Patristic Psychology

1. Patristic Psychology The Authority of Faith

2. Neoplatonism • Early Christian thought brought current religious thinking to Plato, Stoic and Aristotelian ideas thought • Reason greater than the senses, nature as law etc. • Although we describe much of the thinking as Platonic, there were noticeable differences • Fatalistic vs. optimistic • Introspective life vs. action and reform • Reason alone vs. nothing without faith • In general however, this melding and developing of earlier (and perhaps misunderstood) ideas was happening all over

3. Religious influences on the Roman Empire and early Christian thought • From Indian and Persian traditions, the role of the ecstatic state and struggle between good and evil • Smaller religions from near east promulgated secret rites, emphasis on death and renewal, purification, forgiveness of sins, and exaltation to new life. • From the Greeks, Stoic, Epicurean and Platonic philosophies • Judaism with one God with an interest in human affairs and a strict code of behavior for which one could be rewarded or punished.

4. Many cults at this time were competing for popularity It would be a mistake to say that Christianity is derivative of them, but some beliefs and/or practices were incorporated (thereby increasing its popularity) Early Christianity offered eternal life to the poor, redemption to the sinners, brotherhood to bickering states and in general an attractive alternative to many Mithraism: rival religion Mitras (Mithra,Mithras) Important deity for both Hindu and Zoroastorian religions, later, Mithraism became a Roman cult Son of God Defender of humanity from evil Some legends have immaculate birth Supposedly visited by shepherds and Magi Performed miracles of raising the dead, healing the sick, making the blind see, the lame walk, and casting out devils Before returning to heaven, had his Last Supper with his twelve disciples Birth celebrated on same day Mithra’s ascension to heaven celebrated during spring equinox (Easter) A comparison

5. Emperor Constantine • 272-337 • Had a vision of the cross that led to conversion • Made Christianity a tolerated religion in the Roman Empire • Edict of Milan • However there were many versions of Christianity which he sought to resolve, the eventual results Council of Nicaea were • Nicene Creed as a profession of faith • Official observance of Easter • God the Father and Jesus as equal • The New Testament

6. Philo • ~25 BCE to 50 CE • Actually pre-Christian, the “Jewish Plato” • Born in Egypt • “On the Account of the World’s Creation Given by Moses” • Dualistic notion regarding body (lesser) and soul (divine) • World resists God’s interaction, however he in a sense provides the form of the world by means of the logos (God’s creative power) • “For it is out of that essence that God created everything, without indeed touching it himself, for it was not lawful for the all-wise and all-blessed God to touch materials which were all misshapen and confused, but he created them by the agency of his incorporeal powers, of which the proper name is Ideas, which he so exerted that every genus received its proper form” • The logos as mediator between God and man

7. Philo • Like Plato, senses cannot provide knowledge, but added that sensory experience interferes with direct understanding of and communication with God. • All knowledge and wisdom comes from God, but soul must be purified and true knowledge can be attained only by purified, passive mind.

8. Jesus • Jesus (~6 BCE- 30 AD) • Early Christian thought best described as a meshing of Judeo-Christian traditions and Neoplatonism

9. Jesus • As was the case with many of the individuals discussed previously, we don’t have records from Jesus specifically, and according to current historical thinking the Gospels are not written by anyone with a direct association • Mark (disciple of Peter) seen as the earlier source (also based on other texts), Matthew and Luke as reproduction and elaboration of Mark (John came later) • Also, he’s not necessarily a philosopher in the sense of producing a formal doctrine on various topics, though the influence on those who would do so later is immense

10. Jesus • Taught knowledge of good and evil is revealed by God and should guide human conduct • Movement away from the Jewish God of ‘fire and brimstone’ to messages of forgiveness, salvation, faith, and benevolence • Focus on helping the downtrodden

11. Jesus • Sayings of Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas: • The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us how our end will be." Jesus said, "Have you discovered, then, the beginning, that you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience death." • Jesus said, "Love your brother like your soul, guard him like the pupil of your eye." • "If a blind man leads a blind man, they will both fall into a pit." • "Become passers-by." • "Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven." • "It is to those who are worthy of my mysteries that I tell my mysteries. Do not let your left (hand) know what your right (hand) is doing." • "It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there." • "You read the face of the sky and of the earth, but you have not recognized the one who is before you, and you do not know how to read this moment." • "Whoever finds the world and becomes rich, let him renounce the world."

