Preliminary Remarks: Patristic Philosophy

Preliminary Remarks

Philosophy is a continuous growth until it has reached the perfection of maturity. New systems of philosophy are, therefore, never wholly new; they are built upon the achievements of the past.

The philosophy of pagan times furnishes the foundation upon which the philosophical systems of Christian times were built.

Now the coming of the Religion of Jesus Christ was a tremendous occurrence in the world of thought. Upon all philosophies it had an enormous influence; in many it was a revolution. Christianity, while contributing immeasurably to the development of the true philosophy by reason of the new and steady light which it threw upon the pathway of the earnest thinker, was set for the fall of many philosophies, just as its Divine Founder was set for the fall of many in Israel. Its coming marked the time for men and minds to get in line with truth. That many have refused to hear the summons of the time—and still refuse—is only an evidence of a truth too obvious to need special evidence: that man has free-will, and is often wilful; in the good and bad sense the advent of Christianity showed that man has a will of his own. But just as sincere pagans groped for truth before the coming of Our Lord and His deathless Church, so pagan philosophies groped for truth. Pagans and pagan philosophies had sometimes come near to truth, had sometimes grasped it in part. Now that Christ had come, the sincere pagan had need to grope no longer, for the fullness of religious truth came to him and offered him its certitude, and he was no longer a pagan when he accepted it. And sincere pagan philosophy, freed from the baffling questions of origins in the world and of purpose in human life—things inevitably bound up with religion— was moved by a powerful influence of development, and began a steady growth towards maturity. Henceforth philosophy was to have a guide in the certainty of religious knowledge, a guide of which true philosophy took immediate advantage, but which false philosophies refused, as they continue in the present age to refuse, to recognize or employ.

In early Christian times some philosophers subordinated the Christian Revelation to pagan science, and these developed heretical systems of philosophy. Other Christians made proper use of their philosophic heritage, and employed its principles as the basis of their expositions of revealed truth. These orthodox writers are called “Fathers of the Church.” The Fathers are theologians rather than philosophers, yet, for two reasons, some of them must be given a place in the History of Philosophy. First, these men made an earnest study of philosophy to equip themselves for the task of controverting such heresies as had a philosophic cast. The Fathers whose chief effort was the refutation of heresy by a clear exposition of the reasonableness of Christian Faith are known in religious history as “Apologists.” Again, the Fathers cultivated philosophy that they might use it as a scientific instrument in the investigation and elaboration of revealed truth. Thus many of the Fathers of the Church were true philosophers, philosophers whose influence upon contemporary and subsequent thought was far from negligible. We include, therefore, the more notable of these theologian-philosophers in the History of Philosophy.

The first Chapter of the present Book deals with the heretical systems of philosophy, or rather the heretical religious systems of a philosophical character; and with the Fathers (Apologists) whose work was the refutation of heresy. The second Chapter treats of those Fathers who made positive and constructive advance in the development of theology and philosophy.

Because the more notable of the philosophers here discussed were Fathers (Patres) of the Church, the present Book is called a history of Patristic philosophy.

The Chapters to follow are: