This video will talk about Muslim, Jewish,
and Christian philosophical developments- -in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; But if you don't have the backstory,
you'll be a bit lost. I highly recommend you watch the previous
two videos in this series- -before digging into this one. The first video covers the broad history
of the first millennium- -around the time of the Muslim conquest, and the second one is all about
The Crusades. If you have time for a much more in-depth
look at each, I also highly recommend you check out the- -individual videos I have on Christianity,
Islam, and Judaism. If however, time isn't on your side, I'll give you a hyper-quick rundown on
what went on between these religions: They fought, like, a lot. Cool! Let's move on. I'll preface this by saying- -that I think theology and religious
philosophy are totally different breeds: Theology takes a much more
inward perspective; It's looking at the details of
Christianity as a Christian, for instance, and is focused on illuminating
matters of doctrine. The holy trinity - for instance - is a
rather contentious matter of theology, and lots of Christians died because
of that argument. Religious philosophy takes a much more
outward perspective; it's about what it means and why it
matters to practice a given religion, and expressing that in a way that someone
from a totally different religion- -can understand, if not agree with. Being kind to your neighbour for instance, or being devoted to god, are matters of
religious philosophy. For the most part, I've found that when
talking to someone from a different- -religion about strict theology, it gets caught up in a divine web
of he-said she-said: Where I'm right and you're wrong
because my god says so; but they're right and I'm wrong
because their god says so. And then we all walk away hating
each other, and most importantly- -having learned nothing from
the conversation. Just think about how many times, quote,
"But the bible says!", unquote- -has been used as definitive evidence
in an argument about religion. But, if we talk about
religious philosophy instead, we're much more likely to find points of
comparison, and we're more likely to walk away
as friends afterwards, too! I hope this next section explains why: So let's restart our timeline, and- begin with Judaism during
the Second Temple period, between the fifth century BC,
and the first century AD. This is the time when the Hebrew Bible
was gradually being codified- -and I'd argue that this in itself
is a philosophical act; The (Hebrew) Bible as a work of
literature alone contains mountains- -of philosophically relevant insights
about life, love, law and more. The same goes for the Christian Bible,
and the Muslim Quran. While these texts aren't what most people
would consider "proper philosophy", the literature has a very substantial
philosophical value. And then for the most part the
philosophies align! Treat people well, be honest with yourself
and others, and love your god. Easy as that! Those are among the most central
lessons in Abrahamic religion, and they're practically universal. The means by which you accomplish these,
in many cases, are quite different- -but the heart is in the same place,
and that's what matters. Back to the point: While the Hebrew Bible is certainly
philosophical, Judaism spent the first few centuries AD
working more on codifying laws- -than writing pholosphy. For that we head on over to
early Christianity, which is thoroughly schmoosing
with Greek philosophy. The Christians grew quite fond of
Epicurean and Stoic philosophy, which advocated for a balanced life. Where happiness is derived from
personal virtue- -rather than material possessions. But perhaps the biggest influence
by far, was Plato; From whom we arguably get the idea of
Christ as Logos - divine reason. There are a handful of Christian thinkers
in this period who we have to thank- -for writing on the similarities between
Greek and Christian thought: The first big one was Justin Martyr, and then arguably the most famous
Christian philosopher was Augustine; A Platonist through and through. This Greek mode of Christian philosophy
became dominant and prosperous- -until around the fall of Rome. However, while Christian philosophy was
pretty much all in the same trireme, theological disputes regularly
divided Christians. I've discussed it in more depth elsewhere, but suffice it to recall that the
first few centuries- -were rather contentious times
for Church theology. With people regularly being
condemned to Hell- -for taking opposite sides in an argument. So, to recap: Before Islam lands on the scene in 632AD, Judaism was busy codifying the Talmud, and Christianity was buddying up
with Greek philosophy. Fun times! Hard cut to the emerging Muslim empires, which, much like the Christians,
gained much of its- -early philosophical background from its
people and its neighbours. In this case the big influences on
the Muslim philosophy were- -again, the Greeks, but also the Persians. Islamic philosophy fell broadly into
two camps, Kalam, and Falsafa; Kalam trended more theological, whereas- -Falsafa, if the name didn't
immediately give it away- -was more traditionally philosophical. Early Islamic philosophy sought to address
questions like- -the coexistence of faith and reason,
which is a… tough one, and got many of its answers from
Aristotle and Plato, thanks to their friendly neighbourhood
Byzantine Empire. Between the tenth and twelfth centuries, three big characters popped up
onto the scene: Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes. These guys - among many other
accomplishments - -wrote extensively on Plato and Aristotle,
and how they relate to the Muslim faith. Al-Farabi in particular is so cool that he
wrote a treatise that first- -reconciles Plato and Aristotle,
which was hard enough, and THEN reconciles that with Islam, It's genuinely amazing! A lot of this stuff falls into the broad
intellectual movement of- -the Islamic Golden Age
I've discussed before, and it's really commendable for its
scholarly approach to matters of faith; As well as the myriad developments in- logic, natural science, metaphysics
and others that I can't even begin to list. After the death of Averroes in 1198, the philosophical Muslim tradition in the
