Aristotle and Early Christian Thought

239 Pages·2019·5.893 MB·English

by  Mark Edwards

Aristotle and Early Christian Thought
In studies of early Christian thought, ‘philosophy’ is often a synonym for
‘Platonism’, or at most for ‘Platonism and Stoicism’. Nevertheless, it was
Aristotle who, from the sixth century AD to the Italian Renaissance, was the
dominant Greek voice in Christian, Muslim and Jewish philosophy.
Aristotle and Early Christian Thought is the first book in English to give a
synoptic account of the slow appropriation of Aristotelian thought in the
Christian world from the second to the sixth century. Concentrating on the
great theological topics – creation, the soul, the Trinity, and Christology – it
makes full use of modern scholarship on the Peripatetic tradition after Aris-
totle, explaining the significance of Neoplatonism as a mediator of Aris-
totelian logic. While stressing the fidelity of Christian thinkers to biblical
presuppositionswhich were not shared by the Greek schools, it also describes
their attempts to overcome the pagan objections to biblical teachings by a
consistent use of Aristotelian principles, and it follows their application of
these principles to matters which layoutside the purviewof Aristotle himself.
This volume offers a valuable study not only for students of Christian
theologyinits formativeyears,but alsofor anyone seekingan introductionto
the thought of Aristotle and its developments in Late Antiquity.
Mark Edwards has been Tutor in Theology at Christ Church, Oxford, and
University Lecturer in Patristics for the Faculty of Theology (now Theology
and Religion) since 1993. Since 2014, he has held the title Professor of Early
Christian Studies. His books include Neoplatonic Saints (2000), Origen
against Plato (2002), Culture and Philosophy in the Age of Plotinus (2006),
Image,WordandGodintheEarlyChristianCenturies(2012)andReligionsof
the Constantinian Empire (2015).
Studies in Philosophy and Theology in Late Antiquity
Series editors: Mark Edwards, Christ Church, University of Oxford, UK
Lewis Ayres, Durham University, UK
The Studies in Philosophy and Theology in Late Antiquity series focuses on
major theologians, not as representatives of a 'tradition', whether Christian
or classical, but as individuals immersed in the intellectual culture of their
day.Eachbookconcentratesonthearguments,notmerelytheopinions,ofa
single Christian writerorgroup of writers from the period A.D 100-600 and
comparesandcontraststheseargumentswiththoseofpagancontemporaries
whoaddressedsimilarquestions.
By studyof political, social, and cultural milieu, contributors to the series
show what external factos led to the convergence or divergence of Chris-
tianity and pagan thought in particular localities or periods. Pagan and
Christian teachings are set out in a clear and systematic form, making it
possible to bring to light the true originality of the author's thought and to
estimatethevalueofhisworkfor moderntimes.
This high-profile research series offers an important contribution to areas
of contemporary research in the patristic period, as well as providing new
links into later periods, particularly the Medieval and Reformation eras.
The Spirit of Augustine's Early Theology
Contextualizing Augustine's Pneumatology
Chad Tyler Gerber
Clothed in the Body
Asceticism, the Body and the Spiritual in the Late Antique Era
Hannah Hunt
Individuality in Late Antiquity
Edited by Alexis Torrance and Johannes Zachhuber
Porphyry in Fragments
Reception of an Anti-Christian Text in Late Antiquity
Ariane Magny
Aristotle and Early Christian
Thought
Mark Edwards
Firstpublished2019
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Description:1[edition].|NewYork:Routledge,2019.|Series:Studiesin
philosophyandtheologyinlateantiquity|Includesbibliographical
referencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2018048871(print)|LCCN2018051174(ebook)|ISBN
9781315520216(ebook)|ISBN9781315520186(mobi/kindle)|ISBN
9781315520209(webpdf)|ISBN9781315520193(epub)|ISBN
9781138697997(hardback:alk.paper)
Subjects:LCSH:Aristotle.|Christianphilosophy--History--Earlychurch,
ca.30-600.|Theology--History--Earlychurch,ca.30-600.|Neoplatonism.|
Platonists.
Classification:LCCB631(ebook)|LCCB631.E392019(print)|DDC
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ISBN:978-1-138-69799-7(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-52021-6(ebk)
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Contents
Preface viii
1 The philosophyof Aristotle 1
2 Aristotle in the second century 19
3 Aristotle and ante-Nicene Christianity 38
4 The Neoplatonic reaction to Aristotle 57
5 Aristotle and the Trinity in the fourth century 77
6 Gregoryof Nyssa and Aristotle 97
7 Aristotle and the Christological controversy 129
8 John Philoponus: Theologian and apologist 149
9 Boethius and Aristotle 171
Afterword 193
Bibliography 196
Index 214
Preface
It was in 1932 that André-Jean Festugière compiled his exiguous catalogue
of references to Aristotle in early Christian literature, thus illustrating, to
his own bewilderment, the failure of the Church Fathers to see the merits
of a system which was to bring such rigour and clarity to the disputations
