Influence of Neoplatonism on Christianity

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Plotinus, pagan philosopher at Alexandria

Reaction against Gnosticism[edit]

Gnostics very different views from Neoplatonism. Tertullian considered God to be corporeal. The conflict pushed Christianity towards a Neoplatonic position.

Impact of neoplatonism[edit]

Some Christian ideas may have been borrowed from Neoplatonism or perhaps have a different origin. Neoplatonism might have been more appealing than the mysticism of the New Testament authors.

The two belief systems were similar but also rivals. However, as a fairly complex philosophy, Neoplatonism did not have much popular appeal when compared to Christianity.

Both teach:

  • Detachment of the world
  • Introspection
  • God is the highest good
  • Metaphysics: Idealism
  • Psychology: spiritualism
  • Attitude: sober mysticism
  • Earthly world is of change, becoming and imperfection
  • Heavenly or real world is static and perfect
  • God and the real would is separate from the material/apparent world
  • God is transcendent
  • Evil does not exist as an entity itself, or is a negative
  • The apparent world is a "shadow world" of the spiritual world
  • Cultivation of the intellect, use of reason
  • Humans to transform to be like God
  • Supportive or art and science
  • All Earthly things eventually return to the spiritual world
  • The spiritual world is superior and more real than the apparent world

Augustine via Plotinus:

  • God is beyond comprehension, we can only make negative rather than positive claims about him
  • God does not think or feel
  • God is immutable
  • Humans have a double life: an Earthy one and a spiritual one
  • Humans follow a path to God using purification and contemplation

Eunapius: "the fire still burns on the altars of Plotinus"

Justin considered Socrates and Plato to be Christians?

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite[edit]

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Pseudo-Dionysius was also influenced by these ideas.

Cambridge Platonists[edit]

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Cambridge Platonists, the Latitude Men

Christian responses[edit]

Various revivalist Christian movements have tried to remove the influence of Greek philosophy, including the Trinity and the attributes of God. For instance, Jehovah's Witnesses reject the existence of an immortal soul, which they consider to be borrowed from Greek philosophy. [1] They accuse other denominations of believing in a Christianity that has corrupted by Greek ideas.

"various critics of orthodox Christianity--including Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, New Age adherents, and theological liberals--have argued that the true biblical understandings of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit were corrupted in the third, fourth, and fifth centuries by Greek philosophy and pagan polytheism, which led to the development of the doctrines of the Trinity and the deity of Christ.[2]"

References[edit]

External links[edit]