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• • Early Christian thinkers, like Origen and Augustine, employed Neoplatonic concepts to explain God’s transcendence and the relationship between God and the created world. Augustine, in particular, was deeply influenced by Plotinus, especially in his understanding of God as immutable and eternal. As stated by Lloyd P. Gerson in “Plotinus,” “Augustine’s debt to Plotinus is widely acknowledged, particularly in his understanding of immateriality, eternity, and the soul’s ascent to God.”
• Emanation and Creation:
  • Plotinus’s theory of emanation, where all things flow from the One in a hierarchical order, provided a philosophical framework for understanding creation. While Christians believed in creation ex nihilo (out of nothing), the concept of a hierarchical order of being, with God at the summit, found parallels in Neoplatonism.
  • The concept of the “Logos” in John’s Gospel, which identifies Jesus as the divine Word through which all things were created, could be interpreted through a Neoplatonic lens, with the Logos acting as an intermediary between the transcendent God and the material world.
  • As John M. Rist notes in “Plotinus: The Road to Reality,” “The Neoplatonic system, with its stress on hierarchy and emanation, offered a ready-made philosophical structure for Christian theologians who sought to explain the relationship between God and the world.”
• The Soul’s Ascent:
  • Plotinus’s emphasis on the soul’s ascent to the One, through contemplation and purification, aligned with Christian ideas of spiritual growth and union with God.
  • Monastic traditions, with their focus on asceticism and contemplation, drew inspiration from Neoplatonic practices of self-discipline and spiritual exercises.
  • The idea of the soul needing purification from the material world, and then ascending to a higher spiritual plane, is very similar between both belief systems.

Other Philosophical Influences on Early Christianity:

• Stoicism:
  • Stoic ethics, with its emphasis on virtue, reason, and acceptance of fate, influenced Christian moral teachings.  

  • The Stoic concept of natural law resonated with Christian ideas of divine law and moral order.  

  • Stoic ideas of self control, and inner peace, also impacted early monasticism.  

• Platonism (Beyond Plotinus):
  • Plato’s theory of Forms, with its distinction between the material world and the realm of eternal ideas, provided a philosophical basis for Christian concepts of heaven and the afterlife.
  • The Platonic idea of the soul as immortal and immaterial influenced Christian doctrines of the soul.  

• Hellenistic Philosophy:
  • Hellenistic philosophies, such as Epicureanism and Skepticism, prompted Christian theologians to articulate their beliefs in response to competing worldviews.
  • The need to defend Christian doctrines against philosophical challenges led to the development of systematic theology.
• Roman Philosophy:
  • Roman concepts of law and order influenced the development of Christian social and political thought.
  • The Roman emphasis on practical ethics and civic virtue resonated with Christian teachings on moral conduct.

In conclusion, Plotinus’s Neoplatonism provided a particularly influential philosophical framework for early Christian theologians, but Christianity also drew from a wide range of other philosophical traditions, adapting and integrating them into its own unique worldview.