Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps #2)

by Peter S. Adamson

There is another reason why the monotheistic religions were able to absorb this strand of the ancient philosophical tradition: they had a lot of practice. Christians and Jews had been appropriating ideas from Greek philosophy since the time of Jesus of Nazareth. A somewhat older contemporary of Jesus, and like him a Jew, was Philo of Alexandria, who should be credited as the first representative of these faiths to engage seriously with Greek philosophy. Among Christians, the earliest Church Fathers were likewise deeply influenced by Platonism and Stoicism. Indeed, even St Paul seems to have been influenced by the philosophical ideas that penetrated the world-view of antiquity. For this reason, the rest of this book will need to trace two parallel, and intersecting, stories within the history of philosophy: not only the resurgence and triumph of Plato and Aristotle among pagan thinkers, but also the appropriation of the pagan intellectual heritage among Jews and Christians.