Paul and the philosophers: He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities. Acts 17:18

The Book of Acts recounts a very interesting moment during Paul's second missionary journey, his arrival in the city of Athens, and his meeting with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. Although the story is very simple and pleasant, it is full of great spiritual depth and drama, because there were two great drivers of a schism in the early church: first, the Christians from Judaism who wanted to impose the law of Moses with the rite of the circumcision, and second, the Greek philosophy with its ideas about the wisdom, the virtue, and the human happiness.
Paul's letters, such as those written to the Churches of Thessalonica and Corinth, are a complementary continuation of the teachings of the Book of Acts and show the cultural clash between Greek culture and science and the ideas of the first Christians from the Middle East. Faced with a vibrant and highly developed culture, Paul had to defend his ideas with great care and perseverance.
Although the doctrine of the Kingdom of God, the empire or dominion of divine perfections is in part a philosophy of life with its teachings on the opposition between flesh and spirit, concepts such as eternal life and the resurrection of the dead sounded bad to the ears of Greek thinkers and this brought much distrust and conflict. Paul had to risk his life during his missionary journeys, but preaching with the help of the Holy Spirit brought its fruits. Thus the Book of Acts relates what the Greek philosophers thought of Paul as soon as the apostle arrived in Athens: "Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, ´What does this babbler wish to say?´ Others said, ´He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities´" Acts 17:18.
Paul had a long talk at the Areopagus about the ideas coming from Christianity, recounted in the book of Acts, some mocked him, but others embraced the faith. Christianity prevailed over time, but the conflict between philosophy and theology lasted until the arrival of scholastic philosophy with Saint Thomas and Saint Augustine.

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