This book explores how Platonism has played a central role in the development of Christianity and how it is key for cultivating an understanding its intellectual tradition. However, its history is complex. It has been called essential philosophical resource in the Christian tradition, furnishing it with an essential metaphysical framework for the development of its key beliefs. Alternatively, it has been considered a compromising external influence, conflicting with the faith’s revelatory foundations and confusing its message.

 

This book will offer an introduction to Christian Platonism, explicating concepts in ethics, metaphysics and cosmology through the consideration of central figures in the history of Christianity, including Origen, Aquinas, Cusa, and Coleridge.