Was Jesus a Stoic?

The Ancient Philosophy Behind Christmas and Christianity

Dear Classical Wisdom Reader,

As we frantically wrap gifts, bake cookies and sneak some sips of Eggnog to carry on through the holidays, it’s worthwhile to momentarily ignore the to-do list and contemplate the big picture, the history and philosophy behind the chaos of the festivities.

Indeed, underneath the ubiquitous nativity scenes, cheerful Christmas carols and brightly suited Santas, lies a far older and richer intellectual world than we often imagine.

After all, Christianity did not emerge in a vacuum! It was born into a Mediterranean culture alive with philosophical debate, moral experimentation, and spiritual longing. Alongside its Jewish foundations, early Christian thought absorbed many ideas circulating in the ancient world...especially those of Stoicism, and perhaps even the radical street philosophy of the Cynics.

When Jesus speaks of detachment from wealth, indifference to social status, and freedom found beyond material possessions, he sounds strikingly familiar to anyone who has encountered Diogenes or Seneca.

And these echoes are more than coincidence...

In fact, the ethical core of Christianity shares deep and sometimes uncomfortable similarities with Stoic philosophy...similarities that early Church Fathers openly acknowledged. And yet, as we shall see in today’s article, this shared moral vision also carried a surprising blind spot, one that allowed both saints and philosophers to preach virtue while leaving the social order largely untouched.

So, while many are celebrating Christmas, it is worth asking: just how ancient are the ideas we still live by today? Read on to discover a few surprising elements, below.

All the best,

Anya Leonard
Founder and Director

Classical Wisdom

Classical Wisdom Members: please keep a lookout for our Classical Wisdom Litterae Issue: Jesus and the Ancient World, coming out on Wednesday!

Jesus’ birth and death did not just ‘happen’ in Judea, a hot spot of a holy land, but also in a province of the Roman Empire.

So, what was taking place in that vast expanse in the beginning of the very first century? That’s exactly what we’ll discover.

We will cover the fascinating Ancient World in which the ‘reason for the season’ came to be and tour across the region taking snapshots of the critical persons, places and beliefs... to show a window into the era of Jesus.

This Wednesday, take a break from the festivities to learn a little of the history that wasn’t covered in Sunday school...

Please note: you can also gift a Classical Wisdom Subscription!

It’s a perfect present for those who, following the steps of Jesus, the Cynics, and the Stoics, prefer a life of wisdom and learning over things and objects:

Christianity and Stoicism

By Rodrigo Ferreyra

It is no secret that the origins of Christian thought are closely related to other Mediterranean philosophies and religions. Rooted firmly in its Jewish heritage, Christianity nonetheless developed in a cultural crossroads where myth, ethics, and metaphysics circulated freely. Alongside inherited Jewish ideas, Christianity absorbed elements such as the Golden Age myth, a sense of living in a fallen or corrupted world, and a dualistic tension reminiscent of Zoroastrianism.

Yet among these influences, Greco-Roman philosophy stands out as particularly formative. Within that tradition, Stoicism held a remarkably special position in shaping early Christian thought.

This privileged status is evident not only in shared moral vocabulary but also in how early Christians themselves perceived Stoic thinkers. Church Fathers such as Saint Ambrose and Saint Jerome went so far as to describe certain Stoics as ecclesiastical writers, a striking acknowledgment of philosophical kinship. The most famous illustration of this perceived connection is the apocryphal correspondence between the Roman Stoic Seneca and the apostle Paul. Though the fourteen surviving letters have long been exposed as forgeries, their very existence reveals something important: early Christians found the moral and spiritual proximity between Stoicism and Christianity plausible enough to imagine personal dialogue between their representatives.

This historical backdrop prepares us to recognize how deeply intertwined Stoic and Christian discourses truly were. One of their most fundamental points of convergence lies in their understanding of philosophy itself. For both traditions, philosophy was not a speculative or purely theoretical endeavor.

It was, above all, ethical instruction...a practical guide to life.

Stoicism presented philosophy as a discipline aimed at shaping character, governing desire, and cultivating inner freedom. Christianity similarly framed its teachings as a way of life, a set of practices and commitments oriented toward moral transformation and salvation.

From this shared emphasis on practice emerges another strong parallel: both Stoicism and Christianity placed extraordinary importance on self-improvement through detachment from the excesses of the body and the distractions of the mind. Each tradition sought freedom from passions understood as obstacles to a higher good. Christianity grounded this transformation in divine grace and redemption, ultimately personified in the resurrection of Christ.

