The biographer is a fan of the emperor, but the book is pretty dry. There is a separate chapter on the Meditations and a separate appendix on “Christianity.” I noted that his “[q]uoted letters are like Paul’s in closing and greetings to others.” And I photocopied and kept pages 99-100 (excluding the carryover paragraphs at the beginning and end) because I thought they were a good summary of Stoic thought and helped shed a bit of light on some overlap between it and Jewish religious thought in eastern Mediterranean Hellenic times. You can read those pages here [link: https://books.google.com/books?id=CzYRFge0NnsC&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&dq=birley+marcus+aurelius+%22knowledge+is+attainable%22+%22evolved+an+elaborate+explanation%22&source=bl&ots=pXdEQ-X9eA&sig=9eMbzi-FcTAWkkVeRMQhPlUoChE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5g-7Isq3YAhWDYd8KHXxqCHYQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=birley%20marcus%20aurelius%20%22knowledge%20is%20attainable%22%20%22evolved%20an%20elaborate%20explanation%22&f=false ].