For the branch of theology which uses philosophical methods to analyze theological concepts, see Philosophical theology. For the branch of theology which aims to present a rational defense for the Christian faith, often using philosophical methods, see Christian apologetics.
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Hellenism is the traditional designation for the Greek culture of the Roman Empire in the days of Jesus, Paul, and for centuries after. Classical philosophies of the Greeks had already expired and diluted beyond recognition except for small bands of continuators of the traditions of the Pythagoreans, of Plato, and Aristotle (whose library was lost for centuries). The new philosophies of the Hellenistic world were those of the Cynics, Skeptics, and increasingly the Stoics. Gradually a more integral and rounded tendency emerged within Hellenism, but also in certain respects in opposition at times to it in regard to one philosophical problem or another, or an ensemble of problems. Thinkers most closely associated with Hellenistic Christian philosophies are:
Justin Martyr: Christian apologist and philosopher whose work often focused on the doctrine of the Logos and argued that many Stoic and Platonic philosophical ideas were similar to ideas in the Old Testament
Tertullian: Tertullian was a philosopher before he converted to Christianity; after that change of direction he remained a prolific writer in the second century A.D., and is commonly called the "Father of the Western Church." He was the first church father to use the term Trinitas in reference to the Godhead and developed the doctrine of traducianism, or the idea that the soul was inherited from the parents, the idea that God had corporeal (although not fleshly) existence, and the doctrine of the authority of the gospels. He fought voraciously against Marcionism, and considered Greek philosophy to be incompatible with Christian wisdom. Toward the end of his life, he joined the heterodox sect of Montanism, and thus has not been canonized by the Catholic Church.
Irenaeus of Lyons: Irenaeus is best known for his writings arguing for the unity of God, and against Gnosticism. He argued that original sin is latent in humanity, and that it was by Jesus' incarnation as a man that he "undid" the original sin of Adam, thus sanctifying life for all mankind. Irenaeus maintained the view that Christ is the Teacher of the human race through whom wisdom would be made accessible to all.
Clement of Alexandria: Theologian and apologist who wrote on Greek philosophy, using ideas from pagan literature, Stoic and Platonic philosophy, and Gnosticism to argue for Christianity
Origen: Origen was influential in integrating elements of Platonism into Christianity. He incorporated Platonic idealism into his conceptions of the Logos, and the two churches, one ideal and one real. He also held a strongly Platonic view of God, describing him as the perfect, incorporeal ideal. He was later declared a heretic for subscribing to the "too Platonistic" doctrine of the preexistence of the soul. Despite this, Origen is a Church Father[1][2][3][4] and is widely regarded as one of the most important Christian theologians of all time.[5]
Augustine of Hippo: Augustine developed classical Christian philosophy, and the whole of Western thought, largely by synthesizing Hebrew and Greek thought. He drew particularly from Plato, the Neoplatonism of Plotinus, and Stoicism, which he altered and refined in light of divine revelation of Christian teaching and the Scriptures. Augustine wrote extensively on many religious and philosophical topics; he employed an allegorical method of reading the Bible, further developed the doctrine of hell as endless punishment, original sin as inherited guilt, divine grace as the necessary remedy for original sin, baptismal regeneration and consequently infant baptism, inner experience and the concept of "self", the moral necessity of human free will, and individual election to salvation by eternal predestination. He has been a major influence in the development of Western theology and his thought, and in particular his works, City of God and Confessions, laid the foundations for Western Philosophy, influencing many of philosophers and making him one of the most influential figures in the history of philosophy.
Athanasius of Alexandria: father of trinitarian orthodoxy involved in the formation of the Nicene Creed, who vehemently opposed Arius, the bishop of Alexandria who held that Christ was a created being, and his following.
Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109): Anselm is best known for the ontological argument for God's existence, i.e.: God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived. But to exist is greater than not to exist. If God does not exist then he wouldn't be "that than which nothing greater can be conceived." Therefore, God exists. Anselm's argumentation was used as a theological directive for conceptualizing divine perfection. He was one of the first Western thinkers to directly engage the reintroduction of Aristotle to the West. However, he didn't have all of Aristotle's works and those he had access to were from Arabic translations and Islamic commentaries. Also developed the satisfaction theory of atonement.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): Aquinas was the student of Albert the Great, a brilliant Dominican experimentalist, much like the Franciscan, Roger Bacon, of Oxford in the 13th century. Aquinas synthesized Aristotelian philosophy with Christianity. He believed that there was no contradiction between faith and secular reason, but that they complemented each other epistemically. He thought Aristotle had achieved the pinnacle of human striving for truth apart from divine revelation and thus adopted Aristotle's philosophy as a framework in constructing his theological and philosophical outlook. Thomas Aquinas was a professor at the prestigious University of Paris, a contemporary of Bonaventure, a Franciscan Professor at the University of Paris whose approach differed significantly from Aquinas' in favor of the more traditional Augustinian Platonism. Widely accepted as one of the most influential figures in the history of philosophy, his philosophy is the foundation for Thomism. His most famous work is Summa Theologica
William of Ockham (1287-1347): philosopher and theologian who developed Ockham's razor and wrote extensively on metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, theology, logic, and politics
John Duns Scotus (1266-1308): John Duns Scotus is known as the "subtle doctor" whose hair-splitting distinctions were important contributions in scholastic thought and the modern development of logic. Scotus was also a Professor at the University of Paris, but not at the same time as Aquinas. Along with Aquinas, he is one of the two giants of Scholastic philosophy
Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) preacher, theologian, and church court operative.
Francis Bacon English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author.
Jean Bodin (1530–1596) French legal scholar and political philosopher, he wrote widely in a number of areas
Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) not a philosopher strictly speaking; indeed, he wrote excoriatingly about philosophers. He consolidated the space of Humanism in the late Medieval scholarship of letters, and came to represent its acme. He was a leader of the development of the humanities into a department of European scholarly activities. He bent his studies to recovery and exegesis of the Hebrew Bible's ancient languages and began building the first critical text, and the New Testament became a formal scholarly text. He wrote about issues relevant to the Catholic Church. He spent six years in an Augustinian monastery; he was a joyful satirist; and became most famous for his book The Praise of Folly.
Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) his early work on the law of the seas was outdistanced by On the law of war and peace (1625).
Martin Luther (1483–1546) not strictly a philosopher, he knew something of William of Occam and nominalist epistemology from an earlier era of European thought. He had also studied some philosophical materials of Augustine of Hippo, and did not follow Thomas Aquinas. Luther followed Erasmus in developing a critical text of the Biblical manuscripts.
John Calvin (1509–1564) dogmatician (systematic theology), as exhibited in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, and an exegete who over time translated the Bible from the "original languages" in the form of his grand series of Commentaries on all but one of its books (the Book of Revelation, which provided a problem to him in its metaphory, not yielding robustly to his binomial formula of letter and spirit: either literal, or figurative). He courageously tried to avoid allegorizing, which had had a long history ever since Philo of Alexandria had interpreted the Pentateuch in an allegorical fashion that de-literalized and over-metaphorized (into symbolic systems) many passages of the ancient manuscripts of the Bible (now and developingly a critical text itself). Calvin tried to distance himself from the allegorical method of Christian interpretation of the Bible, attempted distance certainly from the method's primacy, while facing in the Gospels "the parabolic message of the Cross" (Leon Morris, etc.). Not strictly a philosopher, he had a major impact on the quest for a Protestant philosophy (see Jacob Klapwijk, "John Calvin" in the volume he edited with Griffioen and Groenewoud, Bringing into Captivity Every Thought (Eng trans 1991; pp 241–266)). Calvin's seed begat Reformational philosophy 450 years after he planted it.
Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) influential Italian humanist philosopher who revived Neoplatonism and was a leader in the Renaissance; translated all of Plato's and Plotinus' works into Latin, as well as many Neoplatonic authors and the Corpus Hermeticum. He also wrote many commentaries on Plato and Christian authors as Pseudo Dyonisius.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) Italian philosopher who was a major figure in the Renaissance; at the age of 23 he proposed 900 theses on religion, natural philosophy and magic, writing the Oration on the Dignity of Man, which was a central text in Renaissance humanism and has been called the movement's manifesto
Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) leading Reformer who was influenced by a party in his church congregation to de-metaphorize the understanding of the Lord's Supper into a memorial only (no real presence, and no communion of saints, therefore no eschatological community of saints composed of the believers at the Communion Table).
In most cases, these writers reference something in an earlier philosopher, without adding to the ongoing problem-historical shape of Western philosophical knowledge. Between Calvin, and Arminius, born four years before Calvin's death, a Protestant scholasticism took from various loci and authorities of the Western Middle Ages. It begins already with Luther's colleague Philip Melanchthon, who turned from Luther's sola Scriptura to philosophical theology; but Protestant Scholasticism's Reformed variants are diverse. There were no real alternatives until Herman Dooyeweerd and D. H. Th. Vollenhoven in the last century.
