***Read Aquinas. He was as apt to cite Aristotle as Scripture. And without scholastic philosophy, you would never have had the flowering of the great universities of Europe.***
Interesting. Paul was able to build his theology without them.
"For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom (READ "PHILOSOPHY"), lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. (READ "CHRISTIANITY + PHILOSOPHY = POWERLESS CHRISTIANITY")
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise (READ "PHILOSOPHERS"), and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."
Where is the one who is wise? (READ PHILOSOPHER) Where is the scribe? Where is the DEBATER of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (READ "... MADE FOOLISH PHILOSOPHY") For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, (READ "THOUGH PHILOSOPHY") it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs and GREEKS seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, (READ "PHILOSOPHERS") not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being[c] might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom (READ "CHRIST HIMSELF IS OUR PHILOSOPHY") and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
Thoughts?
But Paul was trained as a Pharisee and was intent on preaching the Gospel of salvation, not on elaborating a theology for the contemplation of scholarly minds. But there is much in Greek thought nevertheless that helped great minds such as Augustine and later Aquinas penetrate theological mysteries which might otherwise have been even more inaccessible than they now are. Classical metaphysics and ontology, for instance, helped Church theologians formulate queries into the nature of the soul, of Christ's personhood, of the Triune God, of Transubstantiation. All of these profound lessons derive from Christ himself and are mentioned in some way in Scripture--but Greek thought allows us to penetrate their mysteries more deeply.