I like “Sitting on the Areopagus Listening to Greek Philosophers.” That would be a real tear-jerker!

It seems all to common for philosophers to ignore Jewishness. My greatest complaint about the philosophy textbook from which I teach is that there is no mention of the Jewish tradition at all. Augustine was the first Christian philosopher – and he seems to have come from no where (except for the Greek influence).

I pointed out at the start of the book that the the New Testament is an overwhelmingly Jewish book . . . but that this book was an attempt to explain the smaller, thought still vital, Greek background to the world of the New Testament. It is a brief tour (oh the things I had to cut!) of what was going on in Greek thought (particularly Plato) before Christ.
In any case, I hope it can help younger college students (a main market) understand those thinkers.
John Mark

I should add that even a quick Google will show that Torrey Honors has at least five Evangelical theologians/Biblical studies faculty. (It depends on how you count each category.
I am totally unaware of being in the “middle” of any turn to anything amongst Biola students other than (I hope)the faith described in the Biola statement of faith.
In any case, like any author I am thankful for the attention!

Mixing Greek philosophy with Jewish wisdom is like mixing oil with water and it takes a whole lot of shaking and emulsifiers to get a presentable package. Jewish wisdom concentrated on an organic, dust-to-dust outlook on life while Greek philosophy, at least since Plato’s interpretation of Socrates, emphasized a dualistic approach to nature and life. “Greek thinking” is fine when it concentrates on logical thought processes but not so fine when it falls back on a “spirit” vs “nature” dualism. A concern: is this a package deal?

Mike . . . your concerns are a reason I wrote the book. I meet them a great deal. A good thing of the last fifty years or so has been an increase in knowledge amongst college educated folks of the importance of Jewish thought . . . a bad thing has been to just create the category “Greek thought” and talk about “dualism” and “logic” without really understanding (even in a simple way) what is happening.
I have met college professors (though fortunately not at Biola) who thought (for example) that Plato (not the neo-Platonists) could be dismissed as someone who just hated “the body!”
Hopefully this book will dispel simplistic approaches to Plato like that one (not attributing it to you).

I enjoy reading at scriptoriumdaily.com. When I read the review of the book here http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/2009/05/25/lets-get-classical-reynolds-new-book-on-greek-thought/ I gathered that it was primarily about Plato vis-a-vis early Christianity. I cannot speak as a scholar, only a student, but I am in favor of getting more believers to think more about the backgrounds of Christianity. My impression was that this book is written to be accessible and to help inform of Greek backgrounds to Christian thought. If the same number of people who devour Dan Brown’s works would consider books such as these, it seems to me the public would be more well-informed. But perhaps I misunderstand…

John (#7): I apologize. My comment was directed at an interpretation of your book and not the book itself. That’s wrong and something I’ve denounced myself since listening to criticisms of “The Last Temptation of Christ” by people who never saw it.

Hum…thanks for this pointer, ScottM. What might Nash’s The Gospel and the Greeks have to contribute here?