How to Think About God

An Ancient Guide for Believers and Nonbelievers

By: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Philip Freeman - Translator

Narrated by: Shaun Grindell

A vivid and accessible new translation of Cicero's influential Stoic writings on the divine

Most ancient Romans were deeply religious and their world was overflowing with gods - from Jupiter, Minerva, and Mars to countless local divinities, household gods, and ancestral spirits. One of the most influential Roman perspectives on religion came from a nonreligious belief system that is finding new adherents even today: Stoicism. How did the Stoics think about religion? In How to Think About God, Philip Freeman presents vivid new translations of Cicero's On the Nature of the Gods and The Dream of Scipio. In these brief works, Cicero offers a Stoic view of belief, divinity, and human immortality, giving eloquent expression to the religious ideas of one of the most popular schools of Roman and Greek philosophy. 

On the Nature of the Gods and The Dream of Scipio are Cicero's best-known and most important writings on religion, and they have profoundly shaped Christian and non-Christian thought for more than two thousand years, influencing such luminaries as Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, and Thomas Jefferson. These works reveal many of the religious aspects of Stoicism, including an understanding of the universe as a materialistic yet continuous and living whole in which both the gods and a supreme God are essential elements.

©2019 Philip Freeman (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Solid

A solid reading which gives you insight into how an elite learned Roman thought about the universe and the divine.

Fantastic reading

Clear translation well read. It’s a window into the thinking of the mind of a Roman and how they saw the universe.

Fascinating View of Ancient Cosmological Beliefs

This is a very quick listen but is worth it for those curious about the cosmological beliefs of the late Roman Republic. Reading is clear and the translation is excellent.

just a bit disappointing

I'm not sure what I was expecting but it was a bit disappointing. Just not particularly interesting. Really didn't get me thinking like I'd hopped it would.