St. Thomas Aquinas’s thought should be regarded as the high
point of intellectual theology.[1]
But while St. Thomas may be the most famous Catholic philosopher, he was by no
means the first. Rather, he was one of the Scholastics, who comprised an
intellectual branch of theology starting with St. Augustine in the fifth
century.[2]
Augustine, in turn, has been described as one of “three
major streams, or tributaries, that … feed into the great river that is
medieval thought” (such as that of St. Thomas’s) alongside the Pseudo-Dionysius
and Boethius.[3] But
even these men were not the first post-biblical Christian philosophers; for
they in turn were preceded by a number of Church Fathers (Augustine being
himself one of these) who also qualified as philosophers.[4]
What did these people do, so long ago, to contribute to or hinder the
progression of philosophy down through the ages? What did they have to say for
themselves? It is these men’s philosophies that, primarily with the information
provided by Fr. Frederick Copleston, S.J.’s A
History of Philosophy: Volume II, I will briefly and individually summarize.
Also provided are either an audio recording of, or the full text to, one work
by each of them.
Marcianus Aristides
Marcianus Aristides, a second-century thinker, used
philosophy to defend the Christian faith and to attack pagan beliefs. He
reasoned that God was the “Mover of the world,” believed God to have
“attributes of eternity, perfection, incomprehensibility, wisdom, [and]
goodness,” and basically offered “a very rudimentary natural theology.”[5]
Full text of
Aristides’ Apology:
St. Justin Martyr
St. Justin Martyr, who was martyred in the second century,
made the rounds of pagan philosophy, finding Stoicism, Peripateticism,
Pythagoreanism, and even Platonism to be dissatisfactory. In the end, he found
intellectual rest in Christianity—though
he still thought highly of the theories of Platonism. He did not think of
theology as being anything separate from philosophy, and viewed this unified
philosophy as “a most precious gift of God, designed to lead man to God.”[6]
Audio readings of St.
Justin Martyr’s First Apology:
Tatian
Tatian was St. Justin’s pupil, but he did not share all of
Justin’s views—which is obvious
both from the fact that he had little regard for Greek philosophy and the fact
that he later fell into heresy (adopting Valentian Gnosticism and going so far as
to reject marriage). He actually had a kind of reversed idea (compared with
Justin) of pagan philosophies, believing that the only truth in them was what
they took from the Bible. However, he did assent to God’s existence being knowable
on the basis of His works by human reason along with other reasoned,
Scripturally-based truths, and he “made use of philosophical notions and
categories in the development of theology.”[7]
Full text of Tatian’s Address
to the Greeks:
Athenagoras
Athenagoras, another second-century writer, was in agreement
with St. Justin’s understanding of pagan philosophy. He also acted as an early
apologist, writing against the ideas that Christians committed cannibalism and
incest and that they were (of all things) atheists,
and against the possibility of multiple gods.[8]
Full text of
Athenagoras’ Plea for the Christians:
Theophilus of Antioch
Theophilus, also a writer of the second century, stressed
the importance of upright morality and spoke of “God’s incomprehensibility,
power, wisdom, eternity, [and] immutability.” He appreciated Plato (although he
made note of Plato’s errors) but should have done more homework on him and
other Greek philosophers, as “He is not always accurate in his account of [their]
opinions.”[9]
Links to the full
texts of Theophilus’ To Autolycus,
books I, II, and III:
St. Irenaeus
St. Irenaeus was born sometime between or near 137 and 140. Fighting
against the Gnostics, he defended the Christian doctrines of creation and the
moral law, upheld God’s infinity as going beyond the scope of complete human
comprehension, and spoke against reincarnation. “According to Irenaeus the
Gnostics borrowed most of their notions from Greek philosophers.”[10]
Full audio readings of
St. Irenaeus’ Against Heresies:
Hippolytus
Hippolytus, who was a student of St. Irenaeus, lived until
the mid to early third century. He believed the Gnostics both stole and further
screwed up the faulty ideas of the Greek philosophers, and that “they glorified
… creation with dainty phrases” without acknowledging the Creator.[11]
Another interesting note about Hippolytus is that, despite being a martyr and a
saint, he at one time actually made a false claim to the papacy.[12]
He is the only one to make such a claim and yet still be canonized.[13]
Link to a selection of
the available books (one and three through ten) of Hippolytus’ Refutation
of All Heresies:
Tertullian
Tertullian, a Christian convert born in 160, was strongly
against pagan philosophies (though he “was influenced by the Stoics”[14]).
