Belief systems and Self-Philosophy 400 CE to 1200 CE: the early christian mind



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3.11

Philosophy 400 CE to 1200 CE: The early christian mind

The period of 400CE to around 1200 CE is commonly called the "medieval period" of history and is traditionally signified as the period in which the apparent corrupt and immoral Roman Empire "fell" and just and righteous Christian religion "rose".

Massive climactic events beginning 400CE to 500CE signaling a mini-ice age in Northern Europe with massive destruction of the agriculture economic base of much of the Roman Empire, followed by the mass exodus of people towards central cities. The extended ice age of over 100 years led to the greatest health disaster to befall human civilization for the past two thousand years- the global bubonic plagues which wiped out over 100 million people or one in two of the population at the time.

Against this backdrop of events signaling the seeming "end of the world", cults and beliefs that promoted philosophies of signs of the end as well as means of salvation experienced their greatest growth.

The greatest exponents of signs of the end of the world and fatalistic religious writings were the Jewish prophets and cults that had sprung up through the constant upheaval of the middle east. A loose group of these, the christian cults found themselves in a particularly strong position, given their synthesization of jewish heritage, esscene values (Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls), greek, Egyptian and asiatic mysticism (Mythra, Isis(Mary), Horus(Jesus)) with the living virtues of Socrates and Stoicism.

3.11.1

The need for some hope

While signs of the end might add credibility to a message, it is almost certain that people during the period of great death and hardship were looking for some brighter answer to what lies beyond all the pain and suffering.

Key concept: The purpose of life– to purify the soul from sin

Architect	St Augustine (354—430 CE)
Main influence	Stoic tradition
Idea	(Major works Confessions and City of God) There is only one absolute God, the Christian God. There is only one immutable truth (as demonstrated by mathematics and ethics). Man is a composite of two substances, body and soul, of which the soul is by far superior. The self does not know itself until God deigns to reveal to human beings their identity, and even then no confidence, no rest is possible in this life. Man encounters this divine world of truth and beauty not through his senses but by turning inward to his mind, and above his mind to the intelligible light, in which he sees the truth. The soul experiences freedom of choice and ensuing slavery to sin but knows that divine predestination will prevail. Sexual abstinence is the only way to purify the soul and be baptized into a life devoted to God.

Stoicism's adherence to personal virtue might have been valuable for self discipline during good times, but at that point of great tragedy, it represented far too dark a message. Similarly, philosophies such as Epicureanism are simply impossible to take effect when everyone around you is either dying from starvation or the plague.

At this very point, arguably one of the most important "christian" philosophers was Augustine. Writing during the very troubles that we have described, Augustine outlined three vital additions to the generally understood virtues associated with Stoicism and the esoteric judaic and christian notion of heaven-(2)a general argument of proof of the existence of an ultimate monotheistic god and (3)man conceived as a composite of two substances, body and soul, of which the soul is by far superior.

Augustine’s concepts represented a powerful philosophy during a time of great fear, agony and pain. He resurrected the Egyptian and Pythagorean idea of the soul and proceeded to make it something everyone possesses– the gift of immortality. He then made it the prime purpose of life to look beyond the world of the senses, to an inner world of spiritual meditation free from sin in order to live in God’s city– the city of heaven.

By articulating an architecture for Heaven, combined with life after death and a purpose for life Augustine laid the foundation of the early Christian mind. While the great cities of the Roman empire fell into frozen pits of death, hunger and disease, his ideas gave millions hope of a better world to come.

Yet Augustine went even further. Instead of rejecting science and reason, he used its very existence to espouse an ultimate immutable truth– that being the existence and mind of God. His was an embracement of science as justification for God and formed the basis of his “proof of the existence of God.”

3.11.2

Like "fire" through a drought ravaged forest

The well architected philosophy of Augustine was arguably the first capable of appealing to the masses uneducated in science and mathematics as well as those rulers and artists with education in the Greek classics.

But as luck would have it, his philosophy also came at a time when other philosophers were espousing Armageddon (“end of the world”), judgment, damnation and anarchy to the dying and barely living.

Like fire in a drought ravaged forest, Augustine’s philosophy help elevate Christianity from a minor religion to the dominant religion in Europe in less than 200 years.

It is Augustine’s philosophy that underpins the Christian mind and introduced an inner conflict mechanism between the body and soul—(hate of the body, love of the soul ) which continues in the minds of hundreds of millions of people to this day.

3.11.3

Early medieval philosophy

While Augustine saw all scientific knowledge as a positive towards validating God, many who followed over the next four hundred years did not.

The wholesale breakdown in organized society brought with it terrible evil and hardship. Many blamed society and knowledge itself for the failure. Fortress monasteries became the last vestiges of what knowledge had not been destroyed.

To this day, every history book on Earth ignores the greatest period of death in human history (so far) and continues to propagate the myth that Rome fell because of its own corruption.

People such as Cistercian Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), were suspicious towards the use of secular learning and philosophy in matters of faith. With a history of personal health problems, Bernard promoted a life of austerity and contemplation on the “divine mysteries” and “life of Christ” as well as devotion to Mary.

The problem for many Christian scholars trying to reconcile the Augustinian model was that so many of the ancient works contradicted it.

Two organized methods emerged,

one of systematically seeking out deviation, discrediting it and then destroying it (people and/or knowledge) and

Re-classifying knowledge into a Christian model of the
world.

3.11.4

The battle of realists and nominalists

Midst the struggle of Christianity to dominate the known world, a battle re-emerged between those believing in the existence of knowledge/things beyond the mind (“realists”) and those believing knowledge as a construct purely of the mind (“nominalists”).

Key concept: Universal meaning (universals)

Architect	Peter Abelard (1079-1142)
Main influence	Roscelin (1050-1125)
Idea	(Major works Yes and No) Universals are the qualities of individual things, or particulars. For example, the quality of redness (a universal) is possessed by all red objects (which are particulars). But does “redness” exist apart from particular red things? It does, since, like a particular, “redness” has a name that has meaning. But in other ways universals are quite unlike particulars. For example, redness, unlike red objects, cannot be picked up.

At stake in the battle was the legacy of Plato and Augustine in (promoting realism), versus the “new world” being formed by Christian scholars.

Notions of inter-connectedness implied in the teachings of Plato, Jesus Christ (“I am in you and you in me”) and Augustine did not sit well with a church seeking greater control over the minds of individuals. Instead things given meaning through logic and “truth”, with these ultimately being the possession of God delivers a powerful model.

To ensure control, individuals must believe in the notion of separateness. Then applying the philosophy of inner conflict (physical self-hate, spiritual self-love) a person might be placed in perpetual unbalance and hence be manipulated.

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