Impact of Christianity on Philosophy Essay

IntroductionChristianitys doctrines and tenets draw from a rich heritage of long 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 are also good reasons to think that, conversely, Christianity is a religion that did not only draw from quick philosophies in history but also generated a significant impact on them. Three reasons may be cited to support this contention. First, philosophical system was made popular by the turn of Christianity second, key Christian thinkers welcome endeavored to incorporate school of thought within their belief-systems and third, many of their teachings are actually philosophical issues Christianized in the process.Christianity and Philosophy First, the rise of Christianity seems to be a factor responsible for the great interest many people have shown towards philosophy during the antique times. It must be noted that even befor e Christianity as a religious thrust was to be commenced (following the death of Jesus, and the rapid conversion to a belief in him), prevailing philosophies such(prenominal) 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 little or no interest to these philosophies, they remained largely an undercurrent phenomenon. In many panaches, the rise of Christianity paved the way for such philosophies to become widespread, as they are (specifically, Neo-Platonism and Aristotleanism) employed 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 generally concerned with arguing justnes ss about 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 responsible 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 utilize 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 humankind soul and the Trinity 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 reality is composed of outlet 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 delimitate of two otherwise distinct entities. The result of this adaptation process is very significant to philosophy. What this process achieved was to lastly create a transact Christian philosophy (p. 89).Conclusion This paper concludes that indeed, Christianity is a religious performance 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 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 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. ordinal Edition. New York, Mc-Graw Hill