As I have prepared for the college class I teach on the Book of Acts, I am re-examining Paul’s ministry in Athens. I have never been comfortable with Paul in Athens. I personally think it didn’t go well. However, when I was in college the huge thing in that day was “apologetics.” The insistence was on learning how to debate intellectually, because God gave us a brain. The model for this method was Paul in Athens.

Reading through these passages again, I am more convinced Paul was out of his element and it just didn’t go well. It’s not to say that the method was wrong. It just didn’t fit Paul at that time. He had too many things taking him out of his areas of strengths and the results weren’t so great.

Maybe I am missing something on this one.