The Christian life unfolded as a disciplined path, including prayer, charity, humility, and obedience, which was directed toward salvation beyond this world.

Stoicism, by contrast, found its guiding principle in harmony with nature. For the Stoic, virtue consisted in aligning one’s will with reason and accepting the rational order of the cosmos. Although the Stoic ideal was not salvation in a theological sense, it nonetheless promised a kind of inner peace, freedom, and moral integrity that transcended external circumstances. In both systems, virtue was not merely taught but meant to be embodied.

Despite these similarities, important differences begin to emerge when we examine how each tradition understood virtue in practice. Stoicism often emphasized renunciation of material excess as a means of cultivating tranquility and independence from fortune. Seneca famously articulated this attitude in On the Tranquility of Mind, where he praises simplicity and indifference to luxury. His rejection of ostentation and envy reflects a sincere philosophical commitment to modest living.

Yet this ethical stance reveals a troubling limitation. Seneca’s disdain for luxury coexists comfortably with his acceptance of slavery. From a modern perspective, this contradiction is striking. It would seem neither truly Stoic nor Christian to own slaves.

And yet, history complicates this judgment...

Pope Gregory I the Great (540-604), one of the four great Fathers of the Western Church, was both deeply influenced by Stoic ethics and actively involved in the slave trade. The coexistence of moral rigor and social injustice appears in both traditions, forcing us to confront a shared ethical blind spot.

Still, it would be misleading to dismiss either Stoicism or Christianity as indifferent to human dignity. Seneca explicitly defended slaves as fellow human beings and urged kindness and fairness toward them. Likewise, Christian writers consistently emphasized the spiritual equality of all souls before God. In both Seneca’s Stoicism and Gregory’s Christianity, slaves were included within the moral horizon: they, too, were capable of achieving harmony or salvation.

Read more about here:

The Spirituality of Seneca

This inclusion, however, raises a deeper question. How could two ethical systems so focused on virtue and moral improvement fail to challenge the very social structures that contradicted their own principles? Why did neither Stoicism nor Christianity mount a sustained critique of slavery itself?

A possible answer lies in the nature of the freedom each tradition promoted. In his Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel interprets Stoicism as a historical shift from collective political freedom to individual inward freedom: the “freedom of self-consciousness.” After the fall of the Roman Republic, Stoicism flourished as a philosophy of retreat. Political agency had vanished, replaced by imperial authority in which philosophers had little voice. In response, Stoicism redirected freedom inward, locating it entirely within the rational self.

Christianity inherited and intensified this inward turn.

While proclaiming spiritual freedom for all, slave and master alike, it similarly relocated liberation from the social world to the interior life and the afterlife. Both traditions affirmed that even the most oppressed individual could be free in conscience, reason, or soul. Yet this freedom remained disconnected from the transformation of social and political realities.

Thus, judgment and moral agency were confined to the rational or spiritual realm sanctioned by existing authority, whether Roman law or Christian hierarchy. As Hegel suggests, this inward freedom reaches its limit when it lacks the skeptical or critical force necessary to reshape the world itself. Self-discipline, resignation, and moral awareness become substitutes for structural change.

In this light, we can acknowledge that both Christianity and Stoicism promoted self-improvement as a means to an end, though their ultimate goals differed. Stoicism aimed at tranquility through rational acceptance of nature, while Christianity aimed at salvation through divine grace. Yet in practice, adherents of both traditions often adopted a passive posture toward the social order, seeking moral perfection without challenging the conditions under which injustice persisted.

Despite these limitations, the influence of Stoicism on Christianity, and on Western thought more broadly, remains profound.

Stoic ideas about natural law, conscience, moral universality, and inner freedom deeply shaped Christian theology and ethics. These concepts, in turn, laid groundwork for later developments in human rights, moral responsibility, and personal dignity. Even today, Stoic practices of resilience, self-control, and rational reflection continue to resonate in modern psychology, self-help, and secular ethics.

The ancient world has not ceased to speak to us. Its philosophies, though bound by their historical contexts, still shape how we think about virtue, freedom, and the good life. By examining both the strengths and shortcomings of Stoicism and Christianity, we gain not only historical insight but also a clearer understanding of the ideas that continue to influence how we live, judge, and aspire today.