There were different schools of thought that existed in the Old Testament with different methods. The Pharisees, Sadducees, the Erodian schools of thought, etc. All these schools of thought were different though they had similarities.
All of them existed during the dispensation of the law. They used different strategies to enable people to have a relationship with their creator. These different schools of thought were not good enough to influence humans to have a relationship with their creator.
God initiated another plan for humanity. He sent a messenger called John the Baptist. He came with a different thought, a different idea called the kingdom of God. All that he was teaching was about the kingdom of God.
When Christ came, he look around all the different schools of thought that existed he preferred that of John the Baptist because he taught original and that is why Christ said there is no teacher greater than my teacher John.
In mat 4:17 when Christ began his ministry he taught the same message as his teacher John. Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. What you must note is that there are good and bad schools of thought.
Any school of thought that would not influence believers to have a relationship with their God is a wrong and bad school of thought. The problem we have today is much more serious than in the olden days because many Christians have mistaken the different schools of thought for the kingdom of God.
What we call churches today are schools of thought with different methods. E.g Catholicism, Protestantism, Pentecostalism, etc. The end result of their work is to enable humans to have a relationship with God.
Therefore their mission is to influence Christians to enter into the kingdom of God through the new birth and becomes part of the church. What you must note is that there is only one church of Christ and to have access to it is only through the new birth.
Today we are in the dispensation of Grace but still difficult for humans to meet God. I was so concerned about why people are in the house of God for so long but there is no change in them. I began to cry to God and I was given an understanding of why things are like this.
In Hosea 4:6 he said my people perish for lack of knowledge. According to the wisdom of this bible verse, you will understand that the prophet Hosea was also worried as to why the house of Israel was not changing.
God told him their problem was that of knowledge. This knowledge the bible is talking about is the knowledge of the truth. Remember the scriptures states in Jn 8:32 that when you know the truth, the truth will set you free.
There are three kinds of truth sense truth, revelation truth, and perfect truth. Since truth is based on facts (education, skills, etc). Any man whose revelation about God comes from education is a channel of destruction.
Education is to empower us and not to reveal God to us. Revelation truth is what reveals God to us, our purpose, potential, and direction in life. Another reason is that some who follow the right path are never patient enough to obtain the promise.
Because they want fame, money, etc they go before their time. There is a problem God destined you to solve on earth. There must be a method, a pattern on how to solve this problem.
What you must note is that any problem you are destined to solve must have a plan on how to do it. God told Noah to build the Act of the covenant according to the plan that was shown to him.
He told Moses to construct the tabernacle according to the plan that was revealed to him on the mountain.
NASSAR AFRICAN ACADEMY is a Christian philosophical movement or school of freedom. The word Philosophy comes from two Greek words philo which means love and Sophia which means wisdom.
Therefore philosophy is the love of wisdom. Love in this context is a strong desire for an object or something and wisdom is the correct application of knowledge. In this context philosophy is defined as the strong desire for a human person to acquire knowledge and use it correctly.
Philosophers don’t agree with only one definition of philosophy. Philosophy is also defined as the systematic and critical study of the fundamental questions that arises both in everyday life and through the practice of other disciplines.
It is the study of the nature and meaning of the universe and of human life. OR Philosophy is the science that deals with man’s relationship to existence.
Philosophy, at its best, is the study of rational arguments about what matters most – the nature of reality and how to live wisely in light of that reality. More broadly understood, it is the study of the most basic and profound matters of human existence.
However, philosophy has a bad name for many Christians, and many shun it. Part of this aversion is due to a misunderstanding of what the Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians. In the course of warning about and exposing false teaching, Paul writes:
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ (Col 2:8).
Notice that Paul is writing of a ‘’false and deceptive philosophy’’ Paul targets a particular philosophy that denied the gospel. There is still plenty of false philosophy about, whether it is atheism, polytheism, Gnosticism etc. (which is like what Paul warned about).
Paul was not downgrading the use of the intellect in understanding truths, defending the gospel, or evaluating doctrinal positions.
When Paul spoke to the philosophers at Athens, he displayed a knowledge of their philosophy, its rational weaknesses, and the superiority of the Christian philosophy of life (Act 17:16-34). An audience of philosophers is a tough crowd, but Paul won over several significant listeners.
