I think I had just read something else that had mentioned Marcus Aurelius -- the Roman emperor and philosopher whose philosophy seems to pass in and out of fashion as modern readers and business executives discover and rediscover him -- and my interest was probably peaked. Without guilt, when I left that hotel, the decorative copy of Meditations of Marcus Aurelius was in my luggage and no longer on its dusty shelf.
At least that’s what the outer binding said. On the inside I discovered that the book was more. It’s actually a curated edition, published by the “Classics Club,” including several works. Its actual title page says:
MARCUS AURELIUS
AND HIS TIMES
The Transition from Paganism to Christianity
Comprising
Marcus Aurelius: Meditations
Lucian: Hermotimus ~ Icaromenippus
Justin Martyr: Dialogue with Trypho ~ First Apology
Walter Pater: Marius the Epicurean (Selections)
With an Introduction by Irwin Edman
Grand. I know next to nothing about all of that so I thought this might be a good introduction to the subject -- how the Roman Stoics slowly (or quickly?) morphed into the early Christian theorists? But I really only found myself dogearing two of the sections.
The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
The meditations are helpfully organized into numbered paragraphs, each of which seems to contain a particular philosophical or rhetorical point. It was therefore pretty easy to circle those that carried some kind of meaningful message for me.
Part III, No. 10: Cast away then all other things, hold only to these few truths; bear in mind also that every man lives only in the present, which is an indivisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either past or uncertain. Short then is the time which any man lives; and short too the longest posthumous fame, and even this is handed on by a succession of poor human beings, who will very soon die, and who know not even themselves, much less one who died long ago.
This is Stoicism in its purest form -- life is short, and no one will remember you when you’re gone, so you’d better get focused on what really matters in this life and not what you or others think is coming next. And the way to figure that out? To figure out what really matters in this life?
Part III, No. 12: If you work at that which is before you, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract you, but keeping your divine part pure, as if you were bound to give it back immediately; if you hold to this, expecting nothing, but satisfied to live now according to nature, speaking heroic truth in every word which you utter, you will live happy. And there is no man able to prevent this.
Reason and fidelity to it in all things. Seek to understand the world around you, and live harmoniously with it through the on-going application of your reasonable faculty of mind.
Part III, No. 14: No longer wander at random. You shall not live to read your own memoirs, or the acts of the ancient Romans and Greeks, or the selections from books which you were reserving for your old age. Hasten then to the goal which you have before you. Throw away vain hopes and come to your own aid, while yet you may, if you care at all for yourself.
After all, no one is going to do it for you. And the world will offer you plenty of distractions.
Part V, No. 28: Are you irritated with one whose arm-pits smell? Are you angry with one whose mouth has a foul odor? What good will your anger do you? He has this mouth, he has these arm-pits. Such emanations must come from such things. “But the man has reason,” you will say, “and he could, if he took pains, discover wherein he offends.” I wish you well of your discovery. Now you too have reason; by your rational faculty, stir up his rational faculty; show him his fault, admonish him. For if he listens, you will cure him, and have no need of anger -- you are not a ranter or a whore.
In all things: accept, then act, then accept again. There is no other way. It is key not to get swept up in the circus that surrounds us.
Part VII, No. 3: A piece of pageantry, a stage play, flocking sheep and herding cows, exercise with spears, bones cast to puppies, crusts tossed into fishponds, the laboring of ants over their burdens, the running about of frightened little mice, puppets dancing on strings -- all are the same. Your duty in the midst of such things is to show good humor and not a proud air; and to understand that a man is worth just as much as the things about which he busies himself.
Distractions exist -- as do difficulties. The point is not to question them -- to get wrapped up in debating them and battling them. The point is to accept -- even and especially the natural -- and to keep focused on your own reason and harmony.
Part VIII, No. 50: A cucumber is bitter -- throw it away. There are briars in the path -- turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, “And why were such things put into the world?” For you will be ridiculed by a man who is acquainted with nature, and you would be ridiculed by a carpenter and a shoemaker if you found fault because you found shavings and cuttings in their workshop from the things which they make. And yet they have places where they can throw these shavings and cuttings, but nature has no external space; now the wondrous part of her art is that though she has circumscribed herself, everything within her which appears to decay and grow old and be useless she changes into herself, and again makes new things from these very same, so that she requires neither substance from without, nor wants a place into which she may cast that which decays. She is content then with her own space, and her own matter and her own art.
