How to Think about God: An Ancient Guide for Believers and Nonbelievers

Author: Marcus Tullius Cicero https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cicero
Translated into English by Philip Freeman https://philipfreemanbooks.com/author/
ISBN: 9780691183657
Published: Nov 5, 2019
Pages:168

Series: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers

Cicero was no religious dogmatist and was indeed a man full of doubts. His own beliefs, reflected in his many treatises and letters, repeatedly changed throughout his troubled life. At most times, he seems to have believed hopefully in the God of the Stoics—though he never identified himself as a Stoic—and the possibility of eternal life for the virtuous. During other periods, he doubted almost everything about religion, including the belief that there was any life beyond the grave. His writings in this short volume reflect the more hopeful periods of his life and his preference for the Stoic view of the divine. Unlike his justly celebrated works on friendship and growing older, Freeman presents his religious beliefs here for a modern audience, not so much for imitation in one’s own life as to gain an appreciation for a profound and influential theory of the divine just before the dawn of the Christian age.