Hear, hear! We should take the 'later' (from our perspective) pagan thinkers as seriously as, say, Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria are taken in Christian thought - as original contributors, as well as creative synthesisers of previous work.
Is there a point at which these developments cease to be original or useful? With the dark ages, perhaps? If we hop forward to the NeoStoics of the Renaissance, for instance, is Justus Lipsius adding anything worthwhile to Stoicism, or just awkwardly cramming it into a Christian framework?
Hear, hear! We should take the 'later' (from our perspective) pagan thinkers as seriously as, say, Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria are taken in Christian thought - as original contributors, as well as creative synthesisers of previous work.
Well put
Is there a point at which these developments cease to be original or useful? With the dark ages, perhaps? If we hop forward to the NeoStoics of the Renaissance, for instance, is Justus Lipsius adding anything worthwhile to Stoicism, or just awkwardly cramming it into a Christian framework?
No. No. Yes