Furthermore Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love God with our hearts, Soul, Strength and Mind (Mat 22:37-39). He demonstrated his philosophical abilities in his many rational disputes with the religious leaders of his day.
Politics crackled in the air in Jesus day, because the Jews were under the sword of Roman rule. How should a Jew, who worshiped God and believed God had favoured the Jews, respond to pagan Caesar?
Some asked him ‘’Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Jesus faced a dilemma. If He denounced tax * paying, he might be seen as a dangerous insurrectionist. If Jesus affirmed paying taxes, He would be viewed as selling out to an ungodly power instead of honouring God.
Jesus asked for the coin used to pay the tax. He asked, ‘’whose portrait is this? And whose inscription? ‘’His questioners replied that it was Caesar’s, Jesus then said, ‘’Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s’’ He found a smart way to escape a moral dilemma.
He gives place to the rule of Caesar under God without making Caesar God, when Jesus differentiates Caesar from God, He stripe Caesar of his supposed deity without issuing a call for anarchy.
Philosophy program promotes the development of the person as an individual and as meaningful, contributor to society but today it is abstract, theoretical and detached from life, it is just one academic subject among others.
According to Pierre Hadot a French philosopher he argues that in the ancient Greco – Roman world philosophy was quite different from the philosophy that is studied in schools today. He said philosophy was a way of life and not merely a subject of study.
It was considered an art of living, a practice aimed at relieving suffering and shaping and remaking the self, according to an ideal of wisdom. The lesson of ancient philosophy was an invitation for all human beings to transform themselves.
Philosophy is transformation of one’s way of being and living and a quest for wisdom. Philosophy is a practice of what Hadot calls spiritual exercises that brings about self – transformation and makes philosophy a way of life.
Each school had their own sets of spiritual exercises that corresponded to their respective ideals of wisdom. Some of these spiritual exercises included self – examination, reading, writing, research, dialogue, meditation, and memorization of the principle of the school.
The Epicureans, Skeptics and the Stoics all believed that philosophy is to treat and relieve human suffering. Philosophy was viewed as analogous to medicine and the philosopher was seen as the physician of the soul who cured us of false beliefs, irrational fears, and empty desires.
They believed that the passions or emotions are the principal sources of our suffering and unhappiness. Without philosophy, disorder, worries, fears and unrest rules our soul. Unless the soul is cured, which cannot be done without philosophy, there will be no end to our miseries.
Therefore philosophy thus appears as a therapeutic method linked to a profound transformation of the individual’s mode of seeing and being. All forms of philosophical therapy attempt to improve (self) knowledge and as a consequence gain more freedom of choice.
Inner freedom can be restricted by uncontrol desires (emotions and passions) as well as the (unconscious) suppression of desires.
The topic of exactly when and where philosophy first began to develop is still debated, but the simplest answer is that it would have begun – at any place in the distant past – the first time someone asked why they were born, what their purpose was, and how they were supposed to understand their lives.
The term philosophy may apply to a formalized secular or religious system of thought, a personal construct, or a communal understanding of proper attitude and conduct, but in each case, the purpose of the system is to answer such questions.
Philosophical systems are thought to have developed first in the East, and a working outline proceeds from Mesopotamia to Rome and continue in Europe during the Middle Ages (c. 476-1500 CE), primarily focused on Christian teachings, and would develop further during the Renaissance in the West.
In the East, Islamic scholars after the 7th century CE as well as those of other faiths continued to develop their own systems. Philosophical schools have continued on this same trajectory up through the modern day as people continue to ask the same fundamental questions as their ancient ancestors and work to develop systems of thought to answer them.
A philosophical system may develop independently but usually is a response to religion; when religion fails to fully answer a people’s questions or address their needs, the people turn to philosophy.
People’s existential questions traditionally have been answered by the development of religious systems which assured them of the existence of supernatural entities (gods, divine spirits, one’s departed ancestors) who created them, cared for them, and watched over them.
These belief structures, institutionalized as part of a culture, work to form a cohesive cultural understanding of one’s place in the world and the philosophies which developed in response to that understanding either sought to explain it more clearly or replace it with a new paradigm.
Although it is impossible to determine, it seems probable that philosophy was already established in Egypt by c. 4000 BCE, the date depictions of gods and the afterlife of the Field of Reeds first begin appearing on tomb walls.
