Did Greek philosophy influence the Christian church?

[LessonsLoved]

I have heard some people at work debating that Christianity and how the church teaches it is based on Greek philosophy. I thought I was reasonably well educated but had no idea. Can anyone explain the key concept and thinking being this theory? Many thanks.

Yes, quite a lot has been written on this. Christianity is very much a fusion of ancient Jewish traditions, mysticism from the Middle East, and Greek philosophy.

The idea of the god-man and of resurrection is an example of this.

I think a good example of the influence of Greek philosophy is in Colossians 1:15 where St Paul describes Christ as the "image of the invisible God". The point makes a lot more sense in the context of Plato's theory of forms in the Republic, ie, the outward image of any thing gets is that thing by borrowing from the intellectual abstraction of that thing.

I'm a pretty devout Christian and I enjoy the fact that its philosophical origins are quite messy.

I think you might want to look wider than this at the influence of Greek philosophy on intellectual thought in Europe I would say up to the 17th century, This is the backdrop against which Christianity as we know it today was shaped. The influence of Aristotle vs Plato is particularly linked to the changing intellectual landscape. Pythagoras (him of the ladder against the wall in maths lessons) is also worth investigating as a link between Christianity and Greek Philosophy. As @TomPinch mentiomed lots has been written on this. You might find this an interesting start

Mind blown 🤯 and following!

It’s not really surprising when you think about it. I would think the real basis it the empire building in many of the regions associated with the birth of Christianity by Alexander the Great -Aristotles pupil. Alexander’s MO was largely about intergration of Greek and local beliefs so the Hellenisation of large parts of the Med would have created a grounding in Greek thought mixed with local traditions long before Jesus. Could using Greek philosophy be seen as a finger to the Romans (even though they did their fair share of appropriation there)? More likely I suspect it’s all just the natural amalgamation of centuries of thought. I recall reading a paper on this at some point- can’t remember where though. You can prob find it somewhere

Thank you, this is so fascinating and I literally had no idea. @OMG12 , this from the article you linked to sounds familiar in a church context.

Life also belongs to God; the actuality of thought is life, and God is that actuality; and God's self-dependent actuality is life most good and eternal. We say therefore that God is a living being, eternal, most good, so that life and duration continuous and eternal belong to God; for this is God.

I wonder what the Greek philosophers would have made of actual Christianity and the concepts of Jesus a God's son and the Holy Trinity including the Holy Spirit. Do these concepts and beliefs also tie in with their teachings and philosophies?

Sorry - haven’t got time to answer more fully atm but many Greek philosophers had various triads or trinities comprising to various degrees wisdom, spirit (pneuma - also meaning breath - get the link kn the NT) body etc, can’t remember off hand the specie details of the various ones, generally they would see this as a aspect of one. Prob linked to the fact a triangle is the first geometric shape which can be drawn out of a single point, or dot then line then triangle.

3 is a big number in various traditions, eg Jesus died at 33 rose after 3 days (3. 3s) it’s been suggested that the 33 ties in with Hindi concept of Kundalini awakening 33 vertebra of the spine (of this im not so convinced but that might just be me)

also see the Osiris Isis, Horus family of Egyptian myth that many have linked to the Holy family

A lot of the language of Christianity comes from philosophy. It was the only way the Church Fathers had to describe concepts that otherwise had no words - like essence/ existence, hypostasis/ substance ... but the words are often used in quite different ways from how the philosophers understood them, especially in relation to the Trinity.

The philosophers (especially Plato and Aristotle) are very influential in some areas of Christian theology and less in others. Aristotle is widely regarded as having given the basis of virtue ethics, for example, but they're hardly ever quoted in relation to the sacraments.

Ooh that’s a good angle to look at it from, what differences do you see in the way the Various Greek philosophers approach the trinity to the early Christians? Rolling things forward to the neo Platonists what do you think their influence was on Christianity?

The major difference, IMO, is the insistence in Christianity that the persons of the Trinity are all equally God, equal in power and glory, equally the one God. The platonist idea is that the One is alone (monos) and superior to any emanations (e.g. nous), to transpose that into Christian thinking would be to understand the Son and the Holy Spirit to be like demi-gods or lesser gods, not the one God.

For the neoplatonism influence, I would look especially to Augustine. The idea of evil as privation is a big one, and couteracts dualism (which he had in his youth).

Sorry, I didn't finish the last post. I was going to add - that Platonism and Aristotelianism won out over schools like Epicureanism and Stocism on metaphysics (athough they did have some influence elsewhere) means that we have a fundamentally immaterialist view of the soul and God in Christianity. This is coupled with the somatic understanding of the soul in ancient Judaism, so Christianity has both but rejects the materialism of some Greek philosophies.

Interesting thanks, how much influence do you think the emanationism influenced Jewish Kabbalah esp the Sefer Yetzirar and Zohar and also the cabalistic works of Ficino etc.

Oh yes, there are so many parallels between Ancient Greek religion and philosophy and Christianity. I’ll just do one parallel in terms of religion that hasn’t been mentioned yet.

Zeus= Father of the Gods & God-king becomes God the Father in Christianity.
Apollo= favourite son of Zeus becomes Jesus in Christianity.
Aether= primordial being becomes the Holy Spirit in Christianity.

So Apollo as a god has many similarities to Jesus. His mother Leto was forced to give birth under a palm tree on a deserted isle as no one would give her shelter. (In Greek religion, Apollo has a twin sister, Artemis, but Christianity was more patriarchal so erased all goddesses.) Both Apollo and Jesus are prophets- they interpret the will of Zeus or God the father to humankind. Both Apollo and Jesus fight evil, Apollo a great Python and Jesus Satan in the desert. Both Apollo and Jesus died and came back to life in Spring….although Apollo did it every year compared to Jesus’ once. Apollo is viewed as a wolf-slayer and shepherd of humankind as was Jesus also viewed as akin to a shepherd minding his flock. Apollo taught humans the art of healing, Jesus made a name for himself for having healing powers.

No idea, sorry! My academic interest is in Aquinas so what I know most in depth is filtered through him and his sources. I did a broader curriculum for my Masters, but all Christian. I haven't ever studied Judaism post the NT period. Maybe someone more knowledgeable will come along ...

Cool, what was your masters in if you don’t mind me asking?

In Christian theology. Although obviously I didn't cover the whole of theology, but my taught modules were quite broad based over a range of theological disciplines (my undergraduate degree wasn't in theology, so I wanted to use the Masters to make sure I was interested in what I thought I was before I committed to the doctorate). I'm still doing the doctorate now.

Fantastic- all the best with your doctorate