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PHILOSOPHICAL, HISTORICAL AND LEGAL FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION (EDUC 403)

Subject

Sheena Marie A. Albason Dr. Exequiel Calimutan

Juvy Anne C. Calonce Professor
Mary Joy G. Abiera
Reporters

PHILOSOPHY OF JESUS CHRIST

Topic

THE PHILOSOPHY OF JESUS CHRIST

Jesus Metaphysics

Metaphysics-- is a type of philosophy or study that uses broad concepts to help define reality
and our understanding of it. ... As such, it is concerned with explaining the features of reality
that exist beyond the physical world and our immediate senses.

A philosophy of discovering hidden, gnostic, in ordinary knowledge by seeking the cause of

reality through exploring unanswered questions.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates

Proverbs 18:15 says, “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks
knowledge.”

It turns out that God created us to be inquisitive, to seek knowledge, to pursue the truth.

JESUS WAS A JEW

Jesus was Jewish, born to Mary, wife of Joseph. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke offer two
accounts of his genealogy. Matthew traces Jesus' ancestry to Abraham through David. Luke
traces Jesus' ancestry through Adam to God.

He is regarded by most Christians as the Incarnation of God.

Christ was not originally a name but a title derived from the Greek word christos, which
translates the Hebrew term meshiah (Messiah), meaning “the anointed one.”

What does this have to do with Metaphysics?

Everything. Jesus knew the crucial answer to the crucial question of Metaphysics because he
is a Jew. The ultimate truth of Metaphysics, the nature of ultimate reality, reality at its most
real, was not the unknowable mystery to the Jews that it was all to all the pagan tribes,
nations, and religions all around them.

It was because Ultimate Reality, for reasons known only to Himself, had chosen to reveal
Himself to them as to no one else
He told them His name.

And that name was 'I AM.'

 "I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I Am!" John 8:58

For the metaphysical basis for the idea of the rights of man is the idea of man as
created in the image of God.

“You must be holy because I the Lord your God am holy.”

Jesus’ New Name for God

The name Jesus called God was an even more startling one than the one God had
revealed to Moses. Through Moses the Jews had learned that God is simply I AM,
the one, eternal, perfect, unique, utterly real Person. Now Jesus called this
Person a name no one had ever dreamed or dared to use: “Father.”

THE MATAPHYSICS OF LOVE

“So that you may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (I John1:3)

Only love could motivate such madness. Christ’s outstretched arms on the Cross
are God’s answer to our childlike question: “How much do you love me?” “This
much!” How big is that stretch? It is the distance between Heaven and earth that
was bridged by the Incarnation, and it was the distance between Heaven and Hell
that was bridged by our salvation.

Christ is the ultimate revelation of God, or ultimate reality, of the deepest secret
of metaphysics

Jesus Epistemology (the philosophy of knowing)

Epistemology is derived from the Greek word “epistome” meaning knowledge and
“logos” which means the study of. It is synonymous with the Latin word “scientia”. Basically
it deals with the study of knowledge.
THE FIRST GREAT PHILOSOPHICAL question is: What is? The second, which naturally
follows, is: How do we know what is? The first question is about being, the second is about
truth.
Jesus’ answer to the first question, the question of being, was Himself. It was not to point but
to be, to be “I AM.” So His answer to the second question, the question of truth, is also not to
point to anything else as the truth but simply to be Himself the truth: “I AM the truth.” (John
14:6)
So he is not just an epistemologist but the truth that all epistemology seeks. For Jesus
is not just a philosopher, a lover of wisdom, only because He is wisdom. He is the Beloved
that “the love of wisdom” is in love with.
In epistemology, what we must know is ourselves, the world and God. There are
degrees of knowledge and the key is wisdom. Again, Jesus not only taught in Jewish wisdom
but personified it. As Kierkegaard wrote in Practice in Christianity, the only explanation of
truth is to be it. Jesus philosophy is in that sense ‘existential. Our knowledge will increase
with our sanctification of the Name of God, and of the world and ourselves. Kreeft rightly
refers to prayer as an important key to knowledge, allowing us to draw close and relate to
that which we need to know, rather than just to know about.
It shows how all things point to Christ. Everything in the universe and everything in
the bible is finger pointing to Him. He is the end of Epistemology.
 Jesus Anthropology (the philosophy of man)

Anthropology is the study of what makes us human.

