I was reading about the influence of Greek culture on the Christian Church and came across the fact that during the fourth and fifth centuries AD, the Christians went about eradicating traditional Greek influence (the classics). We tend to think that, because the classics were so much of higher education, there was quite a lot of it around. The fact is, that scholars calculate that only about 1% has survived (and that is being driven out of our universities). We know this by references made by that which is left and the Christian writings which rebutted them. I was surprised to read that the ancient Greek medical texts haven’t been translated into English because the dual competencies of medicine and classical Greek studies haven’t combined to do that. This means that we know far less about the knowledge of the time in which modern society was forming than we thought, and the church had seen to it, that it retained the upper hand until the enlightenment. What the Church deemed unfit, we never got to see. It is surprising how much has been weaned from the little we have, but the great philosophers like Plato wrote far more than we have today. Perhaps the Vatican Secret Archive contains some unknown cultural artefacts, but I’m sure people have looked into that. The thing that interested me is what was in circulation amongst the educated before Christ, who they say, brought a new era.
When you consider Epicurus (c. 341-270 BCE) even though he is believed to have written 300 works, almost none of his writings are known to have survived. He is one of the youngest philosophers, and obviously a thorn in the eye of Christianity. Going further back to Aristotle (c. 384-322 BCE) who was a student of Plato and the teacher of Alexander the Great, Aristotle is considered one of the world’s greatest ancient philosophers. Aristotle studied a wide variety of subjects, including science, ethics, government, physics and politics, and wrote extensively on them. Although a few books of his were translated back then, the “Restoration of Aristotle” was conducted centuries later.
Probably the most important philosopher Plato (c. 428-348 BCE), famously said, “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” In the first century AD, Thrasyllus of Mendes had compiled and published the works of Plato in the original Greek, both genuine and spurious. While it has not survived to the present day, all the existing medieval Greek manuscripts are based on his edition. Without Plato, we wouldn’t have known about Socrates (c. 469-399 BCE), who’s legendary trial and death at the altar of the ancient Greek democratic system has influenced the academic view of philosophy as a study of life itself.
Democritus (c. 460-370 BCE) said, “Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion” and was called the “laughing philosopher”. He was one of the first advocates of democracy, equality and liberty. He was also the first person, along with his mentor Leucippus, to advance the hypothesis that all matter is composed of small invisible particles called atoms. Many consider Democritus to be the "father of modern science”.
These few examples of ancient Philosophy show just how far these people were, and even if it was only amongst relatively few educated people, they had a say in the developments of society. But they were outlawed in the fourth and fifth century and open discussion was no longer allowed. People were only to talk about Christian ideas and neighbours were to denounce those people who didn’t comply. Laws were passed that gave people the freedom to desecrate Temples, which they obviously did. This has a particularly modern touch about it, considering the last 500 or so years. Luther didn’t do much to sustain the cohesion of the church. Since his intervention, the church has continually split into ever more separate churches, despite having the same creed. Greek philosophers in the first centuries mused that Christians, despite having one God, seemed to be very aggressive towards each other. That hasn’t changed, despite the social appearance of local parishes with their jumbo sales and tea-parties.
I knew that the story of Christianity wasn’t smooth, which I could gather from a book on Christian history that I have, but the effect of Greek and Roman society was devastating. It also threw us back and marked the beginning of the dark ages. There still were people trying to further knowledge of course, but they had to have the permission of the church to spread their findings. This is why it was such a liberation when the Enlightenment came along. The oppressive nature of church ruling shouldn’t hide the fact that it was in itself a motor of learning, but it restricted the development of science. Once free of that, the Enlightenment has improved lives progressively up until today. The disadvantage of the development is that people have lost the source of meaning in its widest sense and fall back on themselves to find meaning, which in certain circumstances is difficult. In poverty, people have at least had their faith in many cases, and the church was influential in caring for the sick. Of course, it isn’t so simple to take apart, but it seems that the church was its own worst enemy.