| Sumario: | Do Paul and Epictetus have a way to correlate suffering with the growth of virtues? This essay discusses passages in Epictetus’s Discourses, which speak of the moral ἀγών and Paul’s catena in Rom 5:3-5. While suffering does not have a direct formative influence on “virtues” for either thinker, it can be meaningfully inferred from the heart of their religious and philosophical convictions and used to provide further evidence for what each author sees as “happiness” or “salvation.” For Epictetus, this happens through the strengthening of rationality and virtues; for Paul, through the specific virtue of endurance in the service of hope. In Epictetus’s worldview, suffering and its assault on human dignity are powerfully countered by human beings’ inherent and God-given rationality. For Paul, suffering can be borne by those who anchor their existence in the love of God.
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