
Lyman Abbott

Abelard

Jay Adams

Albertus Magnus
| (1759-1808) Raised as a Lutheran, but became a Methodist; unintentionally helped to found the Evangelical Church in Pennsylvania in 1803, which merged with the United Brethren in 1946. | ![]() |
| (1859-1938) philosopher professor at Manchester; Realist metaphysics; wrote Space, Time, and Deity; holds a theory of the mind called emergentism; mind evolves from matter and life; evolution produces genuine novelties not reducible to the elements of lower levels; each emergent has 1. a structure differing from the structure of its constituents and 2. a function peculiar to its level; the tendency toward emergence is identified as a nisus (striving) (see Bergson's élan vital); there is a continuous interaction and interdependence of all the levels, as, e.g., of brain (life) and mind (interactionism). |
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Thomas Altizer
| (c 340-397) Imperial governor of Upper Italy who became Bishop of Milan in 374. His actions reveal the new power of the Christian Church after Constantine, but also its intolerance of heretics and pagans; exerted strong influence over the young Emperor Gratian and the Emperor Theodosius. Augustine was converted (& baptized) under his influence. Ambrose also influenced church music. See entry in Catholic Encyclopedia | ![]() |
| (1604-1663) English Presbyterian preacher; wrote Looking Unto Jesus. See entry in 1911 Encyclopedia | ![]() |
| (c 500-428 BC) All objects in nature are composed of tiny "seeds" or particles which contain the qualities we perceive in things. A kind of cosmic mind causes these "seeds" to combine to form each object, and later to separate when the object changes or is destroyed. He taught Euripides and Pericles. See entry in Internet Encyclopedia | ![]() |
| (1555-1626) Bishop of Winchester, was on the committee of scholars that produced the King James Translation of the Bible, and probably contributed more to that work than any other single person. It is accordingly no surprise to find him not only a devout writer but a learned and eloquent one, a master of English prose, and learned in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and eighteen other languages. His sermons were popular in his own day, but are perhaps too academic for most modern readers. He prepared for his own use a manuscript notebook of Private Prayers, which was published after his death. The material was apparently intended, not to be read aloud, but to serve as a guide and stimulus to devout meditation. He used puns in his sermons. | ![]() |
| (1033-1109) known for his view of faith and reason: "Faith precedes knowledge," his ontological argument, and his interpretation of the atonement; wrote 1. Monologium, 2. Proslogium, and 3. Cur Deus Homo. See entry in Internet Encyclopedia and in Catholic Encyclopedia | ![]() |
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(384-322 BC) Greek philosopher who developed an empirical philosophy contrary to
Plato's ideas; he wrote on logic: 1. Organoninstrument; on
physics: 2. Physics; on metaphysics; 3. Metaphysica; on
psychology: 4. De Anima; on ethics: 5.
Nichomachaean Ethics; on politics: 6. Politics; on rhetoric: 7. Rhetoric;
and on aesthetics: 8. Poetics. His theory of knowledge: rationalism; unlike
Plato, he viewed the object of knowledge not the world of ideas;
combines the scientific rationalism of Democritus with the
axiological rationalism of Plato materialism
with idealism; ideas or forms are in things only; logic becomes the
means of relating the general (i.e., ideas) or being to particulars (i.e.,
phenomena) given in perceptions; the mechanism
of deduction is the syllogism, where two propositions presumed to be true are given and a third
is inferred; deductions can demonstrate general principles in particulars but do not establish
the general principles themselves or new knowledge; he abstracted general principles from
particulars by induction or investigation; he links the concepts of investigation to reality
as the causes of the particulars; he sought the general or metaphysical causes of things;
contemporary non-Aristotelian induction arrives at probable (rather than intuitively certain)
general principles; certainty rather than probability characterizes Aristotelian science and
theory of knowledge. His theory of knowledge: teleology, Aristotelianism, vitalism; reality is
that which unfolds in phenomena; it involves matter and form; matter
is that in which things consist; form is that which organizes or directs matter; form and
matter are inseparable; where there is form, there is matter except that First Cause the
Unmoved Mover is transcendent pure form; together matter and form comprise substance; e.g.,
