Christianity And Greek Philosophy

by Benjamin Franklin Cocker

"Christianity And Greek Or, The Relation Between Spontaneous And Reflective Thought In Greece And The Positive Teaching Of Christ And His Apostles" by Benjamin Franklin Cocker is a compact survey of Greek philosophy from Plato through the post-Socratic schools, and an argument that this philosophy prepares the mind for Christian faith. The work analyzes major Plato’s ascent to the forms and the Good; Aristotle’s empiricist turn, four causes, and the rational ground of virtue; and the Epicurean and Stoic systems whose ethics center on happiness, virtue, and living in accordance with nature. It traces how questions of being, knowledge, and the divine evolve, showing a common search for ground and order that Greek reason shares with Christian revelation. The author consistently treats philosophy as a propadeutic office, a training that refines conscience and rationality in service of Gospel truth. Finally, Christianity is presented as the culmination of philosophy, fulfilling reason while transcending it through divine revelation.

Genres: Philosophy

548 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 2008

Reviews

[ANNA DEMETRA]

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]

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.