Compare And Contrast Philosophy And Philosophy

By the 5th century philosophy was well developed by several logicians and philosophers but as its reach spread from the eastern world to the west issues arose that had to be addressed. For most western societies Christianity had a strong hold and was not allowed to be tampered with or contradicted. Never the less, people were in search for faith and truth which philosophy could help them discover. Thus began theologians from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions attempting to blend and balance faith with philosophy.¹ Many theories from philosophy seemed to add logical backing to religion helping to create an even more concrete belief as proven by many, especially Augustine of Hippo; however, like any religious movements there were combatants

He did this through an essential notion of “I believe in order that I may understand” ³ as to say that philosophy is only truly valuable to a person that already has faith in their life. Augustine was able to build a foundation on the belief that a person could actually use sense and reason (as presented through certain philosophy) to gain a better understanding of the world and help in the pursuit of deepening one’s faith. With this credence he also argued against some forms of philosophy such as Stoicism due to their over the top optimism.4 Augustine, as a deeply Christian man, very much believed in the evil and sin of men so he could not support a philosophy that cast doubt on that. Despite this, he found so much more within philosophical beliefs to strengthen his faith and intelligently prove it to

Augustine answered this question with even more, somewhat perplexing, philosophy. Using rules of time he stated that because God is eternal he is not in the realm of time therefore our time does not exist at God’s level. This is to say that a person has free reign over their choices and actions because “they are nothing more than features of our limited minds” 6 and God’s knowledge of what person will do has no control over their choices or even their moral duty. Augustine was able to use philosophy to support and answer many of the deepest questions within the Christian