Joseph Glanvill (1636–1680) English philosopher, writer, and clergyman who was a major apologist for natural philosophy, although he was not himself a scientist
John Locke (1632–1704) Extremely influential political philosopher often dubbed "The Father of Classical Liberalism"; many of his philosophical concepts were developed from his religious beliefs, which included his development of the social contract theory. He also wrote an apology entitled The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695).
Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715) French rationalist philosopher best known for his ideas of occasionalism and Vision in God; he drew heavily from the work of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas
Isaac Newton (1642–1727) English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian who was one of the leading figures of the Scientific Revolution, he wrote often about religious and theological issues; authored Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica; considered by some to be the most influential scientist of all-time.
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, and philosopher who wrote widely on religion and Catholic theology. Pensées Considered a masterpiece of theological thought and Will Durant hailed it as "the most eloquent book in French prose." Also developed Pascal's Wager to argue for belief in Christianity.
Antoine Augustin Calmet 1672–1757) French Black Monk scholar of the Order of Saint Benedict who wrote many religious works including the famous Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants that used a scientific approach when looking into pre-modern cases of witchcraft, vampires, superstitious beliefs and various other topics of the occult. He delved into the use of the scientific method, biology, psychology, chemistry, etymology and investigated the history of various legends of folklore to determine whether a claim of hauntings, apparitions or magic were truth or fraud.
George Berkeley Influential Anglo-Irish philosopher who developed the theory of subjective idealism and who wrote prolifically in a number of areas, such as metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mathematics
Immanuel Kant, although he 'reinterpreted' basic Christian doctrines and was extremely unorthodox, he also praised Christ as the affirmation of a "pure moral disposition of the heart" that "can make man well-pleasing to God" while trying to establish what many see as a rational core of Christian belief.[6][7] He was also considered a sophisticated apologist for Christianity by philosophers such as Nietzsche.[8]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau a Genevan philosopher who converted to Roman Catholicism early in life and returned to the austere Calvinism as part of his moral reform.[9]
Karl Barth: Swiss Reformed neo-orthodox theologian, he wrote the massive Church Dogmatics (German, Kirchliche Dogmatik) —unfinished at about six million words by his death in 1968. Barth emphasized the distinction between human thought and divine reality, and that while humans may attempt to understand the divine, our concepts of the divine are never precisely aligned from the divine reality itself, although God reveals his reality in part through human language and culture. Barth strenuously disavowed being a philosopher; he considered himself a dogmatician of the Church and a preacher. The Center for Barth Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary holds the world's most extensive collection of his works.
Nikolai Berdyaev: Russian philosopher of religion and political theorist
Rudolf Bultmann: German Lutheran theologian who was one of the most influential biblical scholars of the 20th century and a major figure in liberal Christianity and Christian existentialism; a close friend of philosopher Martin Heidegger, he based his hermeneutics on an existentialist mode of thinking, developing an interpretive perspective known as demythology
G. K. Chesterton: British Catholic author, art and literary critic and philosopher, he applied Christian thought in the form of non-fiction, fiction, and poems addressing a variety of theological, moral, political, and economic issues, particularly the importance of seeking truth, distributism, and opposition to eugenics.
Herman Dooyeweerd: philosopher who wrote the monumental trilogy, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought[10][11]
Pavel Florensky: Russian Orthodox theologian, philosopher, priest, mathematician, and inventor
William K. Frankena: American philosopher who was a professor at the University of Michigan for over forty years; he specialized in moral philosophy, writing extensively about the relationship between Christianity and ethics
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: preeminent German philosopher who was a leading figure in German Idealism and whose thought created the philosophical school known as Hegelianism, his philosophy was influenced greatly by his Lutheran religious beliefs; also wrote a number of works regarding the philosophy of religion
C. S. Lewis: massively influential literary critic and medievalist, and mythologist, a mythographer in his children's fantasies, and an apologist for the Christian faith to which he adhered in the latter half of his life. He claimed not to be a philosopher, but his apologetics are foundational to the formation of a Christian worldview for many modern readers.
