"The word 'Cynic' itself comes from the Greek kyon, meaning 'dog': the Cynics barked at society, snapped at its heels (we must remember that dogs were normally scavengers, not family pets, in the Greco-Roman world), warning people, waking them up, harrying them into thinking differently about their lives...Learner says he likes N.T. Wright.
...the Cynics' teaching eschewed the complexities of the more serious education of the day, and aimed simply at challenging received opinions, 'altering the currency' in the phrase attributed to Diogenes, and advocating a life lived in harmony with nature rather than with the enslavements and immorality that accompany wealth. Freedom, self-sufficiency, and self-control: these were the Cynic's goals, and almost any means to express them for oneself, or to shock others into seeing their value, was acceptable."
Monday, February 06, 2006
N.T. Wright's Take on the Cynic
The history (and hope) of Learner's type (the Cynic), as described by N.T. Wright in Jesus and the Victory of God:
