The Confrontation between Christians and Platonists in the II-III centuries

Journal title RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA
Author/s Marco Zambon
Publishing Year 2015 Issue 2015/2
Language Italian Pages 16 P. 473-488 File size 100 KB
DOI 10.3280/SF2015-002010
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This article analyses the objections against Christianity made by Platonists of the II and III centuries and the way Christian intellectuals replied to these objections and used Platonic thought in the construction of their theology. Platonists considered Christianity a non-philosophical choice of life because of its irrationality. On their side, Christians defended the rationality of their faith and its superiority over Plato’s philosophy, which they considered to be rooted in Biblical revelation. The faith on which the adherence to Christianity is based is sometimes presented as a basic level of knowledge that everybody can attain and at others as a kind of knowledge superior to philosophy, though not in disaccord with it. Consequently, doctrines that are typical of the Platonic tradition are integrated into Christian theology and at the same time their meaning is radically changed.

Keywords: Middle Platonism, ancient Christianity, history of Christian theology, anti- Christian polemics, faith and reason

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Marco Zambon, Il confronto tra cristiani e platonici nel II-III secolo in "RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA" 2/2015, pp 473-488, DOI: 10.3280/SF2015-002010