One True Life

The Stoics and Early Christians as Rival Traditions

Rowe C. Kavin

In this groundbreaking, cross-disciplinary work of philosophy and biblical studies, New Testament scholar C. Kavin Rowe explores the promise and problems inherent in engaging rival philosophical claims to what is true. Juxtaposing the Roman Stoics Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius with the Christian saints Paul, Luke, and Justin Martyr, and incorporating the contemporary views of Jeffrey Stout, Alasdair McIntyre, Charles Taylor, Martha Nussbaum, Pierre Hadot, and others, the author suggests that in a world of religious pluralism there is negligible gain in sampling from separate belief systems. This thought-provoking volume reconceives the relationship between ancient philosophy and emergent Christianity as a rivalry between strong traditions of life and offers powerful arguments for the exclusive commitment to a community of belief and a particular form of philosophical life as the path to existential truth.

About the Author

C. Kavin Rowe is professor of New Testament at Duke University Divinity School and the author of "Early Narrative Christology: The Lord in the Gospel of Luke" and "World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age". He lives in Durham, NC.

Reviews

"With this elegant exposition, Kavin Rowe compels us to revisit not only what we thought we knew about the early Christians and their Stoic contemporaries but also – in good philosophical style – the way we might know it. This revolutionary treatment offers a sharp challenge to those who suppose that what people believe can be separated from the whole life they lead. All those interested in early Christianity and its Greco-Roman context should ponder this book very carefully" – Rt Revd Professor N. T. Wright, University of St. Andrews

"This is a mature and provocative intervention into the modern practice of religious comparison: the powerfully argued claim that Stoicism and early Christianity are incompatible, in fact incommensurable, will raise scholarly debate on the possibility of comparison to a wholly new level" – John Barclay, Durham University

"Kavin Rowe's 'One True Life' is a deeply challenging book – an uncomfortable read in the best sense. It is learned, often moving, and written with profound historical and theological intelligence. I wish I had the learning and the sophistication to have written this book" – Simon Gathercole, University of Cambridge

"Few New Testament scholars combine exegetical competence with real philosophical and theological sophistication. Kavin Rowe is one of the rare exceptions. In this remarkable book, Rowe reexamines how the Stoics and the early Christians thought we ought to live our lives and how these two schools of thought relate to one another" – Gary A. Anderson, University of Notre Dame

"Many books have been written on the relation between Christian thought and ancient philosophy, but Rowe eschews abstract ideas in this fresh and stimulating work. He deals with what Greco-Roman thinkers and Christians genuinely cared about: how to live within a moral or religious tradition. The startling claim the early Christians made is that there is a true way of life" – Robert Louis Wilken, author of "The First Thousand Years"

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