Since Saint Nigel of Durham is the patron saint of this website, I thought this quotation from ‘What St Paul Really Said’ (Eerdmans/Grand Rapids/Forward Movement Publications p.81) was apposite:

‘He (Paul) took the high ground: all truth was, for him, God’s truth, and when he took an idea from pagan culture, he made sure it was well and truly baptised before it could join the family. He claimed the high ground of the creational monotheist, not the split-level world of the worried dualist. Confrontation does not simply mean head-to-head total disagreement.’

This has more to do with my response to john’s tour de force than the point mars-hill was making, but I found the connection fascinating.