The Influence of the Greek Philosophy and Religion upon Christianity
The Resultant Affect upon the Harmony of the Three Abrahamic Faiths
by Nefratiri Weeks
October 26, 2007
Scholars and historians agree that the blending of Greek culture with Christianity eventually resulted in our modern understanding of Christianity as a religion; textbooks paint the picture of its great Hebrew Roots being planted in Greek Soil, creating the tree we see today in every American City and across the world. However, some scholars assert that while Greek rational thought had a positive influence on Christianity, Greek religious practices at that time had no influence. I will demonstrate that, to the contrary, many Greek religious practices are alive and well in the Christian Church and discuss the deeper implications of this fact on the global situation of religious division.In his Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas, one of the great reasoning minds of the late Middle Ages, set forth the argument that the subject matter of religious doctrine, belief and faith was to be rightly considered a science. He set this science higher than the science of empirical thought with subject matter including mathematics and the like. Aquinas opened the door of religious speculation that had been closed by the Church for more than a thousand years. In his treatise concerning religious belief he concludes:
“As other sciences do not argue in proof of their principles, but argue from their principles to demonstrate other truths in these sciences: so this doctrine does not argue in proof of its principles, which are the articles of faith, but from them it goes on to prove something else…” (Aquinas). (more…)