He, like Tatian, thought God could be known through His works, and also
reasoned that God’s being uncreated could be used as a basis for His perfection.
However, he made a seemingly unorthodox statement in saying that “everything,
including God, is corporeal, bodily”—but
it’s possible that when he referred to body he really meant substance,
not actually anything material.[15]
He was quite helpful in introducing Christian philosophy to the Latin language
(he was actually the first to refer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as Persons), but he eventually adopted the
heresy of Montanism.[16]
Audio reading of
Tertullian’s On Patience:
Minucius Felix
Minucius Felix was (or was close to being) a contemporary of
Tertullian. Minucius basically believed that God’s existence could be shown by
demonstrating His intelligent design and His unity from that of the universe,
and Minucius could see that certain pagan philosophers and philosophies had
legitimately caught on to aspects of the reality of God.[17]
Full text of Minucius
Felix’s Octavius:
Arnobius
Arnobius, who wrote in the early fourth century, spoke
against the Platonic notions of pre-existence and reminiscence. However, there
were some issues with his reasoning, including his ideas that God used a creating
agent of lesser value than Himself, and that a soul’s immortality was not
natural but of a “gratuitous
character.”[18]
Link to books one
through seven of Arnobius’ Against the Heathen:
Lactantius
Lactantius lived from (approximately on both ends) 250-325.
His main philosophical contribution was his upholding God’s creation of souls
directly (contrary to the idea of traducianism).[19]
Full text to
Lactantius’ On the Workmanship of God:
Clement of Alexandria
Titus Flavius Clemens lived from 150 to somewhere near 219.
He was a strong proponent of believing in God prior to understanding Him, yet
he also thought that the Greeks were ultimately guided by the divine Logos where
their understanding of God was accurate. As a matter of fact, he thought their
philosophies to be both “a preparation for” and “an aid in understanding
Christianity.” He desired Christianity to be placed in such a philosophical
light.[20]
Additionally, he did not believe we could know directly about God, but rather
only what God isn’t.[21]
Links to the full text
of Clement of Alexandria’s The Paedagogus, books I, II, and III:
Origen
Origen, “the most prolific and learned of all Christian
writers before the Council of Nicaea,” was born in the late second century (185
or 186) and lived until the middle of the third century (254-255).[22]
“[Origen] may rightly be considered the first great synthetic thinker of
Christianity.”[23]
He “attempted a fusion of Christian doctrine with Platonic and neo-Platonic
philosophy”;[24] however,
he did so to an extent that sadly led him into doctrinal error in various ways.
For instance, he thought God created by necessity rather than freely, he
believed in the pre-embodied existence of souls, and he thought that all souls
(even those banished to hell) would eventually find communion with God.[25]
Audio reading of
Origen’s On Prayer:
Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius, a historian of the Church, lived from ca. 265 to
339 or 340. He, too, thought that Greek philosophy (though fallible) acted as a
preparation for Christianity. He was open to either possibility as far as
whether Plato derived his teachings from the Old Testament or was inspired by
God on his own; regardless, he analogized some of Plato’s thoughts with
Christian teachings. However, he
did lean toward the idea that only “direct illumination” by God could
ultimately bring one to the truth, with additional “human speculation” doing
nothing more than distorting this truth, a view that would be rejected overall
in Scholasticism.[26]
Link to the audio
reading playlist of Eusebius’ History of the Christian Church:
St. Gregory of Nyssa
St. Gregory lived from around 335-395. He believed that,
though we could not reach doctrines of faith by way of reason, we could provide logical bases for these
beliefs—which he attempted
to do for such things as God’s existence and the Trinity: e.g.,
“God
must have a Logos, a word, a reason. He cannot be less than man, who also has a
reason, a word. But the divine Logos cannot be something of fleeting duration.
