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Stoicism put a person at the whim of the Fates. It was essentially Calvinism, where you could not affect your destiny, because you were either chosen by the god

Stoicism put a person at the whim of the Fates. It was essentially Calvinism, where you could not affect your destiny, because you were either chosen by the gods, or you weren't. Shakespeare summed up Stoicism well when he said "as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport." Contrast that with the proposition of Christianity, which is that the Creator of the Universe, because of His infinite love for creation, humbled Himself and condescended so low as to be a Person born in a cave to a poor family, suffered betrayal by almost all of his closest followers, suffered an ignominious death, then rose from the dead on the third day after His death, thereby conquering death by death, and you, poor, broken, sinful, incorrigible you, can have a personal relationship with the God-man who calls Himself Jesus Christ.

nescioquid 5y ago
The stoic dicta to live in accordance with god/nature and to carefully consider what things are in your control and which not (mainly, the only things in your control are your own judgements). It has nothing to do with the doctrine of The Elect, which if I recall stems from a medieval theological catch-22 (if god is all powerful, and if you can earn your way into heaven with "good works", then the implication is that god would be less than all powerful because you, a lowly human, would have some power in the matter). But the church both appropriated and denigrated the classical tradition. I wouldn't really expect to see an honest representation of stoicism, or Platonism, or of anything really, from the church.