During my dissertation defense, when discussing my chapter on Philip Sidney’s Arcadia, one of my committee members asked me about the thematic similarities between the story of Christ and the mythology of Hercules. I realized as I answered his question that in this academic setting, I was more used to discussing Greek mythology than my own Catholic religion. Even now, on those occasions when I do have the opportunity to discuss Christianity as portrayed in literature, my focus on early modern English productions (from roughly 1500-1700) often means finding a less than positive appraisal of my own denomination. When England went Protestant, writers offered many negative portrayals and evaluations of Catholicism intended to validate the country’s turn. 

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In 1644, in the thick of the political and religious conflict that came to be known as the English civil wars, John Milton wrote a polemical tract arguing against the pre-publication censorship of books and for an open exchange of ideas. “Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth,” Milton wrote, “so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter.” Milton titled his tract, Areopagitica, a nod both to a speech by the Greek philosopher Isocrates and to Paul’s speech on the Areopagus, as recorded in Acts 17:16-34. 

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Discussions about the role and importance of faith and spirituality often arise in higher education and healthcare. Occupational therapy practice and education, my fields, see these conversations even more so than most. As a profession, we view spirituality as essential to each person. The Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (2020) states that "Values, beliefs, and spirituality influence clients’ motivation to engage in occupations and give their life or existence meaning." Simply defined, occupations are meaningful activities.

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I recently attended a lecture at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum hosted by the Women’s Society of Washington University. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I had never ventured into the museum, even though it is less than a mile from my house. The lecture was planned during Holy Week, a time jokingly marked by most pastors as Holy H@#$ Week (or holy heck week). Even with time and anxiety working against me, I found the courage to walk across the street from my office to WashU’s campus to hear the presentation.

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Reading Acts 17, I was struck by the state of Paul’s heart as he waited for his friends in Athens. 

I suspect that most skim quickly over verse 16, or maybe interpret that verse in light of all that comes later. After all, Paul’s encounter with the Athenian philosophers is famously respectful and humble while being confident and challenging. If you didn’t mind being trite, you could say Paul was nice to them, or kind. We tend to think, if somebody like Paul (who could display a temper!) was so kind and considerate to the Athenians, it must be because he thought them worthy of such treatment, right? Perhaps he was impressed, or intimidated, or even in awe. Why else would he engage with such deference and humility?

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When I re-read Acts 17, one of the first things that struck me was Paul’s particular situation in Asia Minor, on his way to Athens. Going back into the account of Chapter 16 in Acts, where Paul is at Philippi, then moving forward into the accounts of his journeys through Thessalonica and Berea, we get a sense of a certain type of tension. Paul was on a “man on the run.” I thought that he could have easily just wanted to settle somewhere. He might need rest. He might want refreshment. But even on the run, he remains “on mission.” 

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This passage in Acts reminds me of a painting I have seen many times. School of Athens, by Raphael, is a fresco in the Vatican depicting a host of philosophers and other thinkers anachronistically crowded into a single space. Over 50 different figures inhabit the painting in various states of conversation and contemplation. Some read. Others furiously scribble away.

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From being a persecutor of Jesus followers to a persuader and proclaimer of the Gospel, the apostle Paul is complex. I’m a woman in ministry, and Paul is ascribed some problematic words pertaining to me as a woman, and a woman in ministry. So I sometimes approach Paul with suspicion. Just staying above board on that. That said, I know we can learn from anyone—ANYONE. And I’ve found three lessons from Paul in Acts 17:16-34 that can serve Christians today as we engage in conversations across difference. 

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Recently I was compelled to write a new “Statement of Teaching Philosophy,” which is the bane of all university professors. Frustrated by my inarticulate efforts to describe the complex art and vocation of teaching, I decided to start and finish with a single line: “I am all things to all students so that I might teach some.” I wrote this little riff on Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians with tongue firmly in cheek, but I’ve decided to leave it for now. Whether providing instructions on how to build and sustain a harmonious classroom community, modeling how to encourage but also challenge students, or illustrating how to discern what is important and what is less so, Paul offers an excellent pattern for teachers to follow. He understands that teaching and learning is always a relational enterprise relying on mutuality and reciprocity.

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In Acts 17:16-34, the opening verse of the passage describes Paul as very distressed. He’s waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him in Athens, and he finds the city full of people worshiping idols. Paul responds by preaching about Jesus and the good news of the resurrection. The Athenians become confused and find his ideas strange, but nonetheless they continue to listen and try to figure out what he means. 

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I rejoined the academic sphere several years ago now and it has been delightful working with such wonderfully talented and ambitious colleagues, each contributing to patient care in new ways. An environment of such achievement has heightened my reflections on the nature of confidence and humility. Many commentators point to Acts 17, and rightly so, as a master class in evangelism which Paul delivers to the Athenians. But I also see this event as a masterful combination of both humility and confidence. 

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In her essay on what she dubs “paranoid” and “reparative” reading practices, the scholar Eve Sedgwick takes up the problem of knowledge. “What,” she asks, “does knowledge do—the pursuit of it, the having and exposing of it, the receiving again of knowledge of what one already knows?” Sedgwick’s essay is best situated in a broader debate in literary studies about critique and postcritique, but the essential question she raises is haunting even without the finer details of her argument. What does knowledge do? It’s a question I’ve been coming back to more often, and with more anxiety, as I move through grad school. The more I learn—the more I know—the more pressing the question becomes. 

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When I first read this passage at the beginning of Lent, the word ‘provoked’ caught my eye. I paused for a moment, struck by the power of Paul’s reaction. Other translations signaled similar intensity… the NIV describes Paul as ‘greatly distressed.’ The KJV says Paul’s spirit was ‘stirred in him.’ The NLT casts Paul as ‘deeply troubled,’ while The Message describes him as ‘angry.’ Curious, I made a mental note to look up the Greek word, wondering what sort of clues it might provide to Paul’s emotions and actions in Athens.

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One of the greatest challenges Christians face in the modern West is gaining a hearing for the gospel in a world that believes it already knows what the gospel is—but doesn’t. Of course, some bare details remain as trace memories: a few scattered statements by Jesus, his death on a Roman cross. But the memories are dulled by centuries of familiarity or, increasingly, sloughed off as part of a superstitious, unscientific, unenlightened, barbaric religious past. The irrelevance of Christianity is regarded as settled fact. “Been there, done that.”

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As we continue through the annual season of Eastertide, the church celebrates the resurrection of the world that has begun in the resurrection of Jesus. All the patterns and powers of corruption and injustice that led to Jesus’ death are still active in the world, and yet Christian worship on the first day of the week and during the annual season of Easter reminds us that we live in this Good Friday world as an Easter people.

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