The THIRD GREAT QUESTION of philosophy is the question of the questioner, the
question of man. It is naturally third because after thinking about reality (metaphysics), we
naturally think about our thinking (epistemology), and then about the thinkers, ourselves
(anthropology).
Jesus anthropology revolves around the imago Dei, the instruction that we are made
in the image and likeness of God. Each person is infinitely other than God, but bears God’s
image and likeness in one major respect: each human person is absolutely one and only.
Upon this is founded human dignity. Jesus anthropology is one which seeks to serve human
dignity and increase it upon the face of earth, for God’s glory.
Next Kreeft explores the anthropology of Jesus, noting that Christ is the key to
anthropology. Jesus is the only way for man to know himself. Even Kreeft’s writing style
weaves word pictures together in such a way as to point to the beauty, artistry, and glory of
Christ. In addition, the content itself encompasses both the philosophical questions and the
scriptural answers.

Jesus Ethics
Ethics is the art of science that deals with the morality of human acts.

In looking at Jesus ethics, Kreeft says, “There are really three moral questions, three
basic parts to morality; how should we relate to each other, to ourselves and to God? Kreefts
writing prowess shines through as he reflects on Christ as the answer to the ethics:
“He is the world’s greatest moral teacher, but He is more than that. He is the world’s
most perfect moral example, but He is more than that. He is the world’s greatest prophet but
He is more than that. He is more than one who taught goodness and lived goodness and
demanded goodness. He is goodness.
The Philosophy of Jesus is a powerful and even worshipful look at the person of Jesus
Christ. This is a profound look at Christ as the answer to life’s great questions: “Philosophers
seek wisdom. Christ is wisdom. Therefore Christ is the fulfillment of philosophy. Moralists
seek righteousness. Christ is righteousness. Therefore Christ is the fulfillment of morality.
The conclusion; “The answer is that there is only one hope, for societies as well as souls;
What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved
(Act11:14)
Jesus ethics revolves around the imitation Dei, the imitation of God, which in
Christianity becomes the imitation of Christ. Kreeft argues that we have to be little Christs,
which I take it has to do with becoming all that God has called us to be, individually and as a
people of God. The idea is that we each need to be personally responsible for our share in
collective destiny, which is with God, to mend the world. Jesus own philosophy was to do the
Father’s will, which he did, and which he enjoined us to do, and in which prayer and
personal wholeness is the key to knowledge and true freedom.

