Aristotle on Religion

Aristotle on Religion
Author: Mor Segev
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2017-11-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1108415253

Provides a comprehensive account of the socio-political role Aristotle attributes to traditional religion, despite rejecting its content.

Aristotle and the Theology of the Living Immortals

Aristotle and the Theology of the Living Immortals
Author: Richard Bodeus
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2000-09-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780791447284

This book argues that Aristotle used "the most traditional Greek ideas about the gods" to develop and defend his physical, metaphysical, and ethical teachings. This revolutionary thesis stands in stark contrast to studies of Aristotle's texts that normally portray him as a "natural theologian" using rational tools to elaborate his own conception of God or the gods. Bodeus argues that Aristotle is more closely aligned with popular Greek religion than is usually thought, and attention to the ethical and political writings reveals more about Aristotle's resources for conceiving the gods than study of his theoretical works.

Aristotle and Early Christian Thought

Aristotle and Early Christian Thought
Author: Mark Edwards
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2019-03-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1315520192

In studies of early Christian thought, ‘philosophy’ is often a synonym for ‘Platonism’, or at most for ‘Platonism and Stoicism’. Nevertheless, it was Aristotle who, from the sixth century AD to the Italian Renaissance, was the dominant Greek voice in Christian, Muslim and Jewish philosophy. Aristotle and Early Christian Thought is the first book in English to give a synoptic account of the slow appropriation of Aristotelian thought in the Christian world from the second to the sixth century. Concentrating on the great theological topics – creation, the soul, the Trinity, and Christology – it makes full use of modern scholarship on the Peripatetic tradition after Aristotle, explaining the significance of Neoplatonism as a mediator of Aristotelian logic. While stressing the fidelity of Christian thinkers to biblical presuppositions which were not shared by the Greek schools, it also describes their attempts to overcome the pagan objections to biblical teachings by a consistent use of Aristotelian principles, and it follows their application of these principles to matters which lay outside the purview of Aristotle himself. This volume offers a valuable study not only for students of Christian theology in its formative years, but also for anyone seeking an introduction to the thought of Aristotle and its developments in Late Antiquity.

Cicero on the Philosophy of Religion

Cicero on the Philosophy of Religion
Author: J. P. F. Wynne
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2019-10-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107070481

Do the gods love you? Cicero gives deep and surprising answers in two philosophical dialogues on traditional Roman religion.

Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy

Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy
Author: Jon Mikalson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2010-06-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199577838

A study of how Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek philosophers described, interpreted, criticized, and utilized the components and concepts of the religion of the people of their time. These include practices such as sacrifice, prayer, dedications, and divination, and the governing concepts of piety and impiety.

Aristotle on Religion

Aristotle on Religion
Author: Mor Segev
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2017-11-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1108248012

Aristotle is a severe critic of traditional religion, believing it to be false, yet he also holds that traditional religion and its institutions are necessary if any city, including the ideal city he describes in the Politics, is to exist and flourish. This book provides, for the first time, a coherent account of the socio-political role which Aristotle attributes to traditional religion despite his rejection of its content. Mor Segev argues that Aristotle thinks traditional religion is politically necessary because it prepares the ground for what he considers the pinnacle of human endeavor: attaining the knowledge of first philosophy, whose objects are real beings worthy of being called gods. Developing this interpretation, Segev goes on to analyze Aristotle's references to the myths of traditional Greek religion, and to assess his influence on medieval Jewish and Christian theology and philosophy of religion.

Aristotle's Best Regime

Aristotle's Best Regime
Author: Jeff Chuska
Publisher: University Press of America
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2000
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780761817062

Aristotle in his Politics devotes a large portion to his theory of the best regime. Renewed interest in this idea, along with scholarly disagreements on what Aristotle says, make this reading an important contribution to classical political studies. Chuska's approach is a defense of Aristotle's theory, showing it to be necessary and helpful, despite controversy over his purportedly narrow-minded discussions of non-Greeks. Relying on the text of Politics as well as Greek history and other works by Aristotle, Chuska expands on the theory of the best city.

Heidegger and Aristotle

Heidegger and Aristotle
Author: Ted Sadler
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2000-12-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1847142478

Heidegger's critique of Western philosophy centers around his interpretation of Aristotle. Yet, hitherto, there has been no attempt to reconstruct the relation betwen these two thinkers, a major interpretative task for which "Heidegger and Aristotle" provides an initial orientation. Dr. Sadler focuses upon the 'question of being' and shows how their respective responses to this question ramify over the whole field of their philosophical thought.

Aristotle and the Theology of the Living Immortals

Aristotle and the Theology of the Living Immortals
Author: Richard Bodeus
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2000-09-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0791491846

This book argues that Aristotle used "the most traditional Greek ideas about the gods" to develop and defend his physical, metaphysical, and ethical teachings. This revolutionary thesis stands in stark contrast to studies of Aristotle's texts that normally portray him as a "natural theologian" using rational tools to elaborate his own conception of God or the gods. Bodeus argues that Aristotle is more closely aligned with popular Greek religion than is usually thought, and attention to the ethical and political writings reveals more about Aristotle's resources for conceiving the gods than study of his theoretical works. For Bodeus, Aristotle was a refined polytheist who held that the gods were living immortals and that one could attribute to them wisdom, goodness, and benevolent concern for human beings. The author's approach is at odds with the dominant interpretation, which holds that Aristotle's unmoved mover presents his true view of God. This leads to the argument that the philosopher's apparent endorsements of popular religious ideas should be taken seriously and that his inquiries about the unmoved mover belong strictly to theoretical philosophy, which is unable to study the gods. From this novel perspective, many of Aristotle's texts appear in a new light.