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
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
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)