Luke's account of Paul's speech at the Areopagus illustrates five factors at work in the Hellenistic world, namely: Hellenistic interest in religious questions; the unity of the Hellenistic world itself; Hellenistic tolerance for ancient gods from elsewhere; a pyramid-like arrangement of divine powers; and finally, outside Judaism and Christianity, the Hellenistic world's lack of any developed idea of the afterlife.
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References
1.
MacMullen, Ramsay1981Paganism in the Roman Empire. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
2.
Nock, A.D.1933Conversion: The Old and the New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo. London: Oxford University Press.
