The Dallas Examined Life Philosophy Group Monthly Meetup

TOPIC: Christianity as a philosophy

The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom".

While people tend to think of Christianity as a religion it occured to me that it also meets one of the definitions for Philosophy: a system of principles for guidance in practical affairs. In the Christian tradition, Augustine of Hippo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo) was a cornerstone of Christian philosophy and theology. He lived from 354 to 430 CE, and wrote his best known work, The City of God, in Hippo Regius, (now Annaba, Algeria) challenging a number of ideas of his age including Arianism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism), and established the notions of original sin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_sin) and divine grace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_grace) in Christian philosophy and theology. (Wiki)

The problem is that most systems of philosophy claim to rely on reason, logic and critical thinking who many believe is in short supply when it comes to anything related to religion. So, what do you think?

1. Is there anything of value in studying Christianity?

2. Does it matter whether Jesus was an historical character or not?

3. How does Christianity differ from any other philosophy? ... or does it?

Links you may find interesting:

Evidence for the historical Jesus (http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Evidence_for_the_historical_existence_of_Jesus_Christ).

Stanford University Historical Jesus by Thomas Sheehan

And more books/articles by Thomas Sheehan (http://www.stanford.edu/dept/relstud/faculty/sheehan/Sheehan.html) (PhD, Stanford Dept of Religious Studies)