honoring their religiosity, affirming their quest, but suggesting another better alternative, the path of salvation and wholeness pioneered by Jesus of Nazareth who was unjustly crucified, but miraculously resurrected to bring healing and wholeness, transformation, and love to all creation. There is an “unknown God,” whose wisdom is luring us forward even when we are unaware of it, and this is the God Paul has experienced through his encounters with Jesus Christ.
Paul does not attack their spiritual quests in all their wild diversity – nor should we condemn the great religions of the world or the new spiritual movements of our own country. The God in whom we live and move and have our being is inspiring every person’s religious quest, even those we presume to be misguided and immature. Most people who follow these movements are seeking, like us, to experience meaning, healing, growth, and peace of mind in a complicated world.
What Paul does is affirm that the divinity revealed in Jesus Christ is present – albeit in disguise and hidden – in their quests for meaning and that Christ provides a way to the meaningful, affirmative, and healthy spirituality they seek. Christ is the reality beneath the “statue of the unknown God.” What they don’t yet know is the power of God that heals the sick and saves the lost and welcomes everyone to God’s banquet table!
Paul does something unique in scripture: he quotes directly– and this is the only place in the Bible – from another religious tradition and attributes the qualities of another god to the God of Jesus Christ: using a hymn of another faith, he affirms that “the reality in whom we live and move and have our being” is the Parent of Jesus Christ. God is not partial to one people or punitive but seeks the well-being of all of us. God is as near as the breath we take and God wants us – all of us, friend and stranger, Christian and non-Christian – to have abundant life.
The conversation concludes with some of Paul’s dialogue partners scoffing, but others wanting to continue the conversation. “We will hear you again about this,” they promise. Our witness as Christians is both a scandal and an invitation. It is offensive to those who worship the gods of power and prejudice. It scandalizes those who can’t imagine a faith without fences and boundaries, welcoming male and female, Jew and Greek, friend and enemy, stranger and neighbor, gay and straight.
Our witness is beginning, not the end of the journey; perhaps, Paul learns something important from his Greek companions. In quoting their philosophers, he may have discovered that the Christ he proclaimed was cosmic as well as personal and global as well as local. He may have found that the wisdom of Christ transcended any particular tongue or ethnicity, including his own form of Christianity.
Practical Wisdom from Acts of the Apostles
The Areopagus is the postmodern, pluralistic age in which we live. We cannot evade it, deny its significance, or denounce its spiritual impact; rather we must be transformed in relationship with our world. We must seek spiritual, theological, and technological renewal to respond to the innovations in our environment. Here Paul provides practical wisdom for congregations and spiritual leaders.
First, Paul is a keen observer. He doesn’t bury his head in the sand, delivering his message to people in the abstract. In the words of psychiatrist-spiritual guide Gerald May, he pauses, notices, opens, stretches and yields, and responds.6 Revelation is always personal and historical, and so is the sharing of the good news of God’s love and transformation. Paul’s mindfulness, which includes not only his observation of the many Athenian shrines, but also his distress at certain practices, enables him to deliver an authentic and personal message.
When churches open their senses to the varieties of spirituality, culture, and ethnicities in their context, they can truly dialogue with their neighbors. “Christ is the answer” only when we know the nagging questions and deep hungers of those around us. Spiritual maturity emerges from common ground in our current setting, not the abstractions of a timeless message. In fact, the timeless message is always historical, the uncompromised gospel is always contextual, and the eternal truth is always relational and timely.
Second, Paul affirms a point of contact with his listeners. He is not preaching to a godless world, but a god-filled world. Isaiah proclaims that “the whole earth is filled with God’s glory” (Isaiah 6:3). If we live and move and have our being in God, then there are no godless places or people untouched by divine revelation. We may worship things less alive than ourselves, forgetting our fullness as God’s beloved children – consumption, nationalism, success, sensuality, scripture, church, and creed – but even in turning toward lesser objects, God is still touching us and luring us toward wholeness. The point of contact shapes our message: Paul uses Greek concepts in the Areopagus and throughout his writings, and his understanding of the extent of God’s grace and love is transformed in the process. Sharing good news involves receiving as well as giving. Paul learned something important about God and humankind that illuminated his message to the cultural elites of Athens.
Third, dialogue may include challenge. There is much to affirm in the marketplace of ideas. We can appreciate and employ spiritual practices of other faith traditions as well as various practices from other Christian traditions. But, our dialogue needs to be mindful and critical. For example, I have appreciated the insights of the popular new age text, The Secret, especially as these relate to the power of the mind to shape reality.7 I believe that our thoughts and practices can transform our attitudes and interpretations of life events. However, The Secret’s assertion that we “create” the events of our lives in their entirety and are somehow responsible for success as failure, health as well as illness, substitutes an omnipotent mind for an omnipotent god. Although our spiritual practices may shape our well-being, cancer, abuse, and natural disaster come upon the spiritual as well as the unenlightened. Today’s Christians may appreciate the ardor of fellow Christians, for example, those who affirm the “prosperity gospel,” the belief that God wants us to be successful and that our success mirrors the quality of our faith, while critiquing the implicit – and explicit – materialism and consumerism in this “gospel” and its temptation to blame the victim for her or his failures. In the case of The Secret and the “prosperity gospel,” we can affirm the importance of spiritual growth, faith, and positive attitude without assuming an exact cause and effect relationship between our spiritual maturity and our prosperity and health.
Hospitality does not require acceptance, but it does require respect, care, and listening. Paul observed and listened before he spoke to the Athenian intellectuals, shaping his message in such a way that what he learned in Athens enabled him to share the good news in life-changing ways.
Transforming Acts
Acts of the Apostles is an adventure in theospirituality, the joining of theological reflection (our vision of God and the world) and spiritual practices that make God come alive for us. Grace abounds and God is constantly calling to us, often in “sighs too deep for words.” Our spiritual practices are ways we can pause and open, and then respond to God’s call in our lives. The biblical tradition, and most especially the gospels, affirms the role of human decision-making in opening a door for greater intensity and clarity of God’s presence in our lives. When we ask, seek, and knock, we gain inspiration and insight and enable God to be more active in our lives and the world.
Acts is an invitation to spiritual practices. While Acts is not a “how-to” book, the words of Acts point to life-changing spiritual disciplines. Accordingly, each chapter will conclude with a spiritual exercise, illuminating the scripture and enabling us to experience the realities Luke is describing in the early Christian community.
Opening to the Spirit. Gerald May sees the practice of pausing, noticing, opening, stretching and yielding, and responding at the heart of our spiritual practices. In this exercise, take some time to reflect on your environment – the context of your work, home life, play, and spirituality. You can do this sitting in a comfortable chair or walking in your neighborhood or near your church or place of employment.
Prayerfully
