Why the mess? POCM 2007

Philosophy—religion without revelation
For us, religion and revelation are inseparable. Christianity, Islam, Bahai'-ism, Mormonism are "revealed" religions, based on the God's direct revelation through his Son or Prophet—Jesus, Mohamed, Bahaulla, Joseph Smith. The ancients didn't have "revealed" religions. And because the Civic Gods didn't address ethics and afterlife, the ancients had to work out their ideas of meaning and divinity without a solid, revealed, starting place.

People who thought about meaning and divinity were called "philosophers." We use the same word today, but we mean something way different. It's a mistake for us to think of ancient philosophers as tweed jacket theorists. They were theologians.

The best way to define the ancients' word "philosophy" to us—limited as we are to equating deity and revelation—is "religion without revelation." In a world without revealed religion, the ancient philosophers tried to figure out, What is God? Amazing.

If you're interested in how ancient philosopher/theologians understood God, Cicero's book, The Nature of the Gods, is a great read. I like the translation in the Penguin Classics edition.

"God dwells in the universe as its ruler and governor, and rules the stars in their courses, and the changing seasons, and all the varying sequences of nature, looking down on earth and sea, and protecting the life and goods of men."[Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, Book 1] Quote note

And, "The divine power is to be found in a principle of reason which pervades the whole of nature." [Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, Book 1]

Plato founded Platonism in fourth century BC. His followers adapted his philosophy into middle-Platonism and eventually into neo-Platonism. Remember Hypatia, the philosopherette murdered by Christian officials in Egypt in 415 AD? She was a neo-Platonist.
Drunk straight, the ancient philosophies can be dull, dull, dull. On the other hand, mixed with the perspective that a lot of modern Christian theology comes from them, the philosophies can be pretty interesting. Unfortunately at POCM we don't time to go into details. OK, I just lied. Fortunately, at POCM we don't time to go into details.

We do have time to say that the philosophy/religions understood the archaic myths to be what they were—village fables.

Listen to Cicero describe the old myths

"the poisonous honey of the poets, who present us with Gods afire with rage, or mad with lust, and make us the spectators of their wars, their battles, their violence and wounds....To these fictions of the poets we may add the wonders of the magicians and the similar extravagances of the Egyptians....Anyone who considers how rash and foolish are these beliefs ought to admire Epicurus [the philosopher]" [Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, Book 1]

And. says Cicero, Zeno, the guy who founded Stoicism

"ignores all our natural or acquired beliefs about the Gods and banishes Jupiter, Juno and Vesta, and all these persons, from the company of the Gods, arguing these were merely names given symbolically to mute and inanimate forces." [Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, Book 1]

And Listen to the ancient Pagan Heraclitus, comment on the silliness of idol worship

Not a unique opinion, says Origen, for it is shared by the Persians and Stoics. [Origen, Against Celsus Book 1, 5]

"Those who draw near to lifeless images as if they were Gods, act in a similar manner to those who would enter into conversation with houses." [Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, Book 1]

And

"Antisthenes too,...[says] that although popular religion recognizes many Gods, there is only one God" [Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, Book 1]

And

"There was Alcmaeon of Croton, who attributed divinity to the sun, moon and stars...not realizing he was attributing immortality to mortal things." [Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, Book 1]

	A powerful introduction to the background of Christian-Pagan borrowing, the ancient Pagan (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, etc), Jewish, and early Christian political and religious culture and history.
	A treasure: an unusually readable, well written—fun!—book.

If you need a special-purpose book to understand Christianity's Pagan origins, then probably Christianity didn't have Pagan origins.  It does; you don't.  What you really need is a good book describing ancient Pagan culture and religion.  This outstanding, easy to read book is the best I've read.

From Greco-Roman religions (Mithras, Isis, Dionysus, Eleusis, the mystery religions, etc.) and philosophies (monotheism, the soul, life after death, etc.), on through an excellent section on Second Temple Judaism and another on early Christianity, you'll discover the facts and issues behind modern scholarship on Christian origins.

I bought this book on a whim, figuring it would have a relevant section or two;  I ended up reading the thing cover to cover, 600 delightfully clear and well written pages.  But you don't have to read it cover to cover—just pick the section you're interested in.

Available at Amazon .com.

The Cambridge Companion to Greek Philosophy
edited by David Sedley

A reasonably intelligible introduction to Greek and Roman philosophy.

Available at Amazon.com

Greek Philosophy
Thales to Aristotle
editor Reginald Allen

A nice collection of primary sources from early Greek philosophers. Remember philosophy was a form of religion.

Available at Amazon.com