School of thought
Patristics
Tradition
Classification
- Period
- c. 100-750 CE
- Regions
- Europe (origin), Middle East (origin), Africa
- Domains
- Epistemology, Philosophy of Religion
Overview
Patristic philosophy encompasses the thought of the Church Fathers, who drew on Greek philosophy in working out Christian theology. Augustine of Hippo, the most influential figure, developed profound analyses of time, memory, evil, free will, and the relationship between faith and reason that shaped Western thought for a millennium.
Key ideas
- Faith Seeking Understanding: Augustine established the model: faith precedes but does not exclude reason. Philosophy serves theology, and the tools of Greek thought illuminate Christian doctrine.
- The Problem of Evil: Evil is not a positive substance but a privation of good (privatio boni). God permits evil because free will — which makes genuine love possible — also makes sin possible.
- Divine Illumination: Just as the sun enables sight, God illuminates the mind to grasp eternal truths. Human knowledge ultimately depends on divine light.
Key figures
Augustine of Hippo · Origen · Basil of Caesarea · Gregory of Nyssa · John Chrysostom
Methods used
Positions held
- Theism
Question scope: The Existence of God
Influenced by
- Neoplatonism
The engagement is that of the later Fathers, Augustine above all: Confessions VII.9 records that the books of the Platonists, read in Latin translation, taught him to conceive God as incorporeal and gave him the eternal Word, though not the Incarnation.
- Stoicism
- Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrian eschatology, cosmic dualism, and angelology may have shaped early Christian thought through centuries of Persian–Jewish contact.
Uncertain: The extent of direct Zoroastrian influence is contested; the parallels may reflect a shared Near Eastern milieu rather than borrowing.
Later connections
- Medieval Mysticism Influenced by this tradition
- Scholasticism Influenced by this tradition
References
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Augustine
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Origen, §1 'Origen's Life and Work' (Origen settled at Caesarea in Palestine, where he completed his major commentaries and where his library passed to Pamphilus and Eusebius), the Palestinian centre recorded under the middle-east region
- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Gregory of Nyssa, introduction and §1 (Gregory spent his life in Cappadocia, in central Asia Minor, and with his brother Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus made up the three Cappadocians, credited with defining Christian orthodoxy in the Eastern Roman Empire), the Cappadocian centre recorded under the middle-east region
- The Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers (2021), ch. 1; Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History III.15–16, III.36 — Formation: around 100 the tradition already included Clement's church at Rome and Ignatius's church at Antioch.
- Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will, Book II (argument for the existence of God)
- Augustine, Confessions VII.9 (the books of the Platonists)
- Marcia Colish, The Stoic Tradition from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages (Brill, 1985)
- Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (Routledge, 1979)
- Augustine, De doctrina christiana, III (rules for interpreting scripture)
- Confessions — Augustine
- City of God — Augustine
- On First Principles — Origen