Christianity And Greek Philosophy

by Benjamin Franklin Cocker

Christianity And Greek Philosophy OR, THE RELATION BETWEEN SPONTANEOUS AND REFLECTIVE THOUGHT IN GREECE AND THE POSITIVE TEACHING OF CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES. By B.F. Cocker [ZHINGOORA BOOKS] PREFACE. In preparing the present volume, the writer has been actuated by a conscientious desire to deepen and vivify our faith in the Christian system of truth, by showing that it does not rest solely on a special class of facts, but upon all the facts of nature and humanity; that its authority does not repose alone on the peculiar and supernatural events which transpired in Palestine, but also on the still broader foundations of the ideas and laws of the reason, and the common wants and instinctive yearnings of the human heart. It is his conviction that the course and constitution of nature, the whole current of history, and the entire development of human thought in the ages anterior to the advent of the Redeemer centre in, and can only be interpreted by, the purpose of redemption. The central and unifying thought of this volume is that the necessary ideas and laws of the reason, and the native instincts of the human heart, originally implanted by God, are the primal and germinal forces of history; and that these have been developed under conditions which were first ordained, and have been continually supervised by the providence of God. God is the Father of humanity, and he is also the Guide and Educator of our race. As "the offspring of God," humanity is not a bare, indeterminate potentiality, but a living energy, an active reason, having definite qualities, and inheriting fundamental principles and necessary ideas which constitute it "the image and likeness of God." And though it has suffered a moral lapse, and, in the exercise of its freedom, has become alienated from the life of God, yet God has never abandoned the human race. He still "magnifies man, and sets his heart upon him." "He visits him every morning, and tries him every moment." "The inspiration of the Almighty still gives him understanding." The illumination of the Divine Logos still "teacheth man knowledge." The Spirit of God still comes near to and touches with strong emotion every human heart. . CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. ATHENS, AND THE MEN OF ATHENS CHAPTER II. THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION CHAPTER III. THE RELIGION OF THE ATHENIANS CHAPTER IV. THE RELIGION OF THE ATHENIANS: ITS MYTHOLOGICAL AND SYMBOLICAL ASPECTS CHAPTER V. THE UNKNOWN GOD CHAPTER VI. THE UNKNOWN GOD (continued) IS GOD COGNIZABLE BY REASON? CHAPTER VII. THE UNKNOWN GOD (continued) IS GOD COGNIZABLE BY REASON? (continued). CHAPTER VIII. THE PHILOSOPHERS OF ATHENS PRE-SOCRATIC SCHOOL. Sensational: THALES--ANAXIMENES--HERACLITUS-- ANAXIMANDER--LEOCIPPUS--DEMOCRITUS. x CHAPTER IX. THE PHILOSOPHERS OF ATHENS (continued) PRE-SOCRATIC SCHOOL (continued) Idealist: Pythagoras--Xenophanes--Parmenides--Zeno. Natural Realist: Anaxagoras. THE SOCRATIC SCHOOL. Socrates. CHAPTER X THE PHILOSOPHERS OF ATHENS (continued) THE SOCRATIC SCHOOL (continued). Plato. CHAPTER XI. THE PHILOSOPHERS OF ATHENS (continued) THE SOCRATIC SCHOOL (continued). Plato. CHAPTER XII. THE PHILOSOPHERS OF ATHENS (continued) THE SOCRATIC SCHOOL (continued). Aristotle. CHAPTER XIII. THE PHILOSOPHERS OF ATHENS (continued) POST-SOCRATIC SCHOOL. Epicurus and Zeno. CHAPTER XIV. THE PROPAEDEUTIC OFFICE OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. CHAPTER XV. THE PROPAEDEUTIC OFFICE OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. (continue

Genres: Philosophy

724 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 2008

Reviews

[ANNA DEMETRA · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book because having now been twice for both study and worship at Mars Hill (Areopagus) where the Apostle Paul preached and because I love Greek philosophy, I was immediately drawn to this book. Knowing that Paul was surrounded by the degenerate philosophers, the Epicureans and Stoics, the former, hedonists who sought personal pleasure, and the latter, pursuing a more self-centered scheme of denial for purification, it is no wonder that the Apostle Paul left empty-handed, so to speak. But I erroneously thought that "the statue to an unknown God" meant that the Greeks just couldn't find the name for one more god that was out there. I was so wrong!! Paul saw and recognize deep within Greek culture the sense of and desire for the divine, starting with this unknown God which represented the ultimate unknowable divine. This book shows that the earlier superior foundations of Greek philosophy, that of Socrates and especially Plato, but in some respects also Aristotle, lay the groundwork for the intellectual preparedness of the Greeks for Christianity. This is one of the most complex books that I have read in several decades, and it is more philosophical than religious, but the two merged together in a beautiful synthesis. I'm very proud that the Greek language became the vehicle for the introduction of the New Testament to the world. And it was with the preparation of the Greek thinkers that provided the esoteric language they would be the perfect vehicle for the Epistles. In short, the best of Greek philosophy fulfilled a preparatory mission for Christianity which brought that which all had been preparing and ultimately for: a message of heretofore untold redemptive Love.

[Alex Frame · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brilliant book showing how greek philosophy laid the path for christianity. Combining Hebrew laws with Greek thinking and the search for truth. A gem of a find.