ABSTRACT
The Cynic tradition, deriving from Diogenes of Sinope in the fourth century BCE, can be defined by a variety of traits – rejection of providence, antipathy to vulgar religious practice, austere department, axioms of self-sufficiency – or by a single trait, such as renunciation of wealth. In the latter respect, their teaching approximates to that of Christians, from New Testament times to the later Roman era; in their ethics, on the other hand, and their relation to the material world, the Cynics lack the belief in a transcendent God which informs all Christian practice, and their refusal to admit any role for redemption in human life is at odds with the ecclesiastical mainstream.
