Philosophy

The location of the authorship of the Gospel of John is debated to be among Ephesus, Patmos, or some smaller place in Asia Minor. Its time of authorship is estimated at around 90 AD. As this time is later than the dispersion of the Jews it is not unreasonable to think that many Jews and

The following article gives us insight into the process of Hellenization, the incorporation of Greek concepts and ideas into another culture.  In this case, the culture being Hellenized is Judaism.  The Old Testament is a book about how Yahweh leads and communicates with his people.  The source of knowledge is by revelation: Surely the Lord

Philo of Alexandria was a Jew that lived from about 20 BC to 50 A.D. As such he lived at the same time both as Jesus Christ, and Paul the apostle. Philo is a source of information about Hellenistic Judaism.  (That is not to say that he is especially well regarded among the Jews. I

As seen in previous articles (Stoicism, Why We Must Learn A Little Philosophy In Order To Understand How Christianity Has Developed) the Greek term “Logos” was a term that was used by different philosophies and religions to describe God and how God worked. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, but as we have seen

In our short study of ancient Greek philosophy we have looked at some of the pre-Socratic’s emphasis on the physis. Then we looked at Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. In the last couple of articles we have discussed some of the philosophies with religious elements like Pythagoreanism, Epicureanism, and Stoicism.  But it is important to note

The deaths of Alexander and Aristotle marked a diminishing of the domination of pure Greek philosophy in the culture. In his conquest, Alexander started adopting oriental culture. Alexander married the daughter of Darius and adopted Persian customs such as the diadem and the robe of state. Alexander introduced the oriental notion of the divine right

Epicureanism is named after its founder, Epicurus. Epicureanism is one of the philosophies that appeared in Greek culture after the demise of Aristotle. Stoicism was another philosophy that appeared about the same time (we will discuss Stoicism in a future article, but it is important to note that Stoicism and Epicureanism competed in the “cultural

Pythagoras (Samos, 582 – 500 BC), is famous for his Pythagorean theorem, but in reality, he was a pre-Socratic philosopher who emphasized the metaphysical more than mathematics. In fact, while the first time I heard about Pythagoras was in a math class because of the famous Pythagorean theorem, I spent much more time talking about

Aristotle was a voluminous writer.  I own a volume entitled THE BASIC WORKS OF ARISTOTLE.  It is about 1500 pages, and has works on logic, nature, the heavens, the soul, the history and nature of animals, metaphysics, ethics and politics. Because this site is focused on Christianity I have chosen to look quickly at Aristotle’s

Aristotle is a fascinating individual and acclaimed as one of the greatest thinkers ever. He is the third in a direct line of great philosophers: Socrates, Plato (trained by Socrates), and Aristotle (trained by Plato). Whereas Socrates suffered public condemnation because of philosophy, Aristotle was elevated by King Philip to high social status, and was

Plato’s works are considered among the finest of the ancient philosophers, and his “Republic” has been called “the highest point to which ancient thinkers ever attained.”[1] Plato was deeply affected emotionally and politically by the prosecution and execution of his mentor, Socrates. In watching the Athenian democracy at work, Plato was severely disappointed in its

In preparation for this section on ancient philosophy on this website, I basically reviewed four books besides online sources.  Look at the emphasis on Plato in these books:  Chapter 1 of “The Story Of Philosophy” is entitled “Plato”.[1] In the first paragraph on the first page of the book, the first reference to particular philosophers

The philosophers talked about in the previous article, Thales, Anaximander , Leucippus, and Democritus, are all called pre-Socratic philosophers.  Just the fact that there is a designation “Pre- Socratic” emphasizes the importance at which Socrates’ ideas are placed. Up until Socrates Philosophy focused on the cosmos; the world and everything around it.   Socrates shifted the

Historians place the beginning of philosophy about the sixth century B.C. About this time a series of men, Thales, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and so forth, began challenging the teachings of the pagan religions on the origins of life and the best ways to live it.[1]  They saw flaws in the mystical explanations of