What impact did Christnity have on Philosophy?

Answer 1

The question should actually be what impact did philosophy have on Christianity? Christianity was largely adapted by Paul from Aristotle's work. Only from there can Christianity be said to have any impact on philosophy, such as the ontological, teleologic and cosmological arguments (though those arguments are not exclusively the domain of Christian philosophers). The biggest impact Christianity has has on philosophy is the complete abandon of reason among fundamentalists, as is the case with the fundamentalists of any religion.

Answer 2

As stated by another user, originally, Greek Philosophy has a more prolific impact on Christianity. With the rediscovering of Aristotelian philosophy in the Middle Ages, Scholasticism emerged in attempt to reconcile Christian doctrine and philosophy, making philosophy the handmaiden of theology.

However, previous to Christian philosophers, ancient philosophers such as Socrates and Plato, were highly critical of conventional religion. In this sense, philosophy divorced itself from religion. I find it hard to imagine that the Greek philosophers such as Socrates or Plato could have ever imagined Greek philosophy, not only utilized in mainstream religion, but embraced as the path for truth. Historically, Greek philosophers were constantly at odds with convention, on the outskirts of societal thought. Christianity is proof that these once radical thoughts could be harnessed into a religion of the masses.

-Kerplunk288

Answer 3

First of all Christians do not say for themselves to believe their way. The bible, which was not changed in any way by king James, as any old manuscript of it will prove, gives us the directions. Philosophy is mans way to find some direction for their lives based on how they want to live,regardless of morality or lack of it. As far as Christians, anybody can call themselves that, but your life style is what tells the truth about you. If you don't mind me defending the bible, a while back NASA ran a program that showed 2 lapses of time that were missing in the far pass. It amounted to 24 hours. in Joshua 10:13 it says that the sun stopped for the most part of a day. In 2nd Kings 20:9-11 the shadow of the sun goes back 10 degrees, which is 40 minutes. The 2 amounts of time they found missing was (1) 23 hours and 20 minutes and (2) 40 minutes. There is so much more in that great book if we took the time to search for the real truth. i said all this to lead to the fact that these so called "christians were at the time killing anyone who did not believe their way, when they went on these "crusades" thinking they were doing God a favor

Answer 4

Millions upon millions gave their lives up in battle or died in order to convert other cultures. We're still doing it--only in SF where I am it's now a rock group thing and a youth mission thing.Thank God we got rid of the Axe hammers and shields and bayonets--Love your neighbor as yourself--that was supposed to be the message: not kill your neighbor if he won't conform to your belief system, so ... it's been a negative impact as far as lives lost, but much of the christian message is good. if people were just allowed to interpret GOD and Jesus as they wished without any condemnation then the impact would have been great. King James ruined the bible for his own political control agenda, or so I've been told ... I wasn't there.

Answer 5

I think that Aquinas, Descartes, Erasmus, Kierkegaard, and many other great philosophers who were also devoted Christians were great contributors to the canon of Western philosophy. Others such as Kant were at a minimum passionate moralists. Many of these guys sought to reconcile logic and science with religion and morality. There were politicians/theocrats around at the time who were trying to preserve their grip on religious life because of the power and status it gave them, and I believe that the philosophers were the only thing that kept this from turning completely evil (which it managed to do quite a few times, such as during the Spanish Inquisition).

I have to admire men who put their neck out to elucidate concepts like truth, autonomy (American rugged individualism?), and justice- while also being men of deep morality and/or spiritual faith. Especically during times when people were often charged with heresy and executed for doing so.

Answer 6

I think it was quite a destructive impact, as philosophy is all about looking at things from all (many various different) points of view, and christians say you either believe their way, or you go to hell forever, if you challenged the teachings of the church you were labelled as a heretic and were threatened/murdered, and your works discredited/destroyed. It held back science in the very same way.

Love your neighbour- unless he's a heretic, homosexual, or a witch: In any case burn them at the stake.

Answer 7

it set it back a couple thousand years.