Stoic and Christian Conceptions of Happiness
This paper looks interesting.
"Despite the popular identity of the Stoic and Christian conceptions of
happiness, in this paper I will argue that the Christian conception of happiness has, in fact, greater correspondence with the Aristotelian tradition than with the Stoic outlook. External goods, while certainly insufficient for happiness in themselves, are nevertheless presented in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as goods necessary for the temporal happiness of the Christian in this life. If I am successful in this argument, then the traditional "Stoic" (or stolid) perception of Christianity will have to give way to a nuanced "Aristotelian" or truly biblical outlook of Christian happiness, for Stoicism is, at least in principle, far more ascetic than is biblical Christianity."
"Despite the popular identity of the Stoic and Christian conceptions of
happiness, in this paper I will argue that the Christian conception of happiness has, in fact, greater correspondence with the Aristotelian tradition than with the Stoic outlook. External goods, while certainly insufficient for happiness in themselves, are nevertheless presented in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as goods necessary for the temporal happiness of the Christian in this life. If I am successful in this argument, then the traditional "Stoic" (or stolid) perception of Christianity will have to give way to a nuanced "Aristotelian" or truly biblical outlook of Christian happiness, for Stoicism is, at least in principle, far more ascetic than is biblical Christianity."