Hello, followers, family and friends. :)
I am grateful for a few new subscribers this week. Welcome to you all.
I’m hoping to get an agenda written out this week to make plans for my writings and let you know what to expect (more on in a later announcement).
One thing I’ve been considering is doing a biblical commentary on Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. If you don’t know who that is, that’s okay; he’s modernly known as the Philosopher King, though, scholars of Aurelius would argue that Aurelius himself would denounce that title. But in reality, Aurelius has become the father of stoicism (manliness, strength, tranquility —what it means to be a good man).
In many ways, stoicism is a good thing, though it may have a bad rap today (maybe you’re thinking of a mean or cruel father/man you know). Additionally, while stoicism does have a lot of wisdom, Aurelius himself was not a Christian, and in fact, worshiped the many Roman “gods” at the time (this is why I’d like to do a biblical commentary approach to his work Meditations).
Despite that his views are more “universal,” or new age sounding, there is still wisdom to be found in what he has to say about being in control of one’s thoughts, emotions, body, and speech.
The main focus of this project would be to glean from Aurelius what we can, and at a lesser focus, critique his worldview with a Scriptural worldview. Does that make sense?
One thing that may be handy is to get yourself a copy of Meditations from the library. Or, here’s a link to a PDF of Gregory Hays' translation (I assume that Aurelius would have been writing in Latin).
I’m looking forward to starting this project and hope that you will enjoy tagging along! Feel free to start conversations in the comments, chat, or email me personally. :)
Blessings.
This sounds very interesting. Looking forward to it.