It developed in Mesopotamia at some point before the time The Epic of Gilgamesh was committed to writing between c. 2150-1400 BCE. In India, philosophy develops during the Vedic Period between c. 1500 – c. 500 BCE with the Upanishads.
At about the same time, Zoroaster (c. 1500-1000 BCE) was developing his philosophic vision in ancient Persia while, in China, philosophy is first committed to writing during the time of the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE) and later developed during the Spring and Autumn Period (c. 772-476 BCE) and the Warring States Period (c. 481-221 BCE) in the time associated with the Hundred Schools of Thought.Top of FormBottom of Form
Philosophy in the West begins in the Ionian Greek colonies of Asia Minor with Thales of Miletus (l. c. 585 BCE) who inspired the later writers known as the Pre-Socratic philosophers whose ideas would then inform and influence the iconic works of Plato (l. 428/427-348/347 BCE) and his student Aristotle of Stagira (l. 384-322 BCE) which form the foundation of Western philosophical thought.
Roman philosophy developed from the Greek after the arrival in the city of Diogenes of Babylon (l. c. 230 – c. 140 BCE) in 155 BCE, a stoic philosopher from the Athenian school founded by Zeno of Citium (l. c. 336-265 BCE) whose system was inspired by Socrates.
Stoicism would afterwards become the most popular philosophical system in Rome and inform aspects of Christian philosophical systems which came later.
The earliest philosophical system seems to have developed in Egypt as a response to the religious vision of a paradise after death known as the Field of Reeds, a mirror image of one’s life on earth, where the souls of the justified dead would live eternally.
The question which seems to have inspired Egyptian philosophy is how one should live in order to ensure a place in this paradise. Evidence of the development of an answer to this question comes from tomb paintings c. 4000 BCE instructing people on where they came from, why they existed, and how to live well and attain paradise.
Egyptian philosophy developed the concept of ma’at (harmony and balance) as the central value by which one could live the best life and be assured of paradise but then addressed itself to the aspects of the soul, the concept of immortality, the possibility of reincarnation, and the nature of the divine.
In Mesopotamia, the people understood themselves as co-workers with the gods. As in Egypt, the gods had created humanity and humans owed them a debt of gratitude which was paid through worship and proper behavior.
In keeping with other ancient religious systems, the Mesopotamians understood their gods as operating on a quid pro quo (“this for that”) basis, which worked well as long as the individual felt the agreement was being honored, but when it seemed to fail, one naturally questioned its validity, and this sort of existential crisis inspires philosophical inquiry.
This situation is illustrated in The Epic of Gilgamesh in which Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, loses his best friend, Enkidu and embarks on a quest to find an escape from inevitable death.
His story has been interpreted as a parable of philosophical development in that there is no evidence that Gilgamesh questions his relationship with the gods until the death of Enkidu which requires answers his religious beliefs cannot provide.
In India, philosophy developed in response to the Vedas, the scriptures of Hinduism (known as Sanatan Dharma, “Eternal Order”, to adherents), in the form of the Upanishads (the earliest written c. 800-500 BCE). The Vedas were understood as the emanations of the Universe, the literal words of God, and the Upanishads were composed to clarify and explain aspects of this message.
Around 600 BCE, a social and religious reform movement in the region resulted in the development of other philosophical systems which rejected orthodox Hinduism.
These included the materialist school of Charvaka (c. 600 BCE), the system of Jainism (formulated by Mahavira/Vardhamana, l. c. 599-527 BCE), and Buddhism (founded by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, l. c. 563 – c. 483 BCE).
Although Jainism and Buddhism would later take on religious dimensions, they were originally philosophical schools of thought, although it should be noted there was no distinction between “religious” and “philosophical” thought in Asia at that time nor is there in the present.
Persian philosophy was almost certainly already developed before c. 1500 BCE as evidenced by the Avesta (Zoroastrian scriptures) which draws on concepts from the polytheistic Early Iranian Religion.
Zoroaster conceived of a new religious paradigm of a single god, Ahura Mazda, creator and sustainer of the universe, whose supernatural adversary was Angra Mainyu (also known as Ahriman), the lord of darkness and chaos.
