Paul and The Athenian Intellectuals Richard Lloyd Anderson
Imagination is stirred by Christianity's brilliant apostle
standing before his best-educated audience—at Athens, the center
of Greek culture. It is an appropriate part of Acts, which
describes more lands and peoples than any other historical book
of the Bible. Paul's missions there contain the physical
adventure of travel and the moral excitement of confronting
established ways with new truths of a revealed religion. A drama
too vivid to be historical? Some scholars think so, but others
are deeply impressed with the subtle connections of Acts and
cultural realities in the places that Paul evangelized.1 This is
especially true at Athens, where the daily life of the city
breathes through the lines of Acts 17:16—32. Here are accurate
glimpses of the beliefs of its leaders, its informal politics,
the life of its marketplace, and the bold testimony of the
apostle superimposed on it all. No letter of Paul is preserved
from Athens, but Acts harmonizes intima