The Philosophy In Christianity

Abstract

In developing a theology for their religion, early Christians drew heavily on Platonism. Philo of Alexandria, for instance, used Plato's creation narrative, in the Timaeus, to explain the Bible story given in Genesis. He connected Plato's philosophy of a Demiurge and a world of Forms with the biblical notion of a heavenly realm in which a wise and beneficent world-ruler dwells. The fourteen original papers in this volume are on the philosophy in Christianity. They include lectures by Norman Kretzmann, John Dillon, Maurice Wiles, Richard Swinburne, Christopher Stead, Gerald O'Daly, Keith Ward, J. R. Lucas, A. H. Armstrong and Eleonore Stump.