Wednesday, May 20th, 2020

The speech of St Paul in the Areopagus - the Hill of Ares in Athens - is an immensely famous and significant one, for many reasons. One of these is the statement of the basic facts of reality underpinning the whole of Christianity. Paul in this instance does not mainly appeal to miracles, or give personal testimony. St Paul gives a third manner of proclamation - reasoned argument based on shared knowledge. “‘Since the God who made the world and everything in it is himself Lord of heaven and earth, he does not make his home in shrines made by human hands. Nor is he dependent on anything that human hands can do for him, since he can never be in need of anything; on the contrary, it is he who gives everything – including life and breath – to everyone.” This is the beginnings of a metaphysical argument - the philosophy of being, reflecting on why anything exists at all and how it exists. What’s interesting of course is that this is not a philosophy professor speaking: its a Catholic bishop of the very early Church. Most of us are not philosophy professors either: but we do have a duty to prepare to argue reasonably and calmly online and in person - not to convince, but rather to demonstrate the goodness and beauty of what we live with Christ.