Augustine and Era of silence for Philosophy questions?

Question:My first question is why did Augustine claim that Platonists came closer to Christian teaching than any other school? What scripture passages does he counterpose to Paul's pointed statement in his letter to the Colossians and how does he deal with Colossians?

Also why is there so little philosophy being written in the approximately 500 years between Boethius and Anselm?

I've been trying these couple of questions for hours and so far, I've really found nothing? Some help please?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: My first question is why did Augustine claim that Platonists came closer to Christian teaching than any other school? What scripture passages does he counterpose to Paul's pointed statement in his letter to the Colossians and how does he deal with Colossians?

Also why is there so little philosophy being written in the approximately 500 years between Boethius and Anselm?

I've been trying these couple of questions for hours and so far, I've really found nothing? Some help please?

Since, at the time of Augustine, Aristotle had still not been re-discovered in Europe and northern Africa, all of academic philosophy was rehashed Roman thought. The Platonists, with their conspicously Perfect Forms, presage many pre-modern epithets of total goodness and flawlessness that we associate with the Christian God. The Stoics - with their stark emphasis on the rules and natural laws of the universe - also grabbed Augustine's attention. But I think there was something particularly divine that he associated the Forms with. Besides, Neoplatonism, when it came into itself own, was heavily influenced by mysticism. Perhaps Augustine was drawn to this.

As to the 500 years of relative silence between Boethius and Anselm ... no one will really be able to say much other than, "There's a reason why they were called the 'Dark Ages.'" It sounds like a surly retort, but that particular idiom was used to describe the intellectual environs of the day. Almost no new thought whatsoever. I suppose you could being a sociologist about things and start looking at the material conditions of society which quelched philosophical writing and thinking ... but this is a hard time to study, because all the "fuedalism, manors, lords, and ladies" that we associated with that time actually come several hundred years later. Relatively little is known about day-to-day living around this time, comparatively speaking.

I hope this went some way toward answering your question(s).

-John

I can only answer the question about the era of silence. Boethius was the last layman allowed by the Church for more 800 years. No one was allowed to think of such things. Anselm was a Church trained theologian, but no other laymen were allowed after Boethius.

It ties in with the censorship of English Bibles [ http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-englis... ] when the Church did not want "commoners" thinking about theology for themselves.