Philo}}}s Heirs Moses Maimonides and Thomas Aquinas [Hardcover]

The central claim of this book is that Philo of Alexandrias philosophical method served as the model for the philosophical works of Moses Maimonides and Thomas Aquinas. Moses Maimonides and Thomas Aquinas stand as two pillars in the history of religious philosophy. In their respective religious communities each philosopher is considered the great master who expressed the doctrine of the religious tradition in philosophical terms. One of the most important points established in this book is that both of these thinkers inherited a set of standard philosophical topics (divine attributes, creation ex nihilo, divine providence, etc.) which were first developed as philosophical/religious questions by Philo. In effect, Philos philosophical method shaped the history of Western philosophy until the late seventeenth century.Professor Cortest makes a good case that Philos philosophical approach to religion was picked up by many early Christian theologians (notably John Philoponus) and that this created the intellectual ambience in which Maimonides and Aquinas thought developed.Alfred North Whitehead famously called the history of philosophy in the West a series of footnotes to Plato. Harry Wolfson showed that much of that tradition consists not of footnotes but of colorful elaborations of the synthesis of Greek philosophy with biblical ideals forged by Philo of Alexandria. In this incisive book Luis Cortest traces the great tradition of religiously committed philosophy from Philo and Maimonides to Aquinas and beyond, pursuing not 'influences' alone but thematic affinities and conceptual commitments that bind the tradition togetherinsights and reasoning about God and creation, providence, natural law, and revelation. Cortests intelligent, thoughtful, and accessible exploration shows clearly that there is indeed a perennial Judaeo-Christian tradition and gives us reason to see that this robust tradition is alive and well today.Though a long millennium separates them, aflcC