A Timeline of Western