Edith Stein: German Roman Catholic nun, mystic and philosopher who grew up Jewish and converted to atheism before becoming a Christian, writing widely on phenomenology and existentialism
Marilyn McCord Adams, philosopher of religion and philosophical theologian who is also a leading authority on medieval philosophy
Robert Merrihew Adams, analytic philosopher specializing in metaphysics, morality, and the philosophy of religion who taught at Yale, UCLA, and Oxford; husband of Marilyn McCord Adams (see directly above)
Diogenes Allen, philosopher of religion who spent most of his career at Princeton Theological Seminary
Rubem Alves, philosopher, psychoanalyst, and theologian
Robert Audi, philosopher whose work focuses on epistemology and ethics who has also written on the relationship between church and state
C. Anthony Anderson, philosopher who specializes in the philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, and philosophy of logic
G. E. M. Anscombe, British analytic philosopher who was a close friend and student of Ludwig Wittgenstein; influential in the fields of the philosophy of logic, philosophy of action, and philosophy of the mind, and ethics, writing from the perspective of Analytical Thomism
Craig Bartholomew, philosopher dealing with biblical hermeneutics, postmodernism, and deconstruction
Stephen R. L. Clark, British philosopher of religion who also wrote extensively on animals and applied philosophy
Sarah Coakley, Anglican philosopher of religion and systematic theologian who has taught at Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, and Lancaster University
Paul Copan, professor of philosophy at Palm Beach Atlantic University currently holding the Pledger Family Endowed Chair of Philosophy and Ethics as well as president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society
Robin Collins, expert in philosophy of science. He is thought be the leading expert on the teleological argument. He is a professor of philosophy at Messiah College. He is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Faithful Research
William Lane Craig, Evangelical apologist, philosopher and theologian; frequently participates in debate on topics related to Christianity and theism. He is known especially for his methodical presentation as well as his articulation and defense of the kalam cosmological argument.
Keith DeRose, philosopher of language and epistemologist at Yale University.
Herman Dooyeweerd, Reformational philosopher and legal scholar; brother-in-law of D.H. Th. Vollenhoven
Terry Eagleton, not a philosopher by vocation, he is a leading British literary critic and important figure in contemporary social philosophy, often addressing religious issues from a Christian Marxist perspective
C. Stephen Evans, American historian and philosopher teaching at Baylor University
Jacques Ellul, French philosopher, legal scholar, sociologist, and legal scholar who was a leading Christian anarchist who wrote prolifically on topics such as technology, propaganda, and justice
John Frame, American Calvinist philosopher focused in the areas of epistemology and ethics
Étienne Gilson, who wrote The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy, The Spirit of Thomism, Being and Some Philosophers, and many other works. In the field of Thomism he is considered one of the main figures credited with starting the movement within Thomism known as Existential Thomism, which emphasis the primacy of the act of Being (Esse) in understanding everything else that is.
René Girard, French philosopher of social science, anthropologist, historian and literary critic who developed the idea of mimetic desire and wrote on scapegoating, reinterpreting the atonement as a mechanism for overcoming human violence and the sacrifice system
Shawn Graves, American philosopher who specializes in epistemology, ethics, and philosophy of religion.
Robert Kane, philosopher who works on free will, now emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin, who is also a Catholic
Anthony Kenny, English philosopher specializing in the philosophy of the mind, philosophy of religion, and the history of philosophy; leading figure in Analytical Thomism
Luigi Giussani, Italian priest of 1922-2005, who wrote the Why the Church?
Ronald H. Nash, Reformed Christian philosopher specializing in the area of world view apologetics, history, and economics.
Tim O'Connor, metaphysician at the Indiana University, Bloomington
Thomas Jay Oord, theologian and philosopher of religion who is a leading advocate of open theism, and writes on topics such as the relationship between science and religion and postmodernism
Jean-Michel Oughourlian French philosopher, psychologist and neuropsychiatrist has worked with René Girard, further developing a mimetic theory of desire and its religious implications
Josef Pieper, German Catholic philosopher whose work concentrates particularly on Plato and Thomas Aquinas
Alvin Plantinga, moderately Calvinist American philosopher, one of the key figures in the movement of Reformed epistemology, which synthesizes Analytical Philosophy and Christian philosophical concerns. He is professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame.
