Greek and Roman Culture and Philosophy: Influence to Catholicism

This essay traces the similarities between Greek and Roman culture and philosophy and their influence to Catholicism, as they are historically related. Find out how severe they affected even Catholicism’s religious doctrines.

So how are Greek and Roman culture and philosophy related? Hos did they become so similar?

Along the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, Greece and Rome-centric Italy have been neighbors. The Romans gradually conquered the Greek cities between 215 and 146 BCE, an event which ironically resulted in Romans absorbing much of Greek culture.

Now, part of the ancient Greek and Roman culture is worshiping many deities.

They believed that “there were gods who influenced all natural phenomena … most Greeks identified a pantheon … of twelve major deities … the Olympian gods … They were led by Zeus and his wife Hera … all citizens were expected to participate in public worship as part of their duty to the state. The Romans, who greatly admired Greek culture, later identified their own deities with powers similar to the Greek gods.” [“Greco-Roman Religion And Philosophy”; encyclopedia.com]

Subscribing to Hellenism, the Roman philosophy finds its foundation in the ideas of Greek philosophers such as Plato—Socrates’ student and Aristotle’s teacher. After Aristotle’s death, schools of thought such as Stoicism and Epicureanism came into being. The last of the great Greco-Roman philosophical systems, Neoplatonism, was championed primarily by Plotinus (205–270 ce). Mainly derived from Plato, Neoplatonism also “used many philosophical terms first coined by Aristotle and adopted some elements of Stoicism as well” [“Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy”; britannica.com].

Greek and Roman culture and philosophy: Influencing the post-apostolic Church

Some post-apostolic church leaders became educated in Greek philosophy as Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. “Platonism, and Stoicism strongly influenced Christian Alexandrian writers like Origen and Clement of Alexandria, as well as, in the Latin world, Ambrose of Milan” [“Christianity and Hellenistic philosophy,”; wikipedia.org]. Influenced by Ambrose, “Augustine began serious study of Neo-Platonism in Milan soon after he first met Ambrose” [“Neo-platonism”; augnet.org].

Elements of Greco-Roman culture also found their way to the post-apostolic Church: “Christianity was shaped by Roman cultural and political structures for several centuries. … To take one lasting example, the head of the Roman Catholic Church—the Pope—takes his title from the old Roman office of pontifex maximus—the high priest” [“Christianity in the Roman Empire”; khanacademy.org]. Used for centuries by the Bishop of Rome, “the term pontifex literally means “bridge-builder”; “maximus” literally means “greatest.” … it was always understood in its symbolic sense … the pontifices were the ones who smoothed the bridge between gods and men” [“Pontifex Maximus”; newworldencyclopedia.org].

Prevalent also in Greco-Roman culture is that “Each Greek polis, or city-state … had its own set of important gods and goddesses and its own way to worship and honor them … Ancient Greeks and Romans … worshipped them daily, offering parts of each meal to the gods and taking part in special religious festivals and holidays” [“Greco-Roman Religion And Philosophy”; encyclopedia.com].

Take note its remarkable similarity to Catholic feast day: “The Catholic Church assigns one date out of the year for each and every canonized saint — known as the saint’s feast day. The saints are remembered on their individual feast day.” [“What is a Catholic Feast Day?”; dummies.com]. In Catholic countries like the Philippines, “all puroks, barangays, towns, municipalities have their patron saints, and there are fiestas always in honor of these saints … Fiestas are always causes for gatherings and celebrations … And what comes with celebrations, food of course.” [L. Lizares; 9/22/16; “The tradition of fiestas”;sunstar.com.ph]

Greek and Roman culture and philosophy and the Trinity doctrine

The complete formulation of the Trinity doctrine, that is, the teaching that God has three co-equal persons was declared only at the 11th Synod of Toledo in 675 A.D. [Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, p. 53], more than 500 years after the Bible had been written.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia identifies that which influenced this declaration by the synod or council: “The Eleventh Council of Toledo repeats the saying of St. Augustine that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both Father and Son, because He is the love or holiness of them both … St. Augustine (430) develops the doctrine of the Spirit. As true God, He proceeds from Father and Son as from one principle, as their bond of union in love” [“God (Holy Spirit)”; encyclopedia.com].

