What Is The Impact On The Early Development Of Early Christian Philosophy

On the contrary, during the early days of the Romans history, they believed in Greeks philosophy as well. WGBH (2008) has noted, “that some Roman citizens were open-minded to deities from the ancient Greece”. Nevertheless, after observing the preaching of a new kind of faith called Christianity, voiced by Paul of Tarsus, a Jew from Anatolia, about Jesus of Nazareth, the Romans welcomed this new faith. According to (Bentley et al, 2008), Paul’s teaching was based on...”a sense of spiritual freedom...and spiritual equality of the sexes and that Christianity bestows an assurance of victory to those who

Another prime part of foundation is how we base what is good and what is evil. This is the basis for morality. (Hayes, 2008) Moral law is at the core of our definitions of our worldview. The Bible does tell us that there is a moral law that is instilled into our hearts. At this core we have the one who created this moral law, God. This moral law is part of our nature and it is outlined very clearly in scripture. Most of the Sermon on the Mount, delivered by Jesus to the masses, outline in Matthew 5: 21-48, 6: 1-34, 7: 1-6 (Open Bible, 2015) This chapter in the New testament is really a moral code that we should be living our lives by. Jesus was also clear that he was not there to destroy the old law. But he was there to fulfill it. Most of the Gospels give further defining information on what is considered

There are many similarities and differences between Greco- Roman and Judeo christian views of laws and faith, and duties to the individual. Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BCE and continued throughout the Hellenistic period in which Ancient Greece was part of Empire. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects including political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics ontology, logic, biology, art, rhetorics, and aesthetics. Judeo- christian is a term used by Christian and some jews since 1950s to encompass common beliefs of christianity and judaism. It became part of American Civil Religion.

The positive influence of Christianity is far reaching especially in the rich history and culture of Western Civilization despite a long standing ignorance or adamant denial of its contributions. The Bible itself is responsible for much of the language, literature, and fine arts we enjoy today as its artists and composers were heavily influenced by its writings. Paul Maier, in writing the forward to the book How Christianity Changed the World by Alvin J. Schmidt, says this about the profound impact Christianity has had on the development of Western Civilization:

In Roman religion, it was crucial “to serve the gods and ensure goodwill” (The Roman Republic). The English word “Religion” comes from the Latin word “Religio” (Overview of Religion). Latin was the ancient language of Rome, but for the Roman’s the translation meant something very different from what we understand it as today. To the Romans, “Religio” translated to “ the fear of gods” (Overview of Religion). Romans invested much of their time serving the gods, performing rituals and sacrifices in honor of them. On the contrary, Greek religion did not prefer to execute rituals as much as the Romans. Greeks were more lenient when honoring the gods. They did not have a theological dogma: belief or principle. There was no specific way in which the religion was executed. The Greeks many gods had different purposes and works they performed. They relied more on the verbal spread of the religion rather than having a written form. Although different, both religions had forms of praising and honoring their gods. Greek and Roman religion have many differences and similarities that impacted each group of people.

Christianity was born and flourished in an empire where the common language was Latin and Greek. Two important people like Paul and Constantine further influenced and were a major part of the development of Christianity. The history of the Jews leading up to the time of Jesus had a major impact on the development of Christianity. “When Christianity was clearly identified as a distant religion, the new religion was considered by its members to be the fulfillment of Judaism rather than a new religion.” “Since Jesus was a Jew and preached to the Jews, Christianity was closely linked to Judaism.” The development of Christianity was due to several historical, political, and social circumstances.

By the time of the third century theologian, Origen, the concept of God as espoused by Greek philosophers’ prevailed in the then current Christian theology.

The earliest recorded text teaching Christianity has its roots buried deep within Judaism. The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as the Messiah, created a new ideology of worship. The Messiah is the savior for all people and of all sins. Paul carried the message of the Messiah to the Gentiles. His missionary journeys and establishment of churches enabled the spreading of the message throughout the Roman Empire. Christianity grew in acceptance; those that believed in the Messiah separated and began to worship on their own. This marked the beginning of the split of Judaism and Christianity.

Christianity is one of the most dominant religions in the world today and has a long and complex history. Although Christianity has its roots in Judaism, it was greatly influenced by the culture of the Greeks and Romans it developed in. The Greco-Roman world was polytheistic and full of deities that were petty and faulted. As a young religion Christianity shares aspects with the religions around it, namely in the central stories. Eventually Christianity spread through the Roman Empire and to the rest of the world.

Around 1200 A.D, a group of people began to read old Greek writings about philosophy. Soon, Greek philosophy was everywhere around Europe. Greek philosophy revolved around the ideas of human reason and logic. Despite the fact that Greek philosophical ideas opposed the church's teachings, many people began to get interested in it because it gave them support, unlike the church, during hard times. The concepts of human reason and logic suggested that humans had the capacity of making sense of things, analyzing them, and finding a reasonable solution. The reason why Greek philosophy was accepted so quickly was because of the desperation

St. Thomas combined, as I mentioned before, Aristotle's teachings with Christian doctrine. For example, Thomas argued that no conflict exists between reason and faith. Philosophy is based on reason, he declared, and theology comes from faith in divine revelation, yet both come from God. So Thomas believed that any differences between divine

The Jewish community started Christianity, but Christianity later spread and convert from all over the Greco-Roman world were attracted by this religion during the progress of the first century CE. Ideas, traditions, ways of worship and traditions were brought along by the new convert of Christianity and it was adopted by their faith. This is through art because Christians who were once pagans of the Roman Empire stick to their artistic heritage when they became followers of Jesus Christ. Roman artistic forms and motifs and also Roman architecture were being used by this new convert to express their new faith. In further explanation, we’ll see how Roman art influenced the developing art of early Christians.

Christianity, however, introduced a dilemma into Greek and Roman philosophies that were primarily based on skeptical principles. In many ways, the philosophy of Christianity, which insisted on an absolute knowledge of the divine and of ethics, did not fit the Greek and Roman skeptical emphasis on probable knowledge. Paul of Tarsus, one of the original founders of Christianity, answered this question simply: the knowledge of the Romans and Greeks, that is, human knowledge, is the knowledge of fools. Knowledge that rejects human reasoning, which, after all, leads to skepticism, is the knowledge of the wise. Christianity at its inception, then, had a strong anti-rational perspective. This did not, however, make the skeptical problem go away. Much of the history of early Christian philosophy is an attempt to paste Greek and Roman philosophical methods and questions onto

One influential cult was based upon a mystical interpretation of Plato. Neo-Platonism was like a rational science that attempted to break down and describe every aspect of the divine essence and its relationship with the human soul. An Alexandrian Jew named Philo tried using Greek philosophy to interpret the Jewish scriptures. He wanted to unite the two traditions by suggesting that the Greek philosophers had been inspired by the same God who had revealed himself to the Jews.

There has been a lot of controversy over whether philosophy is needed or should be a part of Christianity. An early church father Tertullian said that we only needed the Bible and that we did not need philosophy at all. He said the Bible was enough. Clement of Alexandria believed that Greek philosophy was the handmaid of theology. “…before the advent of the Lord, philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for righteousness. And now it becomes conducive to piety; being a kind of preparatory training to those who attain to faith… philosophy was given to the Greeks directly and primarily, till the Lord should call the Greeks. For this was a schoolmaster to bring “the Hellenic mind,” as the law, the Hebrews, “to Christ.” Philosophy, therefore, was a preparation, paving the way for him who is perfected in Christ.” Justin believed that all