man's essence is form; his physical and psychological makeup is matter. Substance (e.g., man)
possesses attributes or universals (e.g., redness); universals (redness, etc.) are in
particular things only as opposed to Plato; there are 10 categories
of reality, of which substance is primary because it is "that which is neither predicable of
a subject nor present in a subject"; only substance is subject; all other categories redness)
or quantity (e.g., 5 meters long)] must be predicated of a substance. Categories refer not
only to thought and language but to reality as well; matter and form are relative (e.g.,
lumber is the form of wood but the matter of a house); matter possesses the potentiality of
becoming form; form is actuality (e.g., an acorn is the actuality of itself but the
potentiality of an oak tree). Actualization or becoming results from cause; causes or factors
of change are 1. material the limitations of matter; 2. formal the pattern of
form acquired; 3. efficient the force producing change; and 4. final the end
(entelechy) or purpose of actualization. The Final Cause of all reality is an unchanging,
unmoved mover or pure form. Reality is an eternal but teleological process by which
potentiality acquires actuality in the interest of actualizing pure form (reason). His theory
of mind (soul) and ethics: functionalism, eudaemonism. Mind (soul) is
the "primary actuality of a natural body endowed with life" and related to it as vision is to
the eye. The entelechy of the body is the body's inherent nature. Mind is that for which the
body as rational being exists. Mind is that which animates the body toward selfrealization.
The highest good (summum bonum) is activity directed to self-realization in terms of
the exercise of active or pure reason. Achievement of self-realization produces eudaemonia
(well-being).
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| (c 270-d 336) A parish priest in Alexandria; condemned at Council of Nicea in 325 for his views of the person of Christ; held that Christ was half God and half man; his view is now called Arianism; argued with Athanasius; Arius was banished by Roman Emperor Constantine (325). But in the reaction after Nicaea, he came into imperial favor. The emperor had ordered the Athanasians at Alexandria to receive him at communion when he suddenly died. See entry in Catholic Encyclopedia and in 1911 Encyclopedia |
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| (1560-1609) (AKA: Jacob Harmensen or Hermansz) Dutch theologian developed Arminianism. |
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| (1859-1927) Swedish chemist and physicist. Wrote 1. Worlds in the Making, 2. Theories of Solutions, and 3. Quantitative Laws in Biological Chemistry. Developed theory of ionization for which he won the 1903 Nobel prize for chemistry. | ![]() |
| (1745-1816) Convert and disciple of John Wesley; introduced Methodism in the US; itinerate preacher on horseback from Maine to Georgia (almost 500,000 kms in total). | ![]() |
| (293-373) Bishop of Alexandria, against Arianism; avoided allegory. Wrote On the Incarnation. See entry in Catholic Encyclopedia and 9th ed. of Encyclopedia Britannica | ![]() |
| (354-430) the greatest theologian of the early church. Wrote 1. Confessions; 2. The City of God; and 3. On the Trinity. His theory of reality: absolute theism, supernaturalism. Reality is God, who is Being; Being is good; non-Being is evil (see Plotinus). God has personality and impersonality, transcendence and immanence, omnipotence and perfect will. As Being, God gives reality to phenomena. As Supreme Person (theism), God exercises perfect will by which the world is created from nothing, sustained, perfected, and consummated. All existence, including space and time, is absolutely dependent on God's will. Reality is two-fold (dualism): God as Being, the Good, the Eternal; and His creation as phenomenal, dependent, temporal. | ![]() |
| (1911-1960) wrote 1. Philosophical Papers and 2. How to Do Things with Words. Wrote on the theory of language where he followed the Oxford School of analysis, linguistic analysis, and ordinary language philosophy. | ![]() |
| (1126-1198) Islamic philosopher; tried to recover the true essence of Aristotle's thought without theological considerations. | ![]() |
| (980-1036/7)Persian physician and philosopher whose translation of Aristotle was instrumental in keeping alive classical thought during the Middle Ages. | ![]() |
| (1910-1989) Logical Positivist who wrote 1. Language, Truth, and Logic; 2. The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge; and 3. The Problem of Knowledge; emphasized verification principle. | ![]() |