Epicureanism

<p>Epicureanism, one of the three leading schools of philosophy in first century Greek culture; the other two being Stoicism and Cynicism.</p>

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Central to <b>Epicurean</b> philosophy was the teaching that pleasure and the avoidance of pain are the chief end of man. They were materialists, who, while not denying the existence of the gods, believed they did not intervene in the affairs of men. They taught that, at death, the body and soul (both composed of atoms) disintegrate; there is no afterlife.

MacArthur New Testament Commentary, The - MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Acts 13-28.</p>

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F. F. Bruce. "Stoicism and Epicureanism represent alternative attempts in pre-Christian paganism to come to terms with life, especially in times of uncertainty and hardship, and post-Christian paganism down to our own day has not been able to devise anything appreciably better." (<i>The Book of the Acts</i>, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971], 351)</p>