This unit explores the philosophical underpinnings of some key theological turns in Christian history. Variants of Platonism provide the background against which the Hellenistic elements in the New Testament can be interpreted; subsequent Platonist developments inform Augustine’s thought, and thereby, much later, Luther’s. Similarly, Aristotle sets the scene for Thomas Aquinas; Kant for Schleiermacher and the nineteenth century liberal theologians; Hegel, in a different way, for Kierkegaard and Barth; Heidegger for Bultmann and Rahner. The unit gives the student an engagement with the philosophers concerned, both in their own right and as they provide a background for scriptural and theological contemporaries and successors.