of the Middle Ages.1 David Runia, augmenting and refining this enterprise
half a century later, cannot deny the paucity of named citations from
Aristotle, but argues that his influence is detectable even where it is not
acknowledged, and adds that it may have been purposely concealed for
fear of seeming to grant authority to some other source than the Scrip-
tures.2 Studies of Clement, Origen, and Gregory of Nyssa in recent dec-
ades have shown that their debts to Aristotle, whether latent or avowed,
are apt to be most discernible when they are meeting heretics or philoso-
phers on ground already chosen.3 These enquiries have been stimulated
and assisted by the discovery, amongst students of ancient philosophy, that
the development of Aristotelian thought in the Roman era was not so
sterile or inconsequential a process as it was deemed to be so long as his
successors remained unread. An all-but-complete translation of the Aris-
totelian commentators, under the indefatigable tutelage of Richard Sorabji,
has brought works into the public domain that were hitherto inaccessible,
even in Greek, to all but a handful of researchers. Alexander of Aphrodi-
sias has become the subject of ample monographs in a number of lan-
guages, and no-one ought now to be ignorant of the seminal role of
Proclus and John Philoponus in the formation of Western philosophy and
science. Hence, it has become possible for David Bradshaw to fill the
lacunae in previous histories in his Aristotle East and West, which plots
the narrative from the times of Aristotle himself to those of Thomas
Aquinas and Gregory Palamas.4
In this more detailed study of the Christian appropriation of Aristotle
in Late Antiquity, I have given due prominence to those pagan authors
(Alexander, Plotinus and Porphyry) who rendered his teachings more
accessible by their lucidity and more palatable to the Church by their
attempts to reconcile his mundane ontology with a more popular form of
religion and the pursuit of eternal goals. Since, however, the evolution of
Preface ix
Christian theology is my subject, I have taken no more than a passing
notice of those who do not appear to be either mentioned or imitated in
Christian sources. My terminus is the first half of the sixth century, when
Aristotle’s logical works were adopted without disguise as a foundation
for Trinitarian and Christological reasoning by Boethius in the West and
John Philoponus in the East; it will therefore be necessary to ascertain
how much either of these thinkers borrowed from Ammonius of Alexan-
dria, whom one had heard and the other had surely read. On the other
hand, it will not be necessary to examine the defence of Proclus against
John Philoponus by Simplicius the Neoplatonist, or to count the expiring
breaths of the pagan schools in either Athens or Alexandria. In fact, we
are in no want of excellent studies on these topics, whereas there seems
to be no book, in English at least, that undertakes to explain the super-
session of Plato by his pupil as the Church’s favourite amongst pagan
thinkers.
Plato was at once the Kant and the Shakespeare of the Hellenic world,
an unsurpassable model whom one was all the more bound to quote
because he could not be imitated; moreover, his school survived to pro-
duce another great philosopher in Plotinus and to maintain an eloquent
opposition to Christianity after all the other sects had fallen into oblivion.
Aristotle, by contrast, has a gnomic and disjointed style which resists
quotation even where it does not defy comprehension. Hence, it is easier
and more gratifying to pursue the reception of Plato in the Christian tra-
dition, from which indeed he is seldom absent before the Reformation,
even if no orthodox writer is wholly comfortable in his harness. Never-
theless, it was Christian students of Aristotle who set the precedent of
writing commentaries on the works of pagan authors – in part, no doubt,
because Aristotle stood in need of the same stylistic amelioration that
other Christian writers of Late Antiquity were applying to the Scriptures.
The same pains were not bestowed, so far as we know, on Epicurus or on
the Stoic Chrysippus, and even pagans were loath to quote their inelegant
prose except to hold it up to mockery. Scholars have not, for that reason,
declined to write histories of Stoicism and early Christianity, while
remaining fully conscious that they are dealing for the most part with
citation at second hand and with influences that may have been not only
unacknowledged but unobserved.
As Aristotle prescribes, we must now say something of first principles.
Although we may speak by necessity of influence and dependence, it will
be obvious throughout the present volume that I no more believe in
Christian Aristotelianism than I believe, except in one or two instances,
in Christian Platonism. These expressions have their own validity now
that the pagan schools are extinct and their names betoken only a selec-
tive coercion of ancient postulates into modern systems. The ancient
Aristotelian or Platonist was bound to uphold the doctrine that he pro-
fessed, in its wholeness and purity, against the strictures of every rival