Vern Poythress, Calvinist philosopher and New Testament scholar who advocates multiperspectivalism and specializes in the philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, linguistics, and hermeneutics
Stephen G. Post, American ethicist and interdisciplinary scholar specializing in the study of altruism, bioethics, and compassion
Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI), whose Introduction to Christianity provides a highly metaphysical argument for the existence of God from the intelligibility of beingqua thought ("thought-being")
Michael C. Rea, analytic philosopher specializing in metaphysics and the philosophy of religion who teaches at the University of Notre Dame
Paul Ricoeur, philosopher who wrote written widely in the areas of hermeneutics, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, political philosophy, ethics, and the philosophy of language
Hans Rookmaaker, philosopher specializing in art theory, art history, and music; friend of Francis Schaeffer
Francis Schaeffer, pastor, philosopher and theologian who founded the L'Abri community in Switzerland and was a major influence in conservative evangelicalism
Egbert Schuurman, leading philosopher of technology who actively espouses a Christian philosophical approach
Pope Shenouda III, (b. Nazeer Gayed, 1923) Pope of Alexandria (1971–2012), has written on almost every aspect of Oriental Orthodox Christianity. Has pioneered Christian ecumenism and written over 150 books on many topics including theology, dogma, comparative theology, spiritual theology, and church history.
Melville Y. Stewart, editor, author of books in philosophy of religion, and a Series on Science and Religion including a 2-volume set in English, Science and Religion in Dialogue, 科学与宗教 (5-volume Series in Chinese), Наука и Религия в Диалоге (4-volume Series in Russian). Visiting Philosopher at various universities in China.
James K.A. Smith, Canadian-American philosopher who draws on three different traditions of Christian thought (Pentecostalism, Calvinism, and Radical Orthodoxy) in dialogue with deconstruction and phenomenology to create practical works for broad, general audiences
Paul Tillich, Rather than beginning his philosophical work with questions of God or gods, Tillich began with a "phenomenology of the Holy." His basic thesis is that religion is Ultimate Concern. What a person is Ultimately Concerned with in regard to their Ultimate meaning and being can be understood as religion because, "There is nobody to whom nothing is sacred because no one can rid themselves of their humanity no matter how desperately they may try" (Young-Ho Chun, Tillich and Religion, 1998, pg. 14.
Denys Turner, British philosopher and theologian teaching at Yale University whose work focuses on political philosophy, social theory, and mystical theology
Nick Trakakis, Australian philosopher who specializes in the philosophy of religion and theodicy
Bas Van Fraassen, world-renowned philosopher of science, who is also a Catholic
Cornelius Van Til, Dutch-American Calvinist philosopher, who contributed especially in epistemology and developed one variety of philosophical apologetics known as presuppositional apologetics.
Gregory Vlastos, philosopher specializes in ancient philosophy
D. H. Th. Vollenhoven, Vollenhoven's Calvinism and the Reformation of Philosophy (Dutch, 1933) launched a philosophical movement that, after the massive re-inforcing effect of his brother-in-law Herman Dooyeweerd's first trilogy, Philosophy of the Law-Idea (1935–36), led to the formation of the Association for Calvinist Philosophy in 1936. For decades, Vollenhoven served as president of the aforementioned association, which has become the Association for Reformational Philosophy/ Vereniging voor Reformatorische Wijsbegeerte (VRW), still based in the Netherlands but with ever-enlarging interest in the rest of the world. It is disputed whether Vollenhoven's, his colleague Herman Dooyeweerd's, and many among the subsequent generations of philosophers in the Reformational philosophy movement are best described as "modern" or "postmodern," since they anticipated numerous themes that resurfaced in postmodernism, yet remain steadfastly and would-be distinctively Christian and non-Roman.
Keith Ward, British philosopher, theologian, and pastor who has written widely in the areas of the philosophy of religion and comparative theology, has also made major contributions related to the relationship between science and religion; advocates for open theism
Simone Weil, French philosopher, mystic, and social activist
Cornel West, philosopher, writer, public speaker and political activist who argues for Christian Socialism; has taught at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Union Theological Seminary in New York
Dallas Willard, notable Christian philosopher at the University of Southern California. Willard has written extensively in philosophy but also in practical Christian theology with an emphasis in Christian spiritual formation.
Nicholas Wolterstorff, American philosopher at Yale University associated with Reformed epistemology who has written on epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of religion
^Pasternack, Lawrence; Rossi, Philip (27 November 2017). Zalta, Edward N., ed. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 27 November 2017 – via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
^Byrne, Peter (2007), Kant on God, London: Ashgate, p. 159
^Friedrich Nietzsche (trans. Walter Arnold Kaufmann), The Portable Nietzsche, 1976, p. 96
Baird, Forrest E.; Walter Kaufmann (2008). From Plato to Derrida. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN0-13-158591-6.
Hillar, Marian (2012). From Logos to Trinity. The Evolution of Religious Beliefs from Pythagoras to Tertullian. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-1-107-01330-8.
Richmond, James. Faith and Philosophy, in series, Knowing Christianity. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1966.