Britannica.com, on the other hand, pinpoints that which influenced Augustine in his theology: “Augustine represents the most influential adaptation of the ancient Platonic tradition” [“St. Augustine”; britannica.com]. “In both his philosophical and theological reasoning, Augustine was greatly influenced by Stoicism, Platonism and Neoplatonism, particularly by the work of Plotinus” [“Augustine of Hippo”; wikipedia.org].

History really proves that a precursor of the Trinity doctrine can be gleaned from Plato’s philosophy: “Trinity or the inner dynamics of the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have been formulated using Plato’s distinction between the Good, Nous and Pneuma (World Soul).” [A. Santrac, 2013, “Three I know not what”; scielo.org.za]

Augustine obtained his Platonist philosophy through the writings of Plotinus (ca. 205–270), a Neoplatonist philosopher who further developed Plato’s idea: “Plotinus added … Eastern ideas to the writings of Plato, and developed the idea of emanation… that the universe was created by a series of radiations that began in a divine source … “the One.”

The concept of the One led to the concept of the Logos … the Divine Mind. Beneath this was the World Soul. All three of these realities were linked together … These concepts had a powerful influence on early Christianity … to explain the concept of the Trinity, the union of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three divine persons in one God” [“Greco-Roman Religion And Philosophy”; encyclopedia.com]. “Not only did they introduce the triadic conception of the God-head … the Neo-Platonists would be instrumental in establishing the coequality of the members of the Trinity.” [Gaston, T.E., 2009, ‘The influence of Platonism on the early Apologists”; dx.doi.org]

Incarnation: An influence of Greek and Roman culture and philosophy?

The related doctrine called the “incarnation of Christ” – that God became flesh, assumed a human nature, and became a man in the form of Jesus – was influenced by Greco-Roman philosophies. Notice that this “incarnation of Christ” doctrine sounds so similar to pagan myths concerning deities who came and lived among people. “The ancient Greek gods normally took on human form and lived in a society similar to human society”[ “Greek Gods”; allabouthistory.org]. For instance, Dionysus, the Greek mythological god of wine, “would often take the form of a human so that he could walk the earth in search of adventure” [“Greek Mythological Story of Dionysus and Ariadne”; greekboston.com].

Original sin and infant baptism

The Catholic teachings concerning original sin and infant baptism can also be traced back to Greco-Roman philosophies, that is, the Greek and Roman culture and philosophy. Original sin, or “that sin and its guilt that we all [allegedly] possess in God’s eyes as a direct result of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden [“What is Original Sin? Meaning and Consequences of Ancestral Sin”; Christianity.com],” is related to the infant baptism practice.

As Origen of Alexandria (c. 184 – c. 253) explained: “Baptism is given even to infants. And, indeed, if there were nothing in infants that required the remission of sins and nothing in them pertinent to forgiveness, the grace of Baptism would be superfluous [M. Bonocore; “Infant Baptism”; biblicalcatholic.com].”

In formulating his concept on original sin, Origen, having earnestly studied Greek philosophy in Alexandria, was discernibly affected by Plato’s theories: “In Platonism and its subsequent variations the question of the cause and nature of evil was basic.

The general assumption that sin and evil are ontological (that they have actual essence) contributed to and forms the basic premise of the doctrine of original sin. To be inherited, sin must have essence, real being … The main stream [Church] … goes back to its headwaters in Plato and his notion of the fall of the soul. From this and from the ideas behind infant baptism, Origen contributed to the doctrine.” [J. W. Jepson; 2005; gospeltruth.net]

Immortality of the soul

The teaching that human soul is immortal also came from contact with Greco-Roman philosophies chiefly through Plato, who taught that the body and the “immortal soul” separate at death: “The soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and immortal, and intelligible, and uniform, and indissoluble, and unchangeable …. when the soul exists in herself, and is parted from the body and the body is parted from the soul-that is death …” [Plato;“Phaedo”; classics.mit.edu]

Many other Catholic doctrines can also be discerned to have been formed through the influence of Greco-Roman philosophies. Many thus wonder how Catholic authorities would reconcile this to the serious admonition of the Apostle Paul written in Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces.” (Continue reading: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: A Comparative Analysis)

© 2014-present by Jensen DG. Mañebog/MyInfoBasket.com

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