by Matthew Gaetano TRF has discussed Philo (here, here, here) and slavery (here, here) before. Here are two passages that combine these themes. Even though scholars debate whether Philo accurately presents these two first-century Jewish communities, we can see here the possibility of opposition to slavery in theory and practice in this context. In Every… Read More Philo and Slavery
by Andrew Kuiper Stephen R. L. Clark. Cities and Thrones and Powers: Towards a Plotinian Politics. Brooklyn: Angelico Press, 2022. 328 pp., $22.95. Stephen R. L. Clark. How the Worlds Became: Philosophy & the Oldest Stories. Brooklyn: Angelico Press, 2023. 340 pp., $19.95. There has never been a time when Plato’s dialogues lacked readers interested… Read More Platonic Cities and Animal Kingdoms: Reviews of Stephen R. L. Clark
by Matthew Gaetano TRF has discussed the Protestant engagement with ancient philosophy and scholasticism quite a number of times (here, here, here, here). But we have not directly discussed Martin Luther’s engagement with the question of philosophy and its study by Christians. Luther’s famous contempt for Aristotle, especially early in his reforming career, is on… Read More “The Apostle Philosophizes”: Luther and the Critique of Metaphysics in 1515-1516
by Matthew Gaetano Previous posts, especially those by Joshua Shaw, have touched on the major first-century Jewish thinker, Philo of Alexandria (here, here, here, and here). As we deal here with the long Augustinian tradition, it is fitting that we remember Augustine’s debts not only to Platonism, but also to those who, centuries before Augustine,… Read More Philo and the Good Shepherd
by Joshua Shaw In another post we will look at the critical methods of these men (as well as others – Schlatter, Hodge, Bavinck, Lightfoot, etc.) in a more direct way; for now we consider it from the perspective of the last post – the relationship of man to Creation, the relationship of this world… Read More “Christianity Shrinks From No Test”: Westcott and Hort on Biblical Criticism (2)
The Epistle reading in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (see here for a nicely bound, affordable edition from Everyman) for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity is Romans 8:18-23, which reads as follows, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed… Read More “Creation groaneth and travaileth together”: The Fourth Sunday after Trinity (1)
by Joshua Shaw Matthew Gaetano, in a previous post, has touched on C. S. Lewis’s idea of the “good dreams” of pagans which were fulfilled in the Gospel. This post treats another Cambridge scholar writing and thinking in the same vein as Lewis. Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901) was an extraordinary New Testament scholar who brought… Read More Good Dreams and Better Prayers: CS Lewis and BF Westcott on Plato
by Joshua Shaw I happened to be reading a very apt passage from Thomas Traherne just a few days after Matt’s latest post. The coincidence seemed too perfect to forgo at least a short addendum to his post. He mentioned there various trends of scholarship concerning the conception of wisdom: when did it change? Is… Read More Thomas Traherne on Philosophia – the Love of Wisdom
by Matthew Gaetano I had a lovely and thought-provoking conversation with colleagues about how the word wisdom has become almost meaningless for many students today. Even some of our peers who are seeking or who have earned a Ph.D. degree do not really appreciate that this makes one a doctor philosophiae and that philosophia is… Read More The Search for Wisdom in Renaissance Theology
by Matthew Gaetano The Italian Renaissance tends to be overlooked in narratives of the history of theology. The leap from high and late medieval scholastics like Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, and Gabriel Biel to Martin Luther is common. Just a few years ago, even John O’Malley, after decades of effort to… Read More Renaissance Theology