west and near-east gradually fizzled out. Possibly on account of all the crusading
and Reconquist-ing going on, but definitely in large part because of
the writing of Al-Ghazali, a theologist and Sufi mystic. His work, titled
"The Incoherence of the Philosophers", (Ouch) delivered a verbal smackdown- -that Islamic philosophy could never
recover from following Averroes' death, and the subsequent lack of
philosophical poster boys. So that's the golden age of Islamic
philosophy, but what were Christian and Jewish
philosophy doing in the middle ages? Well, interestingly, they were actually
incorporating ideas- -from their Muslim friends. The big example of this is
Moses Maimonides; Who was a Jewish philosopher living in
Muslim territory during their golden age. He's super cool and his most famous work:
"The Guide of the Perplexed", is a landmark achievement in both
Jewish philosophy, and religious philosophy as a whole. Maimonides believed in a radically
non-anthropomorphic god; In line with the earlier Neoplatonic idea
of a non-anthropomorphic supreme entity. He also believed in the Aristotelian model
of the universe, with Earth at the center,
and God as the prime mover. This conception of the universe came
straight through Al-Farabi- -and was later even picked up in
Dante's "Paradiso". Maimonides ends the work by asserting
that the best life is one- -built upon faith in God, and
augmented by philosophy. Looking at this, it's not hard to see how
universal religious philosophy can be; Though Maimonides himself was Jewish- -the spiritual philosophy he outlines can
be practiced by almost anyone. Continuing in Al-Farabi and Maimonides'
tradition- -of getting religion aboard
the Aristotle train, the European scholastic tradition
developed out of the- -previously prevalent monastic tradition
in the wake of the Islamic Golden Age. The scholastic tradition was big on both
harmonizing- -and delineating separate
world views, as well as incorporating reason into
matters of faith - - which should sound familiar. And it also later gave rise to the first
European universities! Thomas Aquinas was arguably the
most famous scholiast, and he was heavily influenced by Averroes,
Maimonides, and of course, Aristotle. "Okay!" I hear you saying, "So a bunch of medieval Religious people
liked Aristotle, what's the big deal?" Well, if you ask me, this <i>is</i> a big deal because it
demonstrates three important truths: First! Even though Christianity and Islam were
more-or-less at each other's throats- -during the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, Averroes, Maimonides, and Aquinas
were actively engaging each other's ideas. It would have been so
incredibly easy for Aquinas- -to just write off Maimonides and
Averroes as heretics- -from the "wrong" Abrahamic religion,
but he saw the value in their work, and treated these thinkers with the
greatest respect- -one philosopher can pay another:
Actively interacting with their ideas. These incredible thinkers looked past the
political and material- -conflicts over Jerusalem, to honour
their god through writing, and I think that's amazing! Second. Reaching out for inspiration to an ancient
Greek source like Aristotle, who had been more or less lost to
Europeans for centuries, demonstrates a profound willingness on
the part of all three religions- -to reach outside of their comfort zone
and grapple with different ideas. An action that I think is really worth
noting and respecting. Large parts of Aristotle's "Metaphysics"
would actually disagree- -with orthadox Abrahamic theology, but they still read and incorporated him
into their own philosophy. It's easy to fall hard into our own camp
and let groupthink run mad, but actively going out and pulling from
sources that sometimes- -disagree with us, demonstrates both a
very secure sense of identity- -as well as a genuine
intellectual curiosity. No-one can just casually go out there and- -reconcile ancient pagan philosophy
with Abrahamic religion. That takes time, focus,
and a deep intellectual commitment, And all three faiths have demonstrated
those qualities in spades here. Third. The pervasive medieval Aristotle kick- -brought common philosophical ground to
three very different religions. Something fundamental about
Aristotle's philosophy- -seriously clicked with
all three of them. I think it's mostly that he points to the
likelihood of a supreme being; a "mover", he calls it. On whose will the entire universe bends, and that was an idea which the medieval
philosophers really liked. Again, it would have been super easy for a
Christian scholiast to just- -throw up his arms and say
"Ah! But god is a trinity"- -"This first mover nonsense
has no place here!", But, instead, all three religions came to
a very similar conception of what- -the divine is, and what it means. Need I remind everyone that all three
religions worship the same god- -that Abraham did? It kinda makes sense to me that three
religions that fundamentally- -worship the same god would come to more
or less the same conception- -of what that god <i>is</i>, and I think that's why
religious philosophy is important. It's a unifier amid a sea of divisiveness. I'd like to think that there's enough
philosophical commonality- -among Christianity, Judaism, and Islam- -that we can all have a civil discussion
about our faith. And celebrate the collective
Abrahamic heritage, rather than fight about the differences. If all three religions are following in
Abraham's footsteps, don't you think he'd want
us all to get along? Essentially, if we come across people from
a different religion, we shouldn't jump to an argument about
why our religion is more correct- -than theirs, and what is or isn't an
abomination against God. We also shouldn't murder people. But that usually falls under common
courtesy and basic table manners. The humanist in me says that we should
treat other people as human beings first, and as members of other religions second. But even independent of that, I think all of the Muslims, Jews,
and Christians can agree- -with Maimonides on this one: The best life is augmented by philosophy, but built upon a faith in god. Abraham's god. I know that's not an instant solution to
world peace just like that, but if it helps bring some common ground
to people who would- -otherwise be angry with each other, that's a start. (Music plays)
