Mrs. Wilhelmus
AP English Literature
02 August 2013
Christianizing Philosophers and Its Effects
Before the times of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas there was a bit of an obstruction between the link of philosophy and Christianity. Luckily, their vast knowledge and teachings diminished such obstruction. They used the theories of Plato and Aristotle and applied them to bible to make sense of God’s word, and in a way, back it up. They’re used to be, a kind of dispute (or that’s how I see it to be), that you either picked philosophical reason or relied on faith in God as your way of justification on how things came to be and why they are. St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas broke this barrier through Plato and Aristotle by “Christianizing them.” They made it to where you had the best of both worlds, with undeniable reason and explanations.
St. Augustine believed that there was no true difference between Christianity and the philosophy of Plato. Although, Plato’s theories and ideas could only take St. Augustine so far, he used the bible to compensate the rest. Thus, the faith making up for what reason sometimes lacks. He could relate Plato’s philosophy to the bible (Augustine had thought Plato had knowledge of the Old Testament, so you could see how the views correlate) and prove that Christianity and philosophy do go together. Since St. Aquinas in much of the same way that St. Augustine had Plato, I find a little tedious to go into detail about him.
The result of their Christianizing philosophy is that they disarmed the threat that philosophy may have held on Christianity, had it not been linked so well. By doing so, I feel as though they strengthened people’s faith and ability to believe. I think it also would have given those who relied solely on philosophical reason a new outlook on life. That new outlook being: turning to faith, converting to Christianity, and perhaps relying on “the god factor” when they’re human logic runs out.
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