Impact of Christianity on Philosophy Essay Example for Free

Impact of Christianity on Philosophy EssayIntroductionChristianitys doctrines and tenets devolve from a rich heritage of long historical development. And since it is a religion shaped by history, it follows further that its teachings are influenced by the prevailing philosophies within it. But there are likewise good reasons to think that, conversely, Christianity is a religion that did not only draw from existing philosophies in history but also generated a significant impact on them. Three reasons may be cited to support this contention. First, philosophy was make popular by the rise of Christianity second, backbone Christian thinkers have endeavored to incorporate philosophy within their belief-systems and third, galore(postnominal) of their teachings are actually philosophical issues Christianized in the subroutine. Christianity and Philosophy First, the rise of Christianity seems to be a factor liable for the great interest many people have shown towards philosophy d uring the ancient times. It must be noteworthy that even before Christianity as a religious movement was to be commenced (following the death of Jesus, and the rapid changeover to a belief in him), prevailing philosophies such as Epicureanism, Neo-Platonism, Stoicism, and Skepticism were already in home (Moore Bruder, 2005, p. 77).But since the Romans the political power of that time showed little or no interest to these philosophies, they remained largely an tinge 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) industrious 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 permanently interwoven with elements of Platonic thought (Moore Bruder, 2005, 79).Augustines theology was chiefly concerned with arguing truths almost the eternality of Christian God and the capacity of the mind to grasp the eternal truths and these teachings are importations of the Platonic metaphysics and cosmology. Aquinas meanwhile was prudent conceiving the underlying 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 manner 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 Greek philosophy to Christian revealed truth (p. 88)The doctrine of the human soul and the triad are glaring examples to this. If only to argue, the Chri stian teaching that human persons have both body and souls is rattling reminiscent of the Platonic dualistic cosmology, i.e., that reality is composed of matter and form. The doctrine of the Trinity meanwhile is firmly employing the concepts of universals a teaching that enables one to infer the conceptual similarities defining of two otherwise distinct entities. The lead of this adaptation process is very significant to philosophy. What this process achieved was to ultimately create a complete Christian philosophy (p. 89).Conclusion 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, leash factors were deemed to be of paramount importance 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 complet e Christian philosophy which 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