seneca | Reflections on Morality, Philosophy, and History

St John Chrysostom: Lazarus and the Rich Man: When Are the Poor Unworthy? On Wealth and Poverty

04/09/2025 Bruce Strom 0

St John Chrysostom entreats us: “The poor man has one plea:” “Do not require anything else from him; but even if he is the most wicked of all men and is at a loss for his necessary sustenance, let us free him from hunger.”
“Christ also commands us to do this, when He said, ‘Be like your Father in heaven, for He makes His sun rise on both the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.’ The alms giver is a harbor those in necessity:” “whether they are bad or good or whatever they are who are in danger.”
A virtuous almsgiver is not a judge. “Charity is charity when we give it even to the unworthy.” “Need alone is the poor man’s worthiness.” “For if we investigate the worthiness of our fellow servants, God will do the same for us.” […]

President Grant's Indian Policy, and Custer's Battle of Little Bighorn

President Ulysses Grant’s Indian Policy, and Custer’s Defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn

11/06/2024 Bruce Strom 0

Custer had a reputation for cruelty to both Indians and to his own men. Chernow notes: “In 1867, Custer was court-martialed for ordering deserters to be shot and Grant thought he was guilty. The following year, Custer and his cavalry obliterated an Indian village,” “wantonly murdering more than a hundred Southern Cheyenne, including women and children.”
Grant told Sherman and Sheridan that he did not want Custer to lead a force in the campaign against the Sioux Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Custer had the chutzpah to request a personal interview with Grant at the White House to appeal this decision, but Grant refused to meet with him. But with Sheridan’s intervention, Grant gave in and allowed Custer to join the expedition against the Indians. […]

Major Roman Stoic Philosophers, My Favorite Maxims: Epictetus, Rufus, Seneca & Marcus Aurelius

02/02/2024 Bruce Strom 5

Many of the writings of the Stoics sound like passages from the Pauline Epistles. Indeed, Seneca was a contemporary of St Paul. There are epistles written between them, though nearly all scholars think they are spurious. Was St Paul inspired by the Stoic writings of Seneca? Although the Jewish rabbinic tradition was the primary source of inspiration for the Epistles and the Gospels, stoicism was an important secondary influence. In particular, stoicism deeply influenced the desert monastic tradition, which in turn influenced medieval monasticism. […]

History of Christian Persecutions, New Testament Through Marcus Aurelius

09/22/2023 Bruce Strom 2

How widespread was the Christian persecution under the Roman Empire? Usually, it was a local affair, not until the reign of Diocletian was an empire-wide systematic persecution of Christians undertaken. The persecution under Nero was limited to Rome itself. The extent of the local persecution depended on the enthusiasm or cruelty of the local officials, many local officials had no enthusiasm for persecuting the local Christians, turning a blind eye. Overall, the number of persecutions was not huge, rarely were the Christian persecutions systematic, targeting all Christians. Indeed, the Christian martyrs in the twentieth century alone, mostly in Russia, dwarfed the number of Christian martyrs from the preceding nineteen centuries combined. […]

Biography of Marcus Aurelius, Stoic Philosopher and Roman Emperor

09/20/2023 Bruce Strom 3

Summarizing his life, Cassius Dio tells us that Marcus Aurelius “did not display many feats of physical prowess; yet he had developed his body from a very weak one to one capable of the greatest endurance. Most of his life he devoted to beneficence, and that was the reason, perhaps, for his erecting a temple to Beneficence on the Capitol.” […]

Roman Emperors Before Marcus Aurelius

09/15/2023 Bruce Strom 5

Hadrian’s peace policy was controversial, he abandoned Trajan’s conquests in Dacian Romania and Parthian Persia to concentrate on consolidating the Roman Empire. The problem was that the Roman Empire needed continual expansion, including war booty and slaves, to fund the empire and feed the growing populace of Rome. This policy certainly did not prevent future conflict with Parthian Persia.
Historians debate whether Hadrian’s defensive posture was wise. Were there prosperous provinces left to conquer on the frontiers? On the other hand, the successful expansion of the empire by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian several centuries later nearly bankrupted his Empire. […]

Why doesn’t the Bible condemn slavery?

07/20/2022 Bruce Strom 0

The Bible does not condemn chattel slavery, or the institution of slavery, because, as Jesus exhorts, the poor will always be with us, there will always be wage slaves, because the rich will always take advantage of poor, seeking to pay them starvation wages, taking advantage of the poor. […]

Our Reflections on Morality, Philosophy, and History: Ancient and Modern Classics

05/11/2022 Bruce Strom 5

To a Stoic Philosopher, the question of Theodicy, or why God permits bad things to happen to good people, why God permits suffering, is simply absurd. The fact is, we do suffer, we will face injustices, we will suffer illnesses and death, and the rain falls on both the good man and the bad man. God will not shield us from suffering and injustice, but God will provide us with the strength to endure the challenges of this life. […]

Epicurus, Aristippus, and Lucretius: History of Epicurean Philosophy

11/10/2021 Bruce Strom 6

Was Epicureanism a cult? Or perhaps we should ask, was Epicureanism like a philosophical fraternity? One prominent scholar, AA Long, suggests that Epicurus’ school of philosophy was more a philosophical community centering on personal friendship than it was a formal school of philosophy. Many ancient philosophers wrote about the virtues of friendship, but the virtues of friendship are core to the Epicurean experience, and the Epicureans sought pleasure through their friendships. This community was egalitarian, it was one of the few in ancient world that admitted women and slaves, and in his letters, Epicurus expresses deep affection for his friends and followers. AA Long says this, “those who committed themselves to Epicurus we not so much students ‘reading for a course’ as men and women dedicated to a certain style of life.” […]