Faith and Reason

1. Intoduction to Philosophy
Faith and Reason
Lecture 8

2. The messiah – Christ
• 5 BCE and 30 BCE

3. Themes of Christianity
• love and helping the unfortunate.
• Taught that Jewish law could be
summarized in terms of loving god with
one whole heart and loving ones neighbor
as one self.
• Man remained ‘Fallen’ until Jesus was
crucified.
• Afterlife – heaven (not official for Jews) –
individual salvation.

4. Jewish religion confronting Greek
reasoning
• Philo (20 BCE – 40 CE)
• Saint Paul (c. 10-65 C.E.)
• Plotinus (ca. 205-269 C.E.)
• Saint Augustine (354-430 C.E.)
• Saint Anselm (ca. 1033-1109)
• Peter Abelard (1079-1142)
• Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
• John Calvin (1509-1564)
• Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)

5. Philo (20 BCE – 40 CE)
• Jewish thinker who drew upon the Greeks
– Suggested Greeks were inspired by the same
god
– Underplayed the miraculous and Jews as
chosen
– God is transcendent but related to the world
through logos (underlying structure –
Heraclitus)

6. Saint Paul (c. 10-65 C.E.)
• Made Christianity attractive by emphasizing
personal salvation
• Converted to Christianity – knocked off horse –
“why do you Persecute me?”
• Interpreted Jesus as the son of god & holy spirit
as imparting grace into the hearts of the
Christian community
• Grace is key to personal salvation
• Interpreted the Crucifixion as atonement for all
human sins

7. Neo-Platonism
Plotinus (205-269 C.E. )
• The “Good” as the Christian God
• Supreme mind contemplation of itself
(Aristotle) –world as overflow - emanations
• The material world is itself spiritual (diff
from Plato) – B/C it is the thought of god
• The human soul comes from spirit –
already divine
• No problem of evil – just absence of good

8. St Augustine (354-430 CE)
• Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoW9m-67MME
• Evil is absence of good
• Early wanton sensuality (aesthetic – Kierkegaard)
• Sought solution to the problem of evil
• Manicheans – the world is a battle between god and evil - he
became disillusioned
• Dedicated to integrating Christian doctrine with platonic and neo-
platonic thought
• Plotinus – accepted articulation of levels of emulation in terms of
doctrine of the trinity
• Plato - life of contemplation was the only way to knowledge and
happiness
• The proper guide to relation - scripture

9. St Augustine (354-430 CE)
continued….
• Thought Greeks described the natural aspect of
humanity but not the supernatural – union with god
• Problem of evil – we cannot see the ultimate plan
• Intimate share in gods nature – free will
• Human beings were allowed to determine their own
actions
• The possibility of sin – free will as possibility of overcome
sin – god offers GRACE as well as divine guidance
• The soul created “in the image of god” self knowledge is
a way to interact with god.

10. Muhammad (c. 570-632 CE)
• Muhammad (c. 570-632 CE) - a merchant
who retreated and recited from angel
Gabriel the Qur’an
• Before Islam they worshiped Jinn (spirits)
– Allah as one
• Allah as only god
• Same god as Jews and Christians

11. Muhammad (c. 570-632 CE)
Continued….
• Five Pillars of Islam
– Once during life – “There is no God but God
(allah), and Muhammad is his prophet”
– Prayer,
– Almsgiving
– The observance of Ramadan – fasting
– A pilgrimage to mecca once in you life

12. Muhammad (c. 570-632 CE)
Continued….
• Almsgiving – charity - Justice
• Jihad (holy war) interior as well as exterior
• Unlike Platonic and neo-platonic views the
world is real ad god
• Exoteric – accessible to everyone
• Esoteric – only for those trained and
initiated

13. Mysticism and Zen
– Christian mystic – Meister Eckhardt (c1260-c.1327) –
faced charges of heresy – condemned by the pope
– Creation was one with the creator and co-eternal with
god
– Al Hallah – Islamic mystic – assassinated for crying “I
am God” (922 CE)
– Jewish mysticism – scripture understood at a number
of levels
– Kabbalah (literally – Tradition) interpretation of the
Torah – theory of ten emulations- Called Sefiroth
– Sufism – refused restricted access to esoteric level