The Overcoming of Legalism

 Legalism is a term Christians use to describe a doctrinal position emphasizing a
system of rules and regulations for achieving both salvation and spiritual
growth. Legalists believe in and demand a strict literal adherence to rules and
regulations.
 Law is good. (Romans 7:12) We need it for moral clarity, to define good and evil.
This is true of both moral law and civil law. But while only criminals need worry
about civil law, everyone has to worry about moral law. Only a few are civil law-
breakers, but all are moral lawbreakers.
 Our inner moral lives seem complex. There are many laws, many temptations,
many sins. our external social life is also complex, increasingly so, sometimes
crushingly so. That is why we hurry so: we are trying to do the impossible:
everything.
 Until we hear Christ’s radical, liberating word that frees us from both physical
and spiritual complexity and therefore from legalism; the liberating word He
spoke to Martha. (Martha is us.) “Poor Martha. You are anxious and troubled
about many things. But there is only one thing necessary.” (Luke 10:42)
  “Mary has chosen the better part.” What did Mary choose? Jesus Himself. Jesus
only. Mary forsook all else to sit at Jesus’ feet. The “one thing necessary” is
Jesus Himself. He is the one Messiah promised by all the laws and all the
prophets, and He is promised to all of us and to all our needs
 Jesus sums up the moral life in two words: “Follow Me.” (John 1:43) All other
great moral teachers—Moses, Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Socrates,
Muhammad— said: “Follow my teaching.” But Christ said: “Follow me.” They
said, “I teach the way,” but Christ said “I am the way.” Buddha said, “Look not
to me, look to my dharma (doctrine).” Christ said, “Come unto me.” (Matthew
11:28) Buddha said, “Be lamps unto yourselves.” Christ said, “I am the light of
the world.” (John 8:12)
THE REFUTATION OF RELATIVISM
 Relativism is the belief that there's no absolute truth, only the truths that a
particular individual or culture happen to believe. If you believe in relativism,
then you think different people can have different views about what's moral and
immoral.
 The strongest answer to moral relativism is not a perfect argument but a perfect
person: Christ. For that is concrete evidence, real data, real presence. Meet
Him, and relativism instantly shrivels like a vampire in the sunlight.
THE SECRET OF MORAL SUCCESS
 Lewis says, rightly, that it is simply impossible to think clearly about life
without admitting those two primary facts. We know the good because we can’t
not know it. God continues to enlighten our conscience. But we do not do it
because we are not saints. The good that we would do, we do not, and the evil
that we would not do, we do.
(Romans 7:15)
 The very first words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church’ section on
morality explains this: “Christian, recognize your dignity, and now that you
share in God’s own nature, do not return to your former condition by sinning.
Remember who is your Head and of whose Body you are a member.”
 God will not rest until you are a saint. He demands it: “You must be perfect
even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)
JESUS AND SEX
 Religion is not a pale substitute for sex but sex a pale substitute for real
religion; because, as Aquinas says, “No man can live without joy; that is why a
man deprived of spiritual joy goes over to carnal pleasures.” (ST II-II, 35, 4 ad 2)
The origin of the Sexual Revolution is religious. That’s why its demands are so
non-negotiable.
 But when you have the real thing you are freed from addiction to its image.
When you have a love (agape) relationship with God you are freed from
addiction to love (eros) relationships to creatures. And only then, only when we
do not so desperately need them, we can enjoy and appreciate creatures freely.
 The doctrine of Creation means that all matter is holy because God made it, but
the doctrine of the Incarnation means the human body is most holy because
God took it into His own being, married it, in an indissoluble union. (What God
has joined together, no man can put asunder.)
 At the heart of the theology of the body is the vision of sex as an icon of the
Trinity and of our final, mystical Heavenly destiny to be married to God. God is
not just an individual; God is a family, a Trinity, a family of Father, Son, and
Spirit. Thus the family is Godlike because God is a family.
 God is a Trinity because He is love, complete love, therefore Lover, Beloved, and
Loving. He is not just a lover, but “God is love.” (I John 4:8) And that is why
human love, especially human sexual love, is Godlike: because God is love.
CHRIST AND SOCIAL ETHICS: SOLIDARITY
 The fundamental problem of society is glue. What glues naturally selfish
individuals together? We are naturally selfish. That is the empirically verifiable
formulation of the doctrine of original Sin. Selfishness divides, community
unites. What melds selfishness into community? Is it force? Or is it social
justice?
  Solidarity is the fundamental answer to the fundamental social and political
problem. The problem is how to get selfish individuals to cooperate without
losing their individuality. It is the problem of the polis, the civitas, the
community: what is the common unity of the community? How can we live
together in peace instead of war?
 A social ethic?
 To what extent, then, can the ethic of the Sermon on the Mount be described as
a social ethic? Jesus is not simply concerned with person-to-person encounters,
but with a pattern of community life among the people of God, as seen
particularly in the application of some of the principles of Matthew 5 in
Matthew 18. There we discover that the care of disciples for one another and
the quality of their relationships will reflect the fact that they are truly children
of God and inheritors of his kingdom.
 Christ’s Church gives the real answer: the real basis for human solidarity is
Christ. It is in Christ that all men are brothers. Whatever we do to a bag lady or
a baby, born or unborn, or a terminally ill cancer patient, or a political or
military enemy, we do to Christ.
 The great philosopher ended His philosophy by His last words in the Bible,
through His prophet John, in the Apocalypse, ( Read Revelation 22.)

Reference:
A Book The Philosophy of Jesus By Peter Kreeft. St. Augustine’s Press South Bend, Indiana 2007