The question left unanswered by Zoroaster’s construct, however, was the source of evil and suffering in the world since Ahriman was understood as a created being and Ahura Mazda, who had no evil in him, as the source of all creation.
This problem encouraged the development of the philosophical school of Zorvanism, sometime in the late Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE) which claimed Zorvan, god of Infinite Time, created both Ahura Mazda and Ahriman and these two brother-deities were locked in an eternal struggle which human beings had no choice but to take sides in.
One’s purpose in life was the exercise of free will in deciding to devote one’s self to the cause of good or evil.
Chinese philosophy was initially a response to social disorder as well as the failure of religious belief to explain the world & reassure people of a divine plan. The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China were times of chaos as the Zhou Dynasty was declining, and Chinese philosophy was developed in response to this disorder. The early texts of Confucianism are thought to have been composed during the Zhou Dynasty and later developed by the sage Confucius (l. 551-479 BCE). Confucianism was only one belief structure of many which developed during this time referred to as the Hundred Schools of Thought and which included many others including Taoism (founded by Lao Tzu c. 500 BCE) and Legalism (founded by Han Feizi, l. c. 280-233 BCE).
These schools, and the many others, differed from each other significantly but were all an attempt to establish order in a time of chaos. The traditional understanding of Tian (heaven) as maintaining order through a mandate which legitimized a monarch’s rule could no longer be sustained as the monarchs of different states fought each other for supremacy.
Chinese philosophy, then, was initially a response to social disorder as well as the failure of religious belief to explain the world and reassure people of a divine plan.
Greek philosophy began in the 6th century BCE with Thales of Miletus who initiated it with the question “What is the basic ‘stuff’ of the universe?” (Ancient Philosophy, 8). Thales’ inquiry seems an anomaly because of the religious beliefs of his time which seem to have been meeting the needs of the people.
Ancient Greek religion held that the gods had created the world and human beings and, as with other world religions of the time, questioning this basic premise was not appreciated nor encouraged.
Thales seems to have avoided problems with the religious authorities by never denying the existence of gods, but this does not explain his initial impulse. Scholars suggest that, since he studied at Babylon, he most likely drew on Mesopotamian and Egyptian philosophies in formulating his own.
Thales established the Milesian School, considered the first philosophical school in the West, and was followed by Anaximander (l. c. 610 – c. 546 BCE) and Anaximenes (l. c. 546 BCE) who rejected Thales’ claim that the First Cause was water and suggested their own.
Philosophical thought then developed through the efforts of the other Pre-Socratic philosophers, finally culminating in the works of Plato and then of Aristotle. Later thinkers, notably Plotinus (l. c. 202-274 CE), would develop these concepts further in establishing the foundation of Western Philosophy.
There are many different aspects to freedom. Personal freedom which gives us the ability to make choices in life, structural and systematic freedom which connect between personal dimensions of freedom, such as external liberty, the ability to act on the basis of one’s intentions,
choice between live options, and creativity, and social dimensions of freedom, it becomes a matter of experience and empirical investigation to determine in specific circumstance whether, in what senses, and to what degree a person or society is free.
To distinguish and to relate these senses of freedom, a broad philosophical perspective is required. The functional philosophical cosmology shows how all the senses of freedom are functions of the natural cosmos. In conjunction with the theory of divine creation in God the Creator,
Cosmology considers questions of physical origins in the uniquely existing physical universe which provides the context of our existence. These questions can be extended to include ultimate issues if we so desire, but physical theory cannot resolve them.
In the end, there are a variety of mysteries underlying the existence and nature of the universe. The scientific study of cosmology can help illuminate their nature, but cannot resolve them.
Christian philosophy of freedom is knowledge drawn from the Bible and developed to help Christians identify and workout to overcome ignorance, cravings, aversion, confusion, disorder, faulty beliefs, assumptions, presuppositions, distortion so as to correct their perception of seeing and being by changing their mental attitudes and situations.
Philosophy continued to develop, hand in hand, with religion through the middle Ages and on into the present day. Medieval philosophy sought to explain the world, in the West, according to the Jewish and Christian belief systems. In the present day,
philosophical schools and movements continue to develop in response to religious beliefs, accepted knowledge, or traditional understanding in any area when these authorities fail to fully address the higher needs of the people.