12. St. Paul • St. Paul (~10 – 64) • Was out and about a persecutin’ when struck by a vision of Christ… which subsequently blinded him • Converted to Christianity and did much to spread its influence

13. St. Paul • Developed a combination of Judaic and Platonic philosophy with emphasis on faith rather than reason • Humans divided into three parts: body, mind, and spirit • Spirit was spark of God within us, thought spirit can become close to God • Body is source of evil • Mind is caught between body and spirit, sometimes serving the body, sometimes serving the spirit

14. St. Paul • Notion of original sin (maybe), that Jesus died for our sins • If we believe then we are saved from eternal damnation and will have eternal life • Actions are not going to get us there • Doctrine of the Holy Spirit on equal terms with God the Father, and Christ his son (Trinity) • Dwells within us upon conversion and serves as our link to God

15. Other Early Christian thinkers • Justin Martyr 110-165 • Platonist before conversion then skeptical toward all schools of philosophy as the Gospel was the only way to salvation • Clement of Alexandria d. ~215 • emphasizes the permanent importance of philosophy for the fullness of Christian knowledge, and criticizes those who are unwilling to make any use of philosophy • Mixture of Stoic and Platonic views • Origen 185-254 • Student of Clement • Extreme asceticism led to self-castration • Tertullian 160-230 • Extreme opposition to philosophy • Introduced the notion of the Trinity

16. Plotinus • ~205-270 • Distinguishes between Sensible vs. Intelligible worlds • Reality a continuum expanding outward in atemporally from a center which is the source of power and determines what is derived from it • At the surface is the material world • A person should strive to get back to the center or the One

17. Plotinus • The One is the first of three grades of reality, next is the Intellect, then the soul • The intellect emanates from the one and differentiates into a) the Platonic forms and b) individual minds • The soul is derived from the intellect and differentiates by being in all beings • In this sense the soul is a world-soul in all objects of existence • The One, is not a person, is unknowable but the aim is to identify with it

18. Plotinus • Plotinus associates life with desire, but in the highest life, the life of Intellect, where we find the highest form of desire, that desire is eternally satisfied by contemplation of the One • We must aspire to learn of world beyond the physical world – there, things are eternal, immutable, and in a state of bliss. • Matter, and thus body, is in a sense evil as it is the lack of what is good • The body is the soul’s prison, however, through intense meditation the souls of all humans can reach and dwell with the eternal and changeless • Plotinus supposedly achieved four times

19. St. Augustine • St. Augustine (354-420) • Combined Stoicism, Neoplatonism, Judaism, and Christianity into a powerful Christian world view that dominated Western life and thought for the next 800 years • Proposed a dualistic nature of man, body similar to animals and spirit close to or part of God. • These two opposing aspects became the Christian struggle between God and Satan for human souls

20. St. Augustine • The problem of knowledge • Si fallor, sum • If I err, I exist • Not so much a precursor to Descartes as an attack on the Skeptics • Essentially, a total skepticism is untenable, and so other attempts must be made to understand truth by other means • Ultimate truth is God, the ultimate goal of human will is to know God • Distinction of knowledge (of temporal things) vs. wisdom (knowledge of the eternal) • Mind allows us to recognize the divine • That knowledge is both illuminated by God while also a product of God (Plato’s sun) • We can come to know God through two means • the scriptures • through examination of one’s inner self – introspection.

21. St. Augustine • Plotinian view of the soul • Soul forms its own impressions based on bodily experience • Perception involves an activity on the part of the soul and is a function of the will • Active perception • Just as what we perceive is in part due to something ‘beyond’ us, so too is the knowledge sought • Ultimate knowledge is to know God. • Soul provides a means for understanding logical and mathematical, ‘eternal’, truths • Platonic forms as thoughts in the mind of God

22. St. Augustine • The Problem of Conduct and the Will • The starting point for Augustine is an egalitarian one • ‘All are created equal’ • No heaven in the Republic • All people have an internal sense that provides an awareness of truth, error, personal obligation, and moral right and this helps people evaluate experience and make choices. • Behavior is under internal control, not external events and consequences. • Nondeterministic • But if we’re all equal and with free will, how do we sin in the presence of an all-knowing and all-powerful God?

23. St. Augustine • Deny there’s a contradiction! • “God knows all things before they come to pass and that we do by our free will whatsoever we know and feel to be done by us only because we will it” • Essentially takes a soft-deterministic stance, i.e. freedom with in a predetermined situation • Yet God knows what will happen • Failure of the will is sin • The problem will not go away

24. St. Augustine • Time • Plotinian view • The One and all things emanating from it • No time except in the creation of the soul and life • Augustinian twist • God exists in eternity • How then is there a creation? The atemporal within the temporal? • Subjective element of time • Time cannot be physically measured, but occurs in the mind. • Time experience depends on sensory experience and the memory of sensory experience. • The past is the presence in the mind of things remembered and the future is the present anticipation of events based on the memory of past experience.

25. St. Augustine • Thus as far as creation is concerned, there really wasn’t one • God has always existed, the creation out of nothing is a human understanding • How then do things develop? • World is created in such a way that the seeds for continued development are present • Recall the Stoic seminal principles/causes • A deterministic point of view, though Augustine believed in free will, that although our nature is to seek God, we can choose not to

26. The Patristic Legacy • Concept of man (above all other creatures) and his purpose left out the possibility of an evolutionary perspective and discouraged scientific explanation regarding questions of human knowledge, conduct or will • Individual responsibility • Psycho-physical dualism • Daily life and experience as trivial, authority of scripture led to a pronounced anti-intellectualism • A rationalism toward discover the truth of God