EARLY CHRISTIAN REPRESENTATIONS OF MAN BETWEEN THE BIBLE AND GREEK PHILOSOPHY – THE FEATURES OF THE RELATIONSHIP

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-111
Author(s):  
A. V. Laputko ◽  

The article examines the preconditions for the formation of Christian ideas about man. The emphasis is on the fact that the doctrine of a person has never been a separate problem of theology, and, consequently, was formed in parallel and within the basic tenets of Christianity. The author focuses attention on the contradiction in understanding the origin of representations of a person between the traditional branches of Christianity. On the whole, while remaining in common positions, each denomination identifies its own fundamental source of the origin of anthropological ideas, not taking into account the complex and contradictory path of interpenetration of the ideas of ancient Greek philosophy and Christianity. The author shows the path of formation of the main anthropological representations from the Old Testament notions to the New Testament, which receive their final design only in the works of apologists of Christianity brought up by the logic and culture of thinking of ancient philosophy. Thus, the birth of a new world-view anthropological paradigm, which remains one of the most popular and discursive in the modern world, takes place within the framework of a dialogue between ancient Greek philosophical thought and Old Testament ideas.

2016 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-84
Author(s):  
Kazimierz Pawłowski

For followers of religions which take solid cultural form of coherent doctrinalsystems, the fact that other comparable religious systems exist may posea difficult theoretical and existential problem that needs to be addressed ata number of levels, including the one of human existential experience. This isthe problem that was faced by the original followers of the Christian religionin relation to the Greek spiritual culture, and ancient Greek philosophy inparticular, at the time when it boldly explored spiritual areas closely connectedto Christianity. The problem became particularly significant in the secondcentury CE. It was tackled by early Christian thinkers that were educated inGreek philosophy themselves and used its ideas to solve the above-mentionedproblem.


Numen ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Pontoppidan Thyssen

AbstractThe idea of this article is to determine the sense of the Logos in the Prologue of John's gospel by making use of the subsequent Christian doctrinal tradition. As an introduction, the general influence of Hellenistic Judaism on early Christian speculative theology and exegesis is illustrated by examples from Philo and Justin. Justin's exegesis is evaluated in accordance with the principle of Wilhelm Bousset, that learned scriptural demonstration (Schriftgelehrsamkeit) is not the source of doctrine but a post-rationalisation of existing doctrines. Then, Justin's argument from Scripture for Logos-Christology (Dial. 61–62), which is based on Genesis 1:26 and Wisdom 8:22–30, is taken as the point of departure. This argument informs us about the philosophical ideas behind Justin's Logos-Christology, which according to Bousset's principle preceded it. Further, it is argued that Justin's scriptural argument shows that the traditional derivation of the Logos of the Prologue from the word of creation of Genesis 1 did not exist at that early stage, since if it did, that derivation ought to have appeared in Justin. Since no other derivation of a Logos in the cosmological sense from the Bible is possible, the presence of this idea in John can only be explained as the result of influence from the eclectic philosophy of Jewish Hellenism (Philo). This conclusion is confirmed by the demonstration that the idea of universal innate knowledge, familiar from Justin's doctrine of the Logos, also appears in the Prologue of John. The argument for this is that it cannot be fortuitous that the traditional translation of John 1:9 lends itself to this interpretation. As the idea of universal innate knowledge is an idea unique to Greek philosophy, this observation settles the matter definitively. The origin of the traditional interpretation of the Logos goes back to Tertullian's interest in producing an exegesis that complies with the Latin translation of John 1.


Author(s):  
Oksana Valer'evna Lyubokhonskaya

This article discusses the problem of the lost meaning of the philosophy, which emerged as a result of its “technematization” in modern world. The question of “What is philosophy?” is being raised again. The author refers to the two key representatives of philosophical thought of the ancient West and East: Socrates and Lao Tzu, using the comparative approach and considering the category of Tao in the contrast to the main categories of ancient Greek philosophy: being, truth, logos, and action. Reconstruction of the teachings of Socrates and Lao Tzu contributes to the disclosure of philosophy through the four crucial aspects: ontological, gnoseological, anthropological, and ethical. The explanation of these aspects or dimensions of the philosophy gives the key to its initial meaning. The author concludes on the borderline and specificity between “wisdom” and “discretion”, where the latter is the primary foundation of the existence of philosophy. The philosophy itself is viewed as a being and process of cognition, directed not only to the outwards, which is characteristic to the Western European tradition overall, but also to within, which is typical to the Eastern thought. The disclosure of the structure of philosophy indicated the need for coming back to its basic meaning through the ethical dominant, which was initially embedded in the concepts of “wisdom” and “love”. The author introduces a peculiar term of “Sophiphilia”, which corresponds to the level of “discretion” as a pre-philosophical field of existence.


