Christianity and Greek Philosophy or, the relation between spontaneous and reflective thoughtin Greece and the positive teaching of Christ and His Apostles

by Benjamin Franklin Cocker

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Philosophy

484 pages, Kindle Edition

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.