Blog Response Three

Ethan Skinner

Mrs. Wagener

AP English

7/26/2013

Blog Response Three

            Christianization is the process by which many early Christian thinkers attempted to apply the teachings of Christ to the philosophers of old. In my opinion, the term “Christianization” is a misnomer, because in many cases this is not what occurred. Aquinas did not really attempt to Christianize Aristotle and St. Augustine did not make any effort to apply the teachings of Christ to Plato. Rather, I would argue that Aquinas attempted to “Arristotleize” Christ, trying to squeeze his old belief in the teachings of Aristotle into his new faith in Christ. This attempt to reconcile two completely contradictory belief systems resulted in a strange mash of ideas that does not hold up under close examination. The same can be said of St. Augustine, as he attempted to force the teachings of Plato to fit with his faith in Jesus. The result of this what these two great Christian leaders ended up teaching their followers many things which were not in the bible, which they claimed to follow as the infallible word of God.

The process known as “Christianization” posed a danger to Christianity itself in many ways. It led to many people thinking that an application of secular beliefs to Christian teachings was perfectly acceptable. The result is that many Churches today teach concepts and principles which are not found in the bible as though they are true Christian teachings. It is difficult today to find Churches in which the Bible is taken to be the infallible, inerrant word of God, and nothing is taught which cannot be found therein. This can be traced back to people like St. Augustine, who set the precedent for adding one’s personal beliefs to Christian teachings. Another way in which “Christianization” posed a danger to Christianity was that it led many modern people to reject Christianity on the grounds that it is corrupted by the thoughts of humans, rather than actually being divine in nature. While this view is not entirely accurate, as there are still some churches that hold completely to the teachings of the bible, it does hold some merit in that many churches teach messages that cannot be found anywhere in the bible.