1998 ◽  
Vol 54 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. O.K. Lategan

In this article the author highlights Calvin's anthropology. A main feature of this anthropology is his dualistic view on man. Calvin was very much influenced by the ancient Greek philosophy, which argued that man had two parts: a superior soul and an inferior body. The author argues that this perception is at odds with a Biblical image of man. According to the Bible no part of man is inferior or superior to any other part of his personhood. The article indicates that a Biblical perspective on anthropology will draw different conclusions in ethics compared to a dualistic perception of the nature of man. A correct appreciation of the anthropology of man is therefore needed to guide decisions in ethics, where the focus is constantly anthropological.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 2523-2529
Author(s):  
Slobodan Marković ◽  
Zoran Momčilović ◽  
Vladimir Momčilović

This text is an attempt to see sport in different ways in the light of ancient philosophical themes. Philosophy of sports gets less attention than other areas of the discipline that examine the other major components of contemporary society: philosophy of religion, political philosophy, aesthetics, and philosophy of science. Talking about sports is often cheap, but it does not have to be that way. One of the reasons for this is insufficiently paid attention to the relation between sport and philosophy in Greek. That is it's important to talk about sports, just as important as we are talking about religion, politics, art and science. The argument of the present text is that we can try to get a handle philosophically on sports by examining it in light of several key idea from ancient Greek philosophy. The ancient Greeks, tended to be hylomorphists who gloried in both physical and mental achievement. Тhe key concepts from Greek philosophy that will provide the support to the present text are the following: arete, sophrosyne, dynamis and kalokagathia. These ideals never were parts of a realized utopia in the ancient world, but rather provided a horizon of meaning. We will claim that these ideals still provide worthy standards that can facilitate in us a better understanding of what sports is and what it could be. How can a constructive dialogue be developed which would discuss differences in understanding of sport in Ancient Greece and today? In this paper, the authors will try to answer this question from a historical and philosophical point of view. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section of the paper presents two principally different forms or models of focus in sport competitions – focus on physical excellence or focus on game. The dialectic discourse regarding these two approaches to physical activity is even more interesting due to the fact that these two models take precedence over one another depending on context. In the second section of the paper, the focus shifts to theendemic phenomenon of the Ancient Greek Olympic Games, where the topic is discussed from the perspective of philosophy with frequent historical reflections on the necessary specifics, which observeman as a physical-psychological-social-spiritual being. In the third section of this paper, the authors choose to use the thoughts and sayings of the great philosopher Plato to indicate how much this philosopher wasactually interested in the relationship between soul and body, mostly through physical exercise and sport, because it seems that philosophers who came after him have not seriously dealt with this topic in Plato’s way, although they could.


1960 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. A. Wolfson

Philo, professionally, was not a teacher of philosophy. He was a preacher, a preacher on biblical topics, who dispensed his philosophic thoughts in the form of sermons. And because he was not professionally a teacher of philosophy, some modern students of his works say that he was not a philosopher. For nowadays, as we all know, to be called philosopher one must be ordained and one must be hired to teach philosophy and one must also learn to discuss certain hoary problems as if they were plucked yesterday out of the air. Some say that Philo was an eclectic. But there is one eminent authority who would begrudge him even the title of eclectic without further qualification, for, after all, eclecticism is the name of a reputable system in ancient Greek philosophy. The eclecticism of Philo, our eminent authority says, “is that of the jackdaw rather than the philosopher.” But, while we may deny Philo the honorific title of philosopher, with the privilege of wearing ostentatiously a special garb like that affected by ancient Greek philosophers, we cannot deny him the humbler and more modest title of religious philosopher. As such, Philo was the first who tried to reduce the narratives and laws and exhortations of Scripture to a coherent and closely knit system of thought and thereby produced what may be called scriptural philosophy in contradistinction to pagan Greek philosophy.


2021 ◽  

Private associations abounded in the ancient Greek world and beyond, and this volume provides the first large-scale study of the strategies of governance which they employed. Emphasis is placed on the values fostered by the regulations of associations, the complexities of the private-public divide (and that divide's impact on polis institutions) and the dynamics of regional and global networks and group identity. The attested links between rules and religious sanctions also illuminate the relationship between legal history and religion. Moreover, possible links between ancient associations and the early Christian churches will prove particularly valuable for scholars of the New Testament. The book concludes by using the regulations of associations to explore a novel and revealing aspect of the interaction between the Mediterranean world, India and China.


Author(s):  
Mariane Farias de Oliveira

Tradução do artigo "Eudemian Ethical Method", de Lawrence Jost, publicado originalmente em Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy IV: Aristotle's Ethics edited by John P. Anton and Anthony Preus, the State University of New York Press ©1991, State University of New York. A tradução foi feita sob supervisão do orientador prof. Dr. José Lourenço Pereira da Silva (UFSM).


2020 ◽  
pp. 108926802097502
Author(s):  
Barbara S. Held

As the humanities suffer decline in the academy, some psychologists have turned to them as an especially apt way to advance a psychological science that reflects lived experience more accurately and robustly. Disciplinary psychology’s adoption of the ontological and epistemological underpinnings of the natural sciences is often seen as a misapplication that has resulted in a science that diminishes if not demolishes subjectivity and misrepresents many. By contrast, the humanities are taken to be well positioned to infuse scientific psychology with myriad aspects of lived experience. I applaud all efforts to take the humanities seriously, by incorporating the theories, methods, and observations of the humanities in psychological science; the question is, how best to do this. On what understanding of the humanities should scientific psychology proceed? With these questions in mind, I review arguments about how psychological science can benefit from attention to the humanities. I also consider worries about a scientistic turn within the humane disciplines themselves, which turn mirrors worries about scientism in psychology. Contemporary examples of scholarship on the origins of ancient Greek philosophy and depictions of Christ in Renaissance art illustrate how the wars over truth and evidence that plague psychology are no less fierce in the humanities. I conclude that if psychologists apprehend the humanities with the critical understandings called for in psychological science, we may not only appreciate their contributions more completely and accurately, but may also deploy those contributions more substantially, in working to broaden and deepen psychological science.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document