UNIT TWO STUDY GUIDE

I. CHRISTIANITY AND PHILOSOPHY.

A. Jesus of Nazareth (4 B.C.- 30 A.D.).

1. He was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Naazareth.

2. The four books in the New Testamnet called gospels are the only source for his life and work.

3. He was crucified by the Romans, but Christians belive he was resurrected and ascended into heaven.

B. His disciples a.k.a. apostles preached the message of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection as a means of salvation and eternal life.

1. Peter d.c. 67.

2. Paul d.c. 68.

3. The New Testant book Acts of the Apostles tells of these early activities.

4. Paul not only spread the faith he also wrote of the twenty-seven books of the New Testamnet, which makes him a major formulator of Christian theology.

C. Christianity encountered opposition and persection.

1. Persecution by the Romans was sporadic and local.

2. As a result it was never successful in stamping the movement out.

D. The emperor Constantine (312-337) legalized Christianity and showed favoritism for it.

1. He was baptized in 337.

2. After Constantine every Roman emperor professed Christianity.

3. In 392, Theodosius I (378-396) made Christianity the offical religion of the eempire.

E. Christianianty also went through some doctrinal disputes.

1. Divergent views came to be called hersey or hetrodox.

2. Sound views were called orthodox or catholic.

F. To counter hersey the church did three things.

1. Declared the New Testament canon to be closed.

2. Drew up creedal statements to define proper doctrine.

3. Tightened up the organization of the chruch, (bishops, Apostolic, Succession.

G. Early biblical references to philosopy were generally negative.

1. 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16

2. Acts 17

3. Colossians 2:8

4. John 1:1ff logos.

H. Tertukkian (160-220) totally rejected philosophy as being compatible with Christianity.

I. Others were more accepting of philosophy.

1. Justin Martyr (103-165)

2. Clement of Alexandria (150-215).

II. Augustine of Hippo 354-430

A. Early life in cults and philosophy.

1. Manichaeanism.

2. Skepticism.

3. Neoplatonism.

B. Conversion to Christianity, (Bishop of Hippo).

C. Epistemology.

1. Priciple of contradiction-a thing cannot both be and not be at the same time.

2. Sense knowledge is the lowest level of knowledge.

3. The hoghest truths are eternal truths.

4. We are able to see these because of Illumination.

D. Augustine's view of God.

1. There is eternal truth.

2. God is the highest eternal truth, therfore there is a God.

3. He is the highest being, self existant, unchanging and eternal.

4 He is the source of being and truth.

5. He created the unverse ex-nihilo (out of nothing).

E. Augustine's ethics.

1. the human race seeks happiness; true happiness is found only in God.

2. The center of Augustine's ethics is love.

3. The different kinds of love: for physical objects, other people, self.

4. Expecting happiness from any of these things results in disordeed love.

5. The highest love is love for God; it is an indispensible requirement for happiness.

F. The state and justic.

1. There is a natural or eternal law, states should make laws which are in harmony with this law.

2. The state exists to control the sinful behavior of people.

3. To that end the state has a monoply of force.

4. At the same time they should seek person to establish justice.

5. Justice consists in giving each person the dignity he or she desrves.

6. Justice like ethics is based on love.

7. If a state is unjust it is really no longer a state.

G. The two cites: Philosophy of history.

1. There are two cities, the city of God and the city of the world.

2. Hisstory is the story of the conflict between them.

3. God is working in history to bring about the triumph of his city over the wordly city.

4. This means that history had a beginning and will have an end; life is not going round and around in circles.

III. Medieval Philosophy.

A. Boethius 480-524

1. The Consolation of Philosophy.

2. Philosophy is personfied as a noble woman who shows him how the soul gains knowledge of God through philosophy.

 

B. John Scotus Erigeena 810-877.

1. The Division of Nature: Nature starts and ends with God, he is in all things.

2.  The result is a form of Pantheism- the unverise itself is god.

C. The proble of Unersals a.k.a Ideals or Forms.

1. Realists believed the unversals really did exist, (Odo of Taurnai 1050-1113).

2. Nominlists believed only Particulars (individuals objects) existed; the universals

are only names given to abstractions: (Roscelin 1050-1120).

D.Anslem and the Ontological Argument.

1. God is that being which nothing greater than can be conceived of.

2. He must exist or elsse the mind could not conceive of him.

3. This argument was critized by Gaunlion.

IV Muslem and Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages.

A. Islam (Submission).

1. Muhammand (570-632) lived in Mecca in Arabia.

2. He taught a new religion built around a god called Allah.

3. The sacred book is called the Koran/Quran.

4. The central truth of Islam is that there is no God but Allah and Muhammed is the messanger of Allah.

B. Avicenna (980-1037) and Averroes (1126-1198).

1. Both Muslin philosphers who sought to reconcile Islam with the philosophy of Aristotle.

2. Averages became known for the doctrine of two-fold truth or double-truth.

3. Something could be trur in philosophy but not true in religion or vice versa.

C. Moses Maimondies (1135-1204): a Jewish philospher he sought to reconcile Aristotle and the Jewish scriptures.

V. Scholasticism and Thomas Aqunias.

A. The Medival unversities.

1. In the late Middle Ages was a revival of learning and unversities came into being.

2. The teachers in these unversities were called Schoolmen or Scholastics.

3. In the curriculm of these schools theology was the  Queen of the Sciences.

4. These men were both philosphers and theologians.

5. Philosophy: human reason and wisdom.

6. Theology: divine revelation.

B. Thomas Aqunas (1225-1274) the Price of the Scholastics.

1. He studied and taught at Paris.

2. he was a member of the Dominican order.

3. Summa Contra Gentiles and Summa Theologies.

4. His writings became offical Roman Catholic doctrine, (Thomism).

C. Aqunia's proofs for God

1. Motion.

2. Efficient Cause.

3. Necassary v. Possible being.

4. Order of the unverse.

Cosmological Argument: arguing from the fact that the unvirese exists that it must have a cause (God).

Teleological Argument: arguing that the orderly ubverise requires some kind of designer, ie. God.

D. The nature of God.

1. Eternal and unchaging.

2. All powerful.

3. Perfection.

4. Supreme intelligence.

E. The world, man, and evil.

1. The world is created, not eternal.

2. Man (humanity)  is a unity of body and soul.

3. Ecvil comes about because poeple have freedom to make moral choices.

F. Ethics and morality.

1. Morality is a quest for happiness.

2. Happiness is fulfilling your purpose.

3. For Aquinas the human purpose was ultimatly found in God.

4. Since freedom exists, the right choices must be made to achive happiness.

5. There is also a natural law, and people must live in harmony woth it,

6. This will lend to a peaceful and harmonious society.

G. State.

1. the state is a natural institution, it exists to meet human needs, but all of a person's needs cannot be met by the state.

2. The state is limited by the requirements of justice.

3. Unjust laws (laws not in harmony with natural law) need not be obeyed.