The Historical Development of Philosophy

Christian Philosophy

The General Development of Christian Philosophy

With the triumph of Christianity over the competing religious views of antiquity, Western philosophy for centuries falls under the influence of the Christian Church. From this point on, philosophy's principal task becomes the formulation and defense of Christian dogma. A significant portion of this work lies outside the history of philosophy proper and belongs instead to the history of Christian doctrinal development. Nevertheless, this phase of philosophy, which serves as an intermediary between the decline of ancient philosophy and the dawn of the modern era, holds importance for the independent growth of philosophical thought in two distinct ways.

First, Christian dogma invariably contains philosophical content that bears certain connections to earlier efforts to solve universal philosophical problems and may be regarded as a continuation of those efforts. Second, Christian perspectives themselves provide the basis for a unique transformation of concepts inherited from Greek speculation, and in some cases, for the creation of new concepts that exerted a profound and widespread influence on later philosophy. Thus, any comprehensive overview of the history of philosophy must acknowledge the development of philosophical thought during this period, though it will, of course, leave aside the specifically religious content of Christian dogma.

The general course of Christian philosophy's development can be divided into two major periods, separated by several centuries—an interim marked by a lack of substantial philosophical content. The first period's task was the establishment of a system of Christian theology in accordance with religious tradition and in interaction with prevalent philosophical worldviews; this is often referred to, in a broader sense, as the period of Patristic philosophy. The second period found its essential purpose in transforming the theological system, derived from dogmatic formulation, into a scientific system and supplementing it with philosophy, which encompassed all secular knowledge. This second phase is called the period of Scholastic philosophy, as such systematization of theology primarily took place in the schools attached to monasteries and was largely influenced by the religious orientations of various monastic orders.

The period of Patristic philosophy extends far beyond the time during which philosophy, in one form or another, served as a supporting discipline to theology. It begins with the writings of the Church Fathers in the second through eighth centuries after Christ and continues to exercise profound influence until the fifth century, when this influence culminates with the last of the great teachers of the Church, Augustine. From the fifth century until the ninth, this period persists mainly through the works of lesser church writers. The first representatives of Scholasticism emerge in the ninth century. Scholasticism's first flourishing, during which its primary task was the philosophical defense of the fundamental dogmas of faith, thus constituting in large part a philosophizing theology, coincides with the eleventh century. The second phase—the time of reworking theology and philosophy into a universal scientific system—belongs to the thirteenth century. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Scholasticism wanes, along with ecclesiastical philosophy as a whole, though sporadic attempts to revive the Scholastic systems of the thirteenth century continue to surface. These efforts, however, due to their entanglement with dogma and traditional philosophical doctrines, prove unproductive and hold little significance for the overall development of philosophy.