The Perennial Philosophy

Philosophy ◽  
1947 ◽  
Vol 22 (81) ◽  
pp. 66-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. R. Inge

The phrase philosophia perennis is said to have been first used by Leibniz. It has been adopted and freely employed by the Catholic Neo-Thomists, for whom it means a development of the Aristotelianism, modified by strong Neoplatonic elements, which Arabian scholars transmitted to the first Renaissance in the West. It claims also to be a return to the early Christian philosophy of religion, a fusion of Hellenistic and Jewish thought, the latter itself a syncretistic religion with many Persian and other borrowings. The controversy, directed against various modern philosophies, has been conducted with great ability by such writers as Gilson, Maritain, Sheen, Watkin, Dawson and D'Arcy, whose books would perhaps have received more attention from independent thinkers, but for the suspicion which surrounds apparent attempts to revive the methods and inhibitions of the medieval schoolmen.There has been a parallel movement in the Orthodox Eastern Church, represented in Russian by Frank, Bardyaeff, Solovioff and Lossky. These writers are more Platonic and more fearlessly mystical than the Thomists. Origen in the East has more weight than Augustine.

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-192
Author(s):  
László Kocsis ◽  
Erzsébet Molnár

AbstractThe site of Tiszagyenda-Búszerző dűlő became known during the archaeological and field surveys prior to the construction of the Tiszaroff Dam. The site covered the northern part of a large contiguous Migration Period settlement, the southern extents of which were discovered within the same project.The settlement occupying both banks of the Tisza River's backwater had been inhabited for centuries. The first settlers in the Bronze Age (leaving behind three burials) were followed by the Sarmatians (seven burials), Gepids (nineteen burials), Avars (seven burials) and finally tribes of Hungarian conquerors (81 burials). Besides of the linear graveyards of common people, solitary, richly-furnished graves of the Gepid and the Avar Periods were also found.The solitary grave of an armed man was unearthed on the west bank of the Tisza's backwater. His horse and his dog, cut in half and thrown over the horse, were buried a couple steps away in a separate grave. Grave No. 1660 is of especially outstanding archaeological value. Dated by the solidus of Byzantian Emperor Maurikios Tiberius (582–602), the grave held rich finds decorated with Early Christian symbols. The mounts of the swordbelt and his belt-set refer to Lombard and Merovingian connections. The Gepid-Germanic warrior of Gyenda was buried in the early Avar period after the collapse of the Gepid Kingdom in 567–568, in the first decade of the 7th century.


Author(s):  
Pablo Irizar

Summary Dogmatic debates in early Christianity shaped philosophical discourse just as Greek philosophy offered the conceptual tools to engage and, accordingly to crystalize early Christian practice, into a formal system of belief. Thus, in the recently-published The Rise of Christian Theology and the End of Ancient Metaphysics, Johannes Zachhuber notes that “Patristic thought as a whole can be identified as a Christian philosophy.” Following suit – though not without nuance – this paper suggests treating Patristic scriptural exegesis as an exercise of speculative philosophy, as evidenced in Augustine’s interpretation of the figure of the cross at Eph 3.18, where the cross progressively becomes a simple yet compelling paradigm of divine manifestation. This paradigm can be framed according to Augustine’s mature articulation of the ‘ontological principle’ of manifestation in s. 165: “From the depth which you cannot see rises everything that you can see.” By engaging in scriptural exegesis, within a gestalt where Wisdom, sacred and profane alike, merge in the incarnate God manifest in Christ, Augustine articulates unprecedented philosophical principles.


2018 ◽  
pp. 229-243
Author(s):  
J. L. Schellenberg

In this chapter John Schellenberg defends the proposal that the intellectual activity associated with Alvin Plantinga’s work on religion, a Reformed sort of Christian philosophy (RCP), isn’t properly regarded as being philosophy at all—not even philosophy of religion. Instead, Schellenberg argues that it is theology. He begins by clarifying how RCP should be understood. Then he presents and defends a condition he calls the Communal Condition, which says that to be doing philosophy one must aim not just to solve certain fundamental problems, or contribute thereto, but to do so together with like-minded others in a shared enterprise leading to informed consensus. Finally, Schellenberg defends the view that, although it satisfies very well a condition sufficient for something to count as theology, RCP cannot satisfy the Communal Condition.


Antiquity ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (289) ◽  
pp. 509-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Loosley

The Limestone Massif of northwest Syria has the largest concentration of late antique churches in the world. All date from between the second half of the 4th century and the first decade of the 7th century and are remarkably consistent in their conformity to a recognizably ‘Syrian’ architectural style. Almost without exception they are apsed basilicas varying only in terms of size and the quality of decoration.This region was extensively surveyed in the 1950s by Georges Tchalenko, whose monumental three-volume study Villages antiques de la Syrie du nord remains the definitive work on the area. Of the many ecclesiastical buildings included in this survey Tchalenko identified a group of approximately 45 churches possessing a bema. The bema is a horseshoe-shaped structure in the nave that mirrors the curve of the apse. Entered via steps at the east end, it provided benches for the clergy and a pulpit at the west end that was used for scriptural expositions and homilies.


2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-390
Author(s):  
Bruce Ellis Benson ◽  

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