Philosophers

[Leah71]

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[Ariston]

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle have historically been revered as great intellectual minds among Christians.

St. Justin Martyr, a Christian theologian and philosopher of the mid 2nd century, regards Socrates nearly a pre-Christian saint among the Greeks.

Plato's philosophy was important to many early Christian thinkers, such as Origen of Alexandria, and includes also St. Augustine of Hippo who applied Platonic and Neo-Platonic philosophy to Christian theology, trying to assimilate the best of the Platonic tradition. And Augustine remained the preeminent theologian of the Western Church into the middle ages.

With the re-introduction of Aristotle's philosophy into Western Europe through interaction with the Arab world, Aristotle became incredibly important to the scholars, philosophers, and theologians of the high middle ages, in particular through the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas became the theologian of Western Christianity in the high middle ages and for Roman Catholicism generally remains so. The Roman Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation is Thomist in articulation, and is rooted in the Aristotelian definitions of substantia and accidentia.

The pre-Socratics, such as Heraclitus and Zeno, were instrumental in establishing the philosophical language of the Logos, which is adopted into the philosophy of the Jewish Platonic philosopher Philo of Alexandria, which is the linguistic background for the Logos language of St. John's Gospel, "In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God." And the identification of Jesus with the Logos is made possible because of an established Greek Logos tradition in the philosophy of the Greeks going back to Heraclitus and the Stoics.

St. Basil the Great, one of the most important theologians of the Church in the 4th century, taught his students to be "wise honey bees, choosing only the choicest nectar" meaning to take the very best of the Greek thinkers, but not embrace everything uncritically.

So I'd say the Greek philosophers are an invaluable resource, that doesn't mean to accept them uncritically in everything--there's certainly plenty in the philosophy of Plato or Zeno that shouldn't be accepted--but when they are good and helpful, they are good and helpful.

And of course Socrates' statement that Apollo named him the wisest man in all of Greece because, "The only thing I know is that I don't know anything." is a fantastic bit of wisdom that should sober every thinking mind.


-CryptoLutheran

ViaCrucis, my man. Nice summary!

 

[The Conductor]

Epic tee-tuhs

Ee-pic-tay-tuus

Eh-peek-tee-tahs

Beats me.

Based on my knowledge of Koine Greek, (which I probably should have resorted to sooner) Ἐπίκτητος is pronounced eh-PEEK-tay-tos.

 

[Angelquill]

Whyever would you think that "my kind" would not be interested in these ancient philosophers?
And where did you get the notion that our females would need permission to read anything?
Honey, no offense, but it might not be a bad idea to learn a little something about people before you go asking dumb questions like this.
A little tip about good manners...don't refer to people who are different than you as "your kind"...it could be misconstrued. Don't assume that females of any group are somehow inferior to males. Misunderstandings could result. Lose the superior attitude...don't "talk down" to people who are different than you. It could make them angry.
Just trying to help you learn to get along with others, Hun. You follow those tips, and you'll find that people will respond to you with more respect.

 

[dcalling]

I was going to respond but then saw you deleted the entire post. Maybe you want to keep some of that private so I will not reference it.

Should have said that our common things are not Murder (instead of kill), not steal, not covet.

Maybe you don't respect your parents, I was kind of like you before. I come from a culture that is very strict on the kids. You might got slapped around for not going to church, I got slapped around for not studying hard, got home late etc. (My parents/grand parents are atheists, but our culture treats kids like properties, although that is for our own good, got slapped on the face in front of your classmates is rather unpleasant).

But anyway, my point is since we are all humans, we will have a lot in common, more than you know. And sorry for your experience, that must be freighting.

When I first come to US, I was an atheist, and looked down on the Christians (kind of amazed so many are still so superstitious in this day and age and in the most advanced country in the world). But from your post, not only you seems to look down on Christians, you seems to full of anger as well. That is part of the reason I give up Buddhism, that Buddhism didn't help me archive the level of sereneness, Christianity did for me.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Interesting. In face to face dealings I prefer to stay aloof and not interfere with your kind. I except the same of you.

Online here on this forum it is different, or course. I come in here freely and so expect to be confronted by Christians.

These are YOUR forums and I will not dispute your world view here nor will I deny any Christian the right to worship or the right to engage in the Public Square with their faith.

Christians cannot 'help' me. Why would they? I see 'help' from your kind as an attack, a way to insult me at best and a way to murder me at worst.

Hi Leah,

I appreciate your candid response to what I shared. I understand that Christians can at times become bothersome; even I have to admit that some of my fellow Christians are at times a bit annoying when they interpret or apply the Bible in obviously obnoxious ways.

Anyway, I'm glad I've had the opportunity to converse with you about your questions, although my intentions were only to engage in a thoughtful discussion about the ideas you asked about, and I simply engaged your questions to give you answers. I did that without any ulterior motive to influence you, let alone insult you. So, I hope you'll give me the benefit of the doubt.

In sum, though, there shouldn't be any problem with Christian men or women studying philosophers if they so wish to.

Peace, Leah.

 

[Leah71]

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[Leah71]

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