Blog Post 3

Logan Sullivan           

Mrs. Wagener

AP English Lit.

9^th August 2013

Connections of Christianity and Philosophy

            During the time of the Middle Ages, the teachings of philosophy were widely spreading and becoming more accepted as people’s beliefs. While this was happening, Christianity was also breaking through and increasingly becoming a part of people’s lives each day. Just like Plato’s and Aristotle’s view on women, Christianity and philosophy clashed and contradicted each other. As these newly Christians started to realize that these teachings did not go together with their religion, they started to remove philosophy from their lives. Two philosophers, on the other hand, wanted people to see that Christianity and philosophy could go together and their names were Aquinas and St. Augustine.

            Alberto tells Sophie that St. Augustine tried to incorporate the ideas of Christianity into philosophy, because he saw no difference between them. One example of this was fixing the turmoil between Christians and philosophers about the creation of Earth. Christians believed that God created the Earth, but Plato’s theory along with philosophy states that the “ideas” or plans to make Earth have always been around since the beginning of everything. St. Augustine settled this by saying that God created the Earth, but his intentions to create Earth have always been there. From St. Augustine’s actions, more Christians were starting to accept and learn from Plato’s theories and teachings.

            Just like St. Augustine helped tie Christianity with Plato’s teachings, Aquinas did the same with Aristotle’s teachings. Also, Aquinas did not believe that philosophy and Christianity could contradict each other because he believed they were identical. Aquinas thought that Aristotle’s thoughts of Christianity were not “complete”. Aristotle stated that there had to be a higher power, or a god, to watch over and control Earth. However, he did not tie his theory into Christianity, but he also did not saw it could not be related. With this, Aquinas led more people to accept Aristotle’s teachings considering that Aristotle was not denying that a god could exist.

            When Christianity and philosophy started to merge together during the Middle Ages, everyone was more content. Also, without the help of Aquinas and St. Augustine, philosophy might have died off and never been taught again. If it were not for them, Christianity would have won, and history is written by the victor. If they did not do what they did, it could have severely impacted our world today, because philosophy plays a much greater role than what most people think. Christianity and philosophy still exist today in a world where they can coexist together.