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I. THE CHURCH OF FATHERS (100-500 AD)
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Paul Jang
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2008-12-03 14:27:12, hit : 2,864 |
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I. THE CHURCH OF FATHERS (100-500 AD)
1. Greek Philosophy
(1) The early Fathers were Gentile Greek and Romans.
(2) Greek philosophy influenced the early Christian writers.
1) Platonism: Platon (died 347 BC)
2) Aristotelianism: Aristotle (died 399 BC)
3) Stoicism: Zeno (died 263 BC)
(3) They had greatly influenced one another.
(4) Platonist would hold to amalgam of Platonism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism, with the element being dominant. (third century).
(5) Neo-Platonism (Ammonius, Sacas and Plotinus). It was also deeply influential on many Christian thinkers from the fourth century.
(6) The early Fathers had to grapple with the inherent contradictions between the Greek and the biblical concepts of God.
(7) Greek thought was predominantly negative about this world.
(8) The Greek philosophers saw human nature as essentially two fold: body and soul. The body belongs to this world of becoming and change, while the soul is a 'divine spark' from the world of being, and is rational.
(9) Greek thought drew close to biblical Christianity at many points, while remaining difficult. but their immutable and impassible God was contrary to the biblical God who suffers and becomes man.
(10) The task of the early Christian Fathers was to express the Christian faith in relation to their Greek heritage. This meant expressing it in Greek terms, yet without distorting it. To a large extent, they succeeded in doing this.
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Introduction
History 