The Scriptures often exhort us to seek, attain, and cherish wisdom—i.e. to cultivate a true philo-sophia, “love of wisdom.” In cultivating that love of wisdom, the Church has not limited itself to Scripture or other Christian writings, but has also engaged with non-Christian philosophers. The earliest Church Fathers both critiqued the dominant philosophical schools of the Greco-Roman world and appropriated many key philosophical terms, concepts, and frameworks into their theological writings, resulting in many aspects of classical pagan philosophy being embedded—albeit in a purified or “baptized” form—in Orthodox Christian doctrine, theology, and spirituality.
This course introduces students to the study of philosophy and to the Church’s rich philosophical inheritance, with an eye to preparing them for further theological or philosophical study. Potential topics include: substance and accident; nature, form, matter, and immateriality; essence and energeia; hypostasis and person; soul, body, and immortality; naturalism and teleology; forms of knowledge; virtues and the passions; freedom, will, and choice; and the transcendentals of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Students will read, discuss, and engage with selections from a variety of philosophical sources, both Christian (e.g. St. Augustine, St. John of Damascus) and non-Christian (e.g. Plato, Aristotle).
Required Materials: None; all readings will be provided for free by the instructor