[sic] it must be eternal, just as it must be living. The internal word in man
is a fleeting accident, but in God there can be no such thing: the Logos is one
in Nature with the Father, for there is but one God, the distinction between
the Logos and the Father, the Word and the Speaker, being a distinction of
relation.”[27]
He seems to adhere as a general rule to the idea that God must
have in Himself everything that He creates; for instance, He even thinks that
material creation must have a nonmaterial basis, due to the fact that God
Himself (its Creator) is not material.[28]
He rightly understood that God created the world of His own
free will; yet, he would have agreed with Origen on the idea of all creatures
(even those in hell) at some point eventually becoming reconciled with God.[29]
Link to audiobook of
St. Gregory of Nyssa’s On The Soul And The Resurrection:
St. Ambrose
St. Ambrose, who lived from around 333-397, had as his main
focuses “practical and ethical matters.”[30]
While he himself didn’t significantly further these disciplines, he had a
strong influence on later philosophers (perhaps most notably St. Augustine[31]).
Link to the YouTube
playlist of St. Ambrose’s On the Duties of the Clergy:
St. John Damascene
Though St. John Damascene died in ca. 749, Fr. Copleston
stills places him among the Patristic philosophers (prior to his lengthy
discussion of St. Augustine). He is known for his systematization of theology,
to the point where he might be considered “the Scholastic of the Orient.” He
was among those who believed “that philosophy and profane science are the
instruments or handmaids of theology.”[32]
Link to YouTube audio
reading of homilies by St. John Damascene on the Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin Mary:
[1] cf. Alan Schreck. Ph.D., The Compact History of the Catholic Church,
revised ed. (Cincinnati, OH: Servant Books, 2009), 62.
[2] see John Vidmar, OP, The Catholic Church through the Ages: A
History, Kindle edition.
[3] Jon Kirwan, class lecture
on Boethius, Pt. 3 (Cromwell, CT:
Holy Apostles College & Seminary, distributed 16 January 2017).
[4] Some of the Fathers,
however, did not; see Frederick Copleston, S.J., A History of Philosophy: Volume II: Medieval Philosophy: From Augustine
to Duns Scotus (New York, New York; Image, 1993), 29.
[5] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 16.
[6] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 16; see also 17.
[7] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 18.
[8] see Copleston, History of Philosophy, 19.
[9] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 20.
[10] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 22.
[11] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 22.
[12] see Johann Peter Kirsch,
“St. Hippolytus of Rome,” in The Catholic
Encyclopedia, at New Advent (8 March 2017), at www.newadvent.org.
[13] “Popes of the Roman
Catholic Church” (table), in Columbia
Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed., at Academic Search Premier.
[14] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 23.
[15] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 24.
[16] see Copleston, History of Philosophy, 25, 23.
[17] see Copleston, History of Philosophy, 23.
[18] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 25.
[19] see Copleston, History of Philosophy, 25.
[20] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 26.
[21] see Copleston, History of Philosophy, 26-27.
[22] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 27.
[23] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 28.
[24] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 28.
[25] see Copleston, History of Philosophy, 27-28.
[26] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 31; see also
29-30.
[27] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 32; see also 31.
[28] see Copleston, History of Philosophy, 34.
[29] see Copleston, History of Philosophy, 33-34.
[30] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 37.
[31] see Copleston, History of Philosophy, 37, and F3thinker
!, “Giants of Philosophy – St Augustine,” at YouTube (9 March 2017), at
www.youtube.com.
[32] Copleston, History of Philosophy, 38.
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