Talk:Christianity and Ancient Greek philosophy

I have a couple of general suggestions to make:
 * this article should be renamed "Hellenic philosophy and Christianity". That would broaden its scope to also include the influence of Christianity on Hellenic philosophy; it makes sense to discuss both directions of influence within the same article.
 * include the influence of Hellenic philosophy on various heresies which the Church rejected. In rejecting some heresies, the Church was also rejecting more extreme influences of platonism.

And of course Judaism itself was already Hellenized when Jesus was born. In the first century, the Jewish scriptures were much more often read in Greek rather than Hebrew both in the Diaspora and in Palestine itself. This article makes it sound like Hellenic influence didn't really start until the fourth century when Christianity was legalized. Wesley 03:59, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * i agree with the title change -- beyond that, sounds like you have some expertise i lack -- would you be willing to expand the article? Ungtss 05:05, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Inaccurate to say Christianity originated in Judah
Whereas it's fair to say that Jesus of Nazareth lived in Israel/Judah, the best scholarship indicates that Christianity as we know it really got its start in Alexandria, Egypt and Antioch, Turkey, the region where Paul was from.

Improvements
Please comment on the following clarifications and enhancements to your article (a number of key words need hypertext links to appropriate Wikipedia pages). Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Davalden (talk • contribs) 14:52, September 1, 2006 (UTC)

Introduction
1 - ..., particularly the first four or five centuries C.E.

2 - Christianity (i.e. belief that Jeshua [Jesus] of Nazareth fulfilled the ancient Hebrew messianic prophesies which were the hope of Israel as a nation) originated in Judah, an Aramaic speaking Jewish culture with traditions and modes of thought distinct from Classical Greek thought dominant in the Roman Empire at the time and during the following centuries. However, as a result of the conquest of Alexander the Great and the subsequent Selucid Empire, Judea itself was already Hellenized along with the rest of Western civilization by the First Century and the "Hebrew Bible" most commonly used was in fact a Greek translation (i.e. the Septuagint). By the First Century, the Greek language had become the nearly universal means by which the broad variety of peoples under Roman control carried on daily life and commerse. It was during this time that Philo of Alexandria attempted to formally integrate Greek philosophy with First Century Jewish religion.

3 - The conflict between these two distinct modes of thought is recorded in the apocryphal books of Macabees, the Talmud and in the New Testament writings of Saul of Tarsus (a.k.a Paul) among other ancient texts and resistence to Greek culture and ideas were heroically championed in First Century Judaism by the party of the Pharasees of which Paul was a part. Examples include: Paul's encounter with Epicurian and Stoic philosophers recorded in Acts [1], his diatribe against Greek philosophy in 1st Corinthians [2], and his warning against philosophy in Colossians 2:8 [3].

5 - One of a number of influential early Christian writers of the centuries following the First Century C.E., Clement of Alexandria, ...

Section 1 (Hebrew versus Greek thought regarding God)
2 - ..., Hebrews along with early Christians ...

4 - ... the ideals of every object in the physical world, ... Platonic philosophers theorized about the Forms by ... "Perfect" man might be.

Section 2 (Geocentrism)
Aristotelian geo-centrism, adopted and enhanced by Ptolemy in the early 2nd century C.E., held that the Earth was the center of the universe, and the sun, moon and stars revolved around the Earth. Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament Hebrew scriptures systematically describe a geocentric model of the universe, although many passages mention, in passing, that the sun and stars move in the heavens as would be apparent to any Earth-bound observer at the time, and include metaphorical descriptions of the stars "declaring the glory of God." Nowhere do the canonical scriptures purport to be an astrophysics text. However, ... a great deal of Greek "science". It ... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Davalden (talk • contribs) 14:52, September 1, 2006 (UTC)

pope
It might be worth mentioning that Pope Benedict XVI last year, in a speech that was controversial for other reasons, strongly defended the influence of Hellenic thought on Christianity. --Delirium 02:35, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Other influences
Can we mention the other influences on Christianity? Like the belief in eternal damnation, inferiority of women, asceticism, and the like? SorcererCallandira2 (talk) 02:51, 2 January 2013 (UTC)SorcererCallandira2