From the Ancient World to the Age of Enlightenment (Christianity and Western Thought, vol. 1)

by Colin Brown

Publisher:

IVP Academic

, 1990

Overview

From Socrates and the Sophists to Kant, from Augustine to Aquinas and the Reformers, Colin Brown traces the turbulent, often tension-filled, always fascinating story of the thinkers, ideas and movements that have shaped our intellectual landscape. Is philosophy the "handmaiden of faith" or "the doctrine of demons"? Does it clarify the faith or undermine the very heart of Christian belief?

Brown writes, "This book is about the changes in preconceptions, world views and paradigms that have affected the ways in which people have thought about religion in general and Christianity in particular in the Western world. . . . It is a historical sketch, written to help students--and anyone else who might be interested--to get a better grasp of the love-hate relationship between philosophy and faith that has gone on for close to two thousand years."

Students, pastors and thoughtful Christians will benefit from this rich resource. The first in a three-volume work, Brown's easy-to-read, hard-to-put-down introduction to Christianity and Western thought focuses on developments from the ancient world to the Age of Enlightenment.

Key Features

• Introduces an overall picture of the philosophical traditions
• Focuses on developments from the ancient world to the Age of Enlightenment
• Helps to get a better grasp of the love-hate relationship between philosophy and faith

Contents

Philosophy in the Ancient World

• Socrates and Pre-Socratic Philosophy
• Plato's Vision of Reality
• Aristotle and the Physical World
• Epicureans, Stoics, Skeptics and Cynics
• From Greeks to Gospel

From Church Fathers to Medieval Scholastics

• Philosophy and the Church Fathers
• Early Medieval Philosophy
• Aquinas and Later Medieval Philosophy

From the Reformation to the Age of Enlightenment

• Philosophy and the Reformers
• Old Questions and New Crises
• The Age of Rationalism
• Rational Religion and the Era of Deism
• The Rise of British Empiricism
• The Skeptical Empiricism of Hume
• Scottish Common Sense and Early American Philosophy
• Enlightenment and Skepticism in France
• Enlightenment and Skepticism in Germany
• Retrospect and Prospect

Praise for Christianity and Western Thought

An excellent textbook for introductory courses in philosophy and theology.

—Christianity Today

Written in remarkably clear and helpful style, [Christianity Western Thought] will be an invaluable aid to the reader who wants simply to obtain an overall picture of the philosophical traditions which have fed into and interacted with Christianity over the centuries.

—The Evangelical Quarterly

A positive contribution to a Christian understanding of the history of ideas.

—Southwestern Journal of Theology

A remarkable tour de force done with admirable comprehension and an amazing knowledge of the secondary literature relating to these thinkers.

ADRIS Newsletter

Product Details

• Title: Christianity and Western Thought: From the Ancient World to the Age of Enlightenment, Volume One
• Author: Colin Brown
• Series: Christianity and Western Thought Series
• Volume: 1
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Print Publication Date: 1990
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Pages: 447
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Christianity › Philosophy; Faith and reason › History of doctrines; Philosophy › History
• ISBNs: 0830817522, 9780830817528
• Resource ID: LLS:CHRSTNTYNLGHT01
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-20T23:52:14Z

About Colin Brown

Colin Brown was professor emeritus of systematic theology at Fuller. Prior to teaching at Fuller, he taught at other institutions in the United States, Germany, Canada, and his native England. He was ordained as a priest in the Church of England in 1958, and later became a U.S. citizen in 1986 and a priest of the Episcopal Church, canonically resident in the Diocese of Los Angeles.

Brown was the founding Associate Dean of the Center for Advanced theological Studies in Fuller’s School of Theology. In addition to core courses on systematic theology, he also taught advanced seminars on theological method, the politics of Jesus, and contemporary Christology.

Brown was the editor of The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (1986), and author of many books, including Karl Barth and the Christian Message (1999), Miracles and the Critical Mind (1984, winner of the Evangelical Booksellers’ Award, reprint 2006), Jesus in European Protestant Thought (1985, reprint 2008), and the first volume of the Christianity and Western Thought series (1990, and recently published in Chinese by the Peking University Press). In addition to Chinese, his books have also been translated into French, Portuguese, Romanian, Italian, and Korean. Brown was affiliated with the Tyndale Fellowship, American Academy of Religion, Society of Biblical Literature, Society of Christian Philosophers, and the Institute for Biblical Research.