BibleWorm

This week we are reading Acts 17:16-34, a story of Paul biding his time in Athens and engaging with the beliefs and culture of the local people there. Though he’s upset by their use of idols, this distress doesn't lead our notoriously hotheaded Paul to smash any idols or overturn any tables – he goes instead to conversation with a wide range of people.  Is he being earnest or savvy in his way of speaking to the Athenians? What can this text teach us about interfaith dialogue – and when does it cross over from mutual curiosity and exchange to a careful kind of evangelism? Wherever you might draw that line, this is a master class in finding common ground and leaning into every shared foundation before naming the points of real difference and attempting to effect change in the other.