Similar to Aquinas

[aritsotle]

Aquinas wrote comprehensively and employed both platonism and artistotelianism.

Is there a protestant theologian who wrote comprehensively and employed both platonism and aristotelianism?

The specific similarity in question is that good-faith attitude towards questions (even seeming insignificant ones) and comprehensivity of the answers.

The comprehensivity both being the theological consistency and the rigor in presentation (what the others thought, what arguments they might have, and yet why the argument would not suffice, followed by the answer).

 

[Bob Crowley]

Aquinas lived in the 13th century from around 1224/25 to 1274. The Fourth Crusade took place in 1202-1204 which was about 20 years before Aquinas was born.

So he lived when the Greek philosophers were being "rediscovered" after the sack of Constantinople by the West, and it had been preserved by the Byzantines.

Transmission of the Greek Classics - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

As knowledge of Greek declined in the West with the fall of the Western Roman Empire, so did knowledge of the Greek texts, many of which had remained without a Latin translation.[3] The fragile nature of papyrus as a writing medium meant that older texts not copied onto expensive parchment would eventually crumble and be lost.

After the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) and the Sack of Constantinople (1204), scholars such as William of Moerbeke gained access to the original Greek texts of scientists and philosophers, including Aristotle, Archimedes, Hero of Alexandria and Proclus, that had been preserved in the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, and translated them directly into Latin.[4]

The final decline and collapse of the Byzantine empire in the fifteenth century heightened contact between its scholars and those of the west. Translation into Latin of the full range of Greek classics ensued, including the historians, poets, playwrights and non-Aristotelian philosophers. Manuel Chrysoloras (c. 1355–1415) translated portions of Homer and Plato. Guarino da Verona (1370–1460) translated Strabo and Plutarch. Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459) translated Xenophon, Diodorus, and Lucian. Francesco Filelfo (1398–1481) translated portions of Plutarch, Xenophon and Lysias. Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457) translated Thucydides and Herodotus. Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) and his Platonic Academy translated Plato. Poliziano (1454–1494) translated Herodian and portions of Epictetus and Plutarch. Regiomontanus and George of Trebizond translated Ptolemy's Almagest.[5] Important patrons were Basilios Bessarion (1403–1472) and Pope Nicholas V (1397–1455).

Since Greek philosophy was now the flavour of the month, Aquinas had to deal with it as part of his apologetic work. He was an admirer of Aristotle, and so Greek philosophy figured in his work.

But by the time the Protesant revolution occurred three hundred years later, Greek philosophy was old hat. Calvin and other reformers made some reference to it, but it would not have attached the same importance as it did to Aquinas since it was all the rage in his time. If you do a search on the following link you'll find some references to "Aristotle" and "Greek Philosophy".

Was John Calvin a Biblicist? - Credo Magazine

Nearly half a century after R. T. Kendall published “Calvin and English Calvinism to 1649,” the debate of “Calvin versus the Calvinists” rages on. Kendall’s was not the first attempt at pointing out supposed discontinuity between Calvin and his successors, of course. Years earlier, T. F...

credomag.com

I don't think you will find a Protestant theologian covering the same ground as Aquinas, since his works had already been accepted. They were "protesting" and looking for what they thought was "error" rather than fundamental insights to be be gained from philosophy.

 

[aritsotle]

Aquinas lived in the 13th century from around 1224/25 to 1274. The Fourth Crusade took place in 1202-1204 which was about 20 years before Aquinas was born.

So he lived when the Greek philosophers were being "rediscovered" after the sack of Constantinople by the West, and it had been preserved by the Byzantines.


Since Greek philosophy was now the flavour of the month, Aquinas had to deal with it as part of his apologetic work. He was an admirer of Aristotle, and so Greek philosophy figured in his work.

But by the time the Protesant revolution occurred three hundred years later, Greek philosophy was old hat. Calvin and other reformers made some reference to it, but it would not have attached the same importance as it did to Aquinas since it was all the rage in his time. If you do a search on the following link you'll find some references to "Aristotle" and "Greek Philosophy".

Was John Calvin a Biblicist? - Credo Magazine

Nearly half a century after R. T. Kendall published “Calvin and English Calvinism to 1649,” the debate of “Calvin versus the Calvinists” rages on. Kendall’s was not the first attempt at pointing out supposed discontinuity between Calvin and his successors, of course. Years earlier, T. F...

credomag.com

I don't think you will find a Protestant theologian covering the same ground as Aquinas, since his works had already been accepted. They were "protesting" and looking for what they thought was "error" rather than fundamental insights to be be gained from philosophy.

Thanks for making your representation for the catholic side of things. If the plato/aristotle divide can be considered old hat, then I figure the protestant/catholic divide can also be considered old hat.

May I explain my post further? It seems I'm not going to find what I'm seeking, because it won't be possible to avoid the protestant/catholic divisions.

 

[aritsotle]

Thomas Aquinas said about his own work that it was as straw. He built with straw and it burned up in the testing fire.

That is enough reason not to take his work for reference.

However I respected his method and approach. If that was just a cultural byproduct of his times then that is even less reason to pay attention to him anymore.

 

[Bob Crowley]

I think you're misinterpreting what he meant with his "straw" comment.

In my opinion I think he was given a vision of something like the "divine beatitude" which he also referred to in his writings.

But when he was shown the real thing, all his work seemed as nothing as it was so overpowering.

In the same way a lot of the things we think are important are going to seem insignificant when we front up for the Divine Gaze.

 

[aritsotle]

I don't think you're saying anything different. That what cannot accomplish the glory of God is a deprivation of His glory.

That is like those who call Jesus a mere wise man, or a prophet, but not God. They are diminishing His glory.

Or those who call Him a god among gods. They are diminishing His glory.

Then when tested in the divine gaze the straw burns in the fire.

I don't have some sort of doubt that Aquinas is with the Lord. That's not a question in my mind.

His work is straw. That isn't a question.

My work is also straw. We each build what we can, according to the measure of faith.

 

[tz620q]

Aquinas lived in the 13th century from around 1224/25 to 1274. The Fourth Crusade took place in 1202-1204 which was about 20 years before Aquinas was born.

So he lived when the Greek philosophers were being "rediscovered" after the sack of Constantinople by the West, and it had been preserved by the Byzantines.


Since Greek philosophy was now the flavour of the month, Aquinas had to deal with it as part of his apologetic work. He was an admirer of Aristotle, and so Greek philosophy figured in his work.

But by the time the Protesant revolution occurred three hundred years later, Greek philosophy was old hat. Calvin and other reformers made some reference to it, but it would not have attached the same importance as it did to Aquinas since it was all the rage in his time. If you do a search on the following link you'll find some references to "Aristotle" and "Greek Philosophy".

Was John Calvin a Biblicist? - Credo Magazine

Nearly half a century after R. T. Kendall published “Calvin and English Calvinism to 1649,” the debate of “Calvin versus the Calvinists” rages on. Kendall’s was not the first attempt at pointing out supposed discontinuity between Calvin and his successors, of course. Years earlier, T. F...

credomag.com

I don't think you will find a Protestant theologian covering the same ground as Aquinas, since his works had already been accepted. They were "protesting" and looking for what they thought was "error" rather than fundamental insights to be be gained from philosophy.

I have found it interesting that in reading the Wisdom of Solomon, I could see this same striving to speak about Jewish theology within a Greek philosophical context.