Impact of Christianity on Philosophy Essay

IntroductionChristianitys doctrines and tenets marry from a rich heritage of large historical development. And since it is a religion shaped by history, it follows only that its teachings be influenced by the prevailing philosophies within it. But there be excessively good reasons to think that, conversely, Christianity is a religion that did not only draw from existing philosophies in history but also generated a momentous advert on them. Three reasons whitethorn be cited to support this contention. First, ism was made popular by the rise of Christianity second, key Christian thinkers take away endeavored to incorporate school of thought within their belief-systems and third, galore(postnominal) of their teachings be actually philosophic issues Christianized in the touch.Christianity and school of thought First, the rise of Christianity seems to be a factor amenable for the great interest many people shake off shown towards philosophy during the superannuated times . It must be noted that even before Christianity as a religious movement was to be commenced (following the death of Jesus, and the rapid conversion to a belief in him), prevailing philosophies such as Epicureanism, Neo-Platonism, Stoicism, and Skepticism were already in place (Moore & Bruder, 2005, p. 77).But since the Romans the political power of that time showed atomic or no interest to these philosophies, they remained largely an undercurrent phenomenon. In many ways, the rise of Christianity paved the way for such philosophies to become widespread, as they are (specifically, Neo-Platonism and Aristotleanism) apply in many religious ideas and practices (p. 78). Second, key thinkers such as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas also contributed a lot in employing philosophy as a way to explicate Christian beliefs. With Augustine, Christianity became so for good interwoven with elements of Platonic thought (Moore & Bruder, 2005, 79).Augustines theology was chiefly touch with arguing truths about the eternality of Christian God and the capacity of the mind to hang on the eternal truths and these teachings are importations of the Platonic metaphysics and cosmology. Aquinas meanwhile was responsible conceiving the implicit in(p) accord between Christian principles and Aristotles philosophy from the ashes of the dark ages (p. 88). As with Plato, Aquinas teachings about God, nature and existence, knowledge and the world conveniently employed the methods used by philosophy. Third, many teachings forwarded by key Christian thinkers are actually philosophies which underwent a process of Christian adaptation. In other words, the carriage by which these thinkers employed philosophy in explicating their theologies in effect may be regarded as a process of grafting the principles and distinction of classical philosophy to Christian revealed truth (p. 88)The doctrine of the human soul and the terce are glaring examples to this. If only to argue, the Christian teaching that human persons have both body and souls is very reminiscent of the Platonic dualistic cosmology, i.e., that candor is composed of matter and form. The doctrine of the Trinity meanwhile is heavily employing the concepts of universals a teaching that enables one to infer the conceptual similarities defining of two other distinct entities. The result of this adaptation process is very significant to philosophy. What this process achieved was to ultimately create a complete Christian philosophy (p. 89). polish This paper concludes that indeed, Christianity is a religious movement that had a significant impact in the development of philosophy. While there are many reasons that could be cited to substantiate such a claim, three factors were deemed to be of paramount immensity namely, the rapid rise of Christianity during the ancient era, the use of prevailing philosophies to explain Christian tenets by key Christian thinkers, and the creation of a complete Christian philosophy wh ich capitalized on adapting philosophical issues within the context of Christianity.Work CitedMoore, B. & Bruder, K. (2005). Philosophy The Power of Ideas with PowerWeb. Sixth Edition. New York, Mc-Graw Hill