your words. Be Stoic in your Christianity. It is no call not to care, but a call not to fear.
Get to it, friends.
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