This struck me as one of those big ideas. The detritus of creation cannot be hidden by the Creator -- but it is no less necessary and real as the scraps of the carpenter. Nature has leftover bits. Accept them -- and perhaps discard them -- in the same way you would the scraps of shoe leather and rubber soles.
The First Apology of Justin Martyr
It’s amazing to me how little has changed in the arguments of Christian theorists over the literal centuries that they have been making them.
18. Reflect on the end of the kings who came before you, how they died the death common to all men. If that meant only a cessation of consciousness, it would be a boon to the wicked. But since consciousness survives in all who have ever lived, and for some an eternal punishment is laid up, see that you refuse not to be convinced, and believe that what we say here is true.
Souls exist (i.e., consciousness survives death). Asserted. And the proof?
Even your necromancy, and the divinations you practice with immaculate children, and your evokings of departed souls, and of those whom the magi call Dreamsenders and Familiars, and other performances of excerpts in such matters show you that after death souls are in a state of sensation. There are men seized and wrenched about by spirits of the dead, whom we call demoniacs or madman; there are what you consider the oracles of Amphilochus, Dodona, and Pytho, and others.
Because madmen exist. People who jump around as if possessed by demons or dead souls. They prove that souls are real.
That’s one. Here’s another (sort of).
31. … But in the books of their prophets we find Jesus our Christ foretold as coming, born of a virgin, growing up to man’s estate, healing every disease and every sickness, raising the dead, being hated, unrecognized, crucified, dying, rising again, and ascending into heaven, being and being called the Son of God. We find it also predicted that apostles would be sent by Him into every nation to proclaim these tidings, and that among the Gentiles more than among the Jews men would believe on Him. He was predicted first 5,000 years before He appeared and again 3,000 years before, then 2,000, then 1,000, and again 800: for as the generations succeeded one another, prophet after prophet arose.
32-38. (Justin quotes at length passages from the Psalms and the prophets of the Old Testament that seem to predict Christ’s coming, his birth, and his sufferings.)
Unfortunately, some of the essential arguments have been edited out of this particular version I’m reading. It would have been nice to see the prophecies the editor cut out to better determine if they are specific enough to be valid or impressive. Also, even if the prophecies are specific, prophecy itself does not prove that made-up stories are true.
But perhaps the prophecies cited are not as powerful as Justin would want us to believe.
52. Since then we can show that all that has already happened was predicted by the prophets before it occurred, we must believe too that the other things they predicted, that have not yet come to pass, will certainly happen. And as the things already past took place as foretold without anyone realizing it, so shall future things, even though unrecognized and disbelieved, still come to pass.
Because things foretold happened without anyone realizing them? They were unrecognized and disbelieved, therefore they happened? Evidently, even the prophecies that no one recognizes as true are also somehow true.
But what’s more interesting is how far modern Christians have strayed from some of the philosophical underpinnings of their own faith.
12. More than all other men indeed we are your helpers and allies in promoting peace, seeing we hold it impossible for either the wicked or the covetous of the conspirator or the virtuous man to escape the notice of God, and are sure that each man goes to everlasting punishment or to salvation according to the merit of his deeds. And if all men knew this, no one would choose wickedness even in little things, knowing he would go to an everlasting punishment of fire; but he would do his utmost to govern himself and adorn himself with virtue, that he might obtain the good gifts of God and escape punishment.
Works not faith!
14. … So we, since our conversion by the Word, keep away from demons, and follow the only unbegotten God through His Son. We who once enjoyed the pleasures of lust now embrace chastity. We who once resorted to magical arts, now dedicate ourselves to the good and unbegotten God. We who prized above all else the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into the common stock, and share with everyone in need.
Communism!
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This post first appeared on Eric Lanke's blog, an association executive and author. You can follow him on Twitter @ericlanke or contact him at eric.lanke@gmail.com.
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