An Examination of the Christian Worldview and How it Became What it is Today

The Christian worldview is one that has been developing and adapting for hundreds of years, and will continue to do so for a while yet. However, for this essay, it is necessary to look back at how the Christian schools of thought have changed with the times, and what exactly facilitated those changes. This essay presents the thesis that the Christian, monotheistic worldview is ever-changing, and has been shaped by many events, both religious and secular in nature. While Christianity's development during the Middle Ages was great and had a profound effect on the religion as a whole, it is also necessary to examine how it has changed since that time, since the Middle Ages were a mere chapter in the entire saga of Christianity, and each chapter must be examined at least some.

One of the first religious philosophers that helped to elevate Christianity to a higher standard was Nemesius. Nemesius' main contributions to Christian philosopher are what is known as the five theories of providence. These theories maintain that, through Divine Providence, or the intervention of God in the world, people are different from one another, among other effects. Nemesius also argued that God is the creator of the mortal creation parts of the souls and bodies of rational creatures. Nemesius' philosophies helped to kick start the philosophy that planets, stars, etc. were not mere objects but heavenly deities themselves. He helped to transform these philosophies, which had been around for thousands of years before, into Christian concepts. He also argued that while God is concerned with continuity of events (that is, that everything plays out as it should), he does not concern himself with the petty particulars of people's lives. This helped to encourage Christians to not merely pray to God for petty wants such as new houses or gold, but for enlightenment, a healthy family, and happiness. These concepts have survived for over two thousand years to the modern era, where many Christians continue to pray to God for these priceless blessings.

Thomas Aquinas is another religious philosopher who helped to transition Christianity out of the Middle Ages and into humanity's relatively recent history. His arguments revolved mainly around the role of God in the intellectual process. To that end, Thomas believed that the knowledge for any sort of truth requires the intervention of God, and that even the most intelligent human relies on divine revelations (revelations from God) in at least a few points throughout their lifetime. Thomas also believed that God is the creator of all, and even accounts for the concept of evolution by arguing that different species arose due to mutations within the sperm of certain animals. He also stated that there were certain species that were simply doomed to extinction. Thomas also argued that the existence of God is self-evident, but not for humans. He considered five arguments for the existence of god, known as the "Five Ways," that help to put God into perspective. For example, he states that since things move, and it is impossible for something to move without the aid of another moving object or omnipotent being, that the very first objects in the universe were literally set into motion by God himself, whom he refers to as the "first mover." It should be noted that Thomas Aquinas was one of the instrumental philosophers behind the concept of the holy trinity; that is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This helped to give Christianity a vision of unity within not just those who practiced it, but within the heavens as well. Lastly, Thomas believed that it was best to describe, rather than what God is, what God is not. To that end, he came up with five inscrutable truths about God: God is simple, since he lacks a body, God is perfect, since he lacks nothing, God is infinite, since he has no limits, God is immutable, since he cannot change, and that God is one, since God has no diversification within himself. These concepts were instrumental in the development of Christianity throughout the middle ages and is one of the key parts of Christian Philosophy today.

One of the great transitory religious philosophers was the famous Rene Descartes, who was active mainly in the early seventeenth century. While his actual religion remains open to debate (the general consensus is that he was a devout Roman Catholic), his theories and teachings about religious philosophy are far more important. Descartes was one of the first philosophers to rely almost entirely on deduction, rather than perception, in forming his philosophies. To this end, he deduced that God must be real through both ontological and trademark arguments, such as that if a man can imagine an omnipotent being (i.e. God) than this God must exist, if only on the mental level, but exists nonetheless. These philosophies are important not just because of the actual philosophies themselves, but for the way they changed the mode of thinking for many of those who are religious, especially Christians. Thanks to Descartes, religion became a much more introspective activity, and led to many more people seeking a personal bond with God, since Descartes was the one who posited that the mind is the surest way to communicate with God. Descartes also utilized his sensory perceptions to use as evidence for the existence of God, stating that since things in the external world that he can perceive are material, and that God would not deliberately deceive him with these perceptions, so a benevolent God must be real. Descartes' religious philosophies helped to adapt Christianity to an increasingly modern area, and are one of the most significant contributions to religious philosophy in the era.

Perhaps one of the most famous of religious philosophers is Joseph Butler, an early 18th-century religious philosopher who posited the claim of the "design argument," which argues that things like personality and other complicated, intangible concepts were simply not possibly an accident in the universe. This philosophy was actually used later by another philosopher named William Paley and adapted into what is now known as the "watchmaker analogy." The watchmaker analogy is a teleological argument that states that the concept of design itself implies the existence of a creator and thus, a god. Many great thinkers of the time, including Sir Isaac Newton, supported this idea, because it posited a sort of mechanical perfection of the universe. Even those who are secular can appreciate the concept that the watchmaker analogy posits; that if there is organization, there must be a god behind it. The watchmaker analogy was one of the transitory religious philosophies that helped to give Christianity more popularity into the modern era. Even today, many still argue that the watchmaker analogy is both feasible and possible.

Another key religious philosopher of a more recent era whom many have heard of but do not know of his status as a religious philosopher is C.S. Lewis. Although his most famous works were non-religious, he also wrote a great deal of religious philosophy and literature from the perspective of what is called a "Christian apologist," which means he is secular but wants to understand and accept Christianity nonetheless. C.S. Lewis was the author of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe which, although he denied it, contains a great deal of religious themes within the text. Considering how popular those books became, even that contribution alone is significant. However, C.S. Lewis also argued for concepts like Lewis's Trilemma, which argues that Jesus was not, in fact, God. One of his most famous quotes on the subject states that "...a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher..." (Lewis, 40-41). This philosophical view is significant because it represents what could be considered the final transition of the Christian worldview to the modern era. That is to say, his philosophies on just who God is, while they might or might not be true, at least got people, especially Christians, thinking about who it was they worshipped. As a result, Christianity has thrived in the 20th century, largely as a result of C.S. Lewis.

Quite simply, Christianity came to be the dominant worldview throughout many ages in history, although the Middle Ages contributed the most to its development, simply because of the large number of philosophers to come up with so many new ideas and concepts regarding Christianity. By positing these new ideas, these Christian philosophers were able to challenge the way many people think about God, and cause them to rethink many of their views about Christianity, which led to a constant reformation of the religion to adapt to new ideas and technologies, all the way up to the modern era today. Even now there are prominent religious philosophers (such as the aforementioned C.S. Lewis) who have been shaping and challenging the longstanding concepts of Christianity in a positive way. Christianity is all about serving God and living through Him, and the best way to do this is to understand the numerous concepts that went into the creation and perpetuation of Christianity. While faith is a crucial part of Christianity, one cannot deny the impact these Christian philosophers had on the development of Christianity as a whole.

Work Cited

Lewis, Clive Staples. Mere Christianity. Harper Collins, 2001. Print.