It also provides a wonderful evocation of religious and cultural life of ancient Greece. The centre of Delphi is the Temple of Apollo, god of music, arts, knowledge and prophecy and and one of the stars among Greek deities. Apollo was believed to dwell in Delphi, other than during the winter months when Dionysius was understood as taking up residence. Greek religious and cultural life was predicated on the existence of twelve gods and goddesses; it was the assumed norm and to believe otherwise was to go firmly against the cultural flow.
As we will see tomorrow in Athens, the apostle Paul was very well acquainted with Greek culture and so he knew that he would have his work cut out to convince his Gentile hearers that there is but one God. But he very clearly did this, as Linda reminded us this morning in Morning Prayer when she chose a wonderful passage in 1 Corinthians where Paul recognises that some people believe in many gods but that is not what the believers in Corinth have been taught.
'We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods...yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and from whom we live; and there is but one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.' (1 Cor 8:5-6)
Belief in one Creator God who had revealed himself in human form in Jesus Christ was at the cornerstone of Paul's cultural engagement with Greek culture. We'll see much more of that tomorrow as we reflect on Paul's sermon in Athens.
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