14. Zen
– Zen – Japanese’s and Buddhism – samurais
– Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=XK_4Z5DZcNM
– Break down the everyday paths of logical
thinking
– Koan – one hand clapping
– Meditation – empting ones mind

15. Reason and faith the peripatetic
Tradition
• Arabs encountered Greek Jewish and
Christian traditions
• Al-Kinki (ca. 800-866_
• Followed Aristotle
• Accepted Plotinus’s notion of eminations

16. Ibn Rushd (1126-1198)
• God is not distance
• Actively involved and knowledgeable
about our world

17. Moses Maimonides (1135-1204)
• Doctor – focus on health and the body
• Took Aristotle as foundation
• Organized and systematized the Mishnah
• Famous work: Guide to the Perplexed
• Tried to reconcile reason and religion

18. Saint Anselm (ca. 1033-1109)
• Acknoleged agustine
• Not enthusiastic about platonic forms or
neoplatonism
• Ontological proof for the existence of god
– The very concept of something proves that it
exists

19. Peter Abelard (1079 – 1142)
• Logician
• Philosophy of language
• Theological and philosophical confusions
are the result of misunderstandings about
language
• Doctrine of names
– Words are just names “signifiers”
– What they refer to are their “signified”

20. Realists vs. Conceptualist
• Like Plato and Aristotle
• Realists – There are such universals (ie
Cat, Chair…)
• Conceptualists – universals exist only in
the mind

21. Thomas Aquinas (1225- 1274)
• 1 - FIRST MOVER: Some things are in
motion, anything moved is moved by
another, and there can't be an infinite
series of movers. So there must be a first
mover (a mover that isn't itself moved by
another). This is God.

22. Aquinas 2
• 2 - FIRST CAUSE: Some things are
caused, anything caused is caused by
another, and there can't be an infinite
series of causes. So there must be a first
cause (a cause that isn't itself caused by
another). This is God.

23. Aquinas 3
• 3 - NECESSARY BEING: Every
contingent being at some time fails to
exist. So if everything were contingent,
then at some time there would have been
nothing -- and so there would be nothing
now -- which is clearly false. So not
everything is contingent. So there is a
necessary being. This is God.

24. Aquinas 4
• 4 - GREATEST BEING: Some things are
greater than others. Whatever is great to
any degree gets its greatness from that
which is the greatest. So there is a
greatest being, which is the source of all
greatness. This is God.

25. Aquinas 5
• 5 - INTELLIGENT DESIGNER: Many
things in the world that lack intelligence
act for an end. Whatever acts for an end
must be directed by an intelligent being.
So the world must have an intelligent
designer. This is God.

26. Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)
• Reformation
• 95 “theses” on Wittenberg cathedral
• Challenged the authority of the church

27. Reformation
• Catholic Church
– Selling forgiveness – what they called
indulgences
Luther
Drew on Augustine – sinful nature of humanity
Did not believe in Aristotle or Aquinas
Even reason is corrupted
Faith alone is essential to salvation
Focus on the inner life

28. John Calvin (1509-1564)
• Protestants
• Insisted on distinction between religious truth
and heresy
• Human beings are sinful – even babies
• Cannot act apart from gods will – god condones
sinfulness….?
• Predestination – God elected those who would
be saved and those who would be damned.
• Success in this life became a sign of being
blessed

29. Protestants
and effects
• American workaholics
• The rise of capitalism
– Saving money
– Investing

30. Main points
• Confrontation of reason from Greeks and
religion
• Emphasis on logic
• Having a consistent religion
• Gods bizarre relationship with humanity
and the world

31. Main shifts in Christianity
• God is loving and forgiving – not wrathful
• Love of God/Jesus can grant salvation
• God is Immanent – in the world
• Man has remained fallen until Christ was
crucified
• Belief in an afterlife
• Focus on individual salvation of the sould