Platonism

people in his life. Neo Platonism and Manichaeism also are two philosophical schools of thought that greatly affected Augustine throughout his lifetime and all that he had encountered. Monica was his mother and she is considered to be the number one most influential person in Augustine's life by many and she is talked about a lot throughout his book. Ambrose, who was the bishop of Milan, played the main role in Augustine’s baptism and conversion to Christianity. Neo Platonism during that time…

1st century-Split with Judaism At around year 50, the first council of the church known as the Council of Jerusalem, convened a meeting to reconcile doctrinal differences concerning the Gentile mission. At this meeting, it was agreed that Gentiles could be accepted to Christianity without full adherence to Mosaic laws 2nd Century-Early Heresies In this century, the role of Bishops was to refute heresies. Christians began to deny both Christ’s divinity and humanity. Examples are; Doetism and…

In doing so, he rejected the views of Plato, making the argument that “Christianity is Platonism for the people”. In his revaluation of values, he argued that the Ancient Greek values of strength, power, sexuality, and competition should be considered as virtuous, rather than sinful. He claimed there to be two types of morality: master morality…

In NT Wright’s “Surprised By Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the mission of the church, he asks us a question of what is the ultimate Christian hope? In his book, NT Wright argues that the present understandings of future hope about heaven, resurrection, and the mission of the church have confused believers for decades. Wright then introduces us to God’s intended purpose of hope through Jesus that would ultimately change our worldview practically and reshape the mission of the…

Augustin is the father of the Christian church in North Africa. He was strongly influenced by Platonism. Augustin has developed many accounts of the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love. Augustin’s Enchridion is about how evil cannot exist without good. Although good can exist without evil. We value the good more than the bad. God, the creator of all things, created everything to be good. Which means even if something is evil or bad there are still good. The only reason why something…

Multiple ideas flourished during the European Renaissance which had a strong impact on the world. The Renaissance, occurred in Northern Italy after the Black Plague in 1300s, and was one of the largest periods of growth and development in Western Europe. To understand Humanism, one must first know what Humanism means. Humanism is a world view and a moral philosophy that considers and is centered on human interests or values and stresses on individual’s dignity and worth and capacity for…

Henry Thoreau is one of the most forward thinkers of the late 1800’s. Growing up in Concord Massachusetts, Henry was educated at Concord public school and then later the Concord Academy. Thoreau went on to Harvard University and graduated at the top of his class in 1837. Thoreau briefly taught at the public school that he went to in Concord and departed due to differences between him and the superintendent. Henry started his own school, also named The Concord Academy, from 1838 to 1841 with his…

The concept of good and evil is not relevant in today’s society. We see thinks as a grey scale vs. black and white. But to suggest that we are the first era to do this is naïve. When we often look back to ancient literature and see it as derivative and only speaking about right and wrong. But I would argue the mindset of the past generations is in fact very close to our own mindset. Good and Evil are relative terms. We determine what is good and what is evil through the perspective of…

Augustine rejects Skepticism Augustine was a theologian and philosopher; he is known to be one of the most influential fathers in Western Christianity for his various writings. He saw humans as a unity of two elements: soul and body. He was not worried about giving exact explanations about what he thought. Augustine’s theory of knowledge begins with the thought that there is such thing as a thing called truth and this truth is accessible to human reason. He used several arguments against…

In the tenth century fable, “The Case of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn” from the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity by the Brethren of Purity, the animals of the world sue and have a trial against the human race. While the king of the Jinn, who is basically the judge, listen to both the animal’s and human’s well- supported arguments.The humans point to many things such as their superior intellect to prove that they are the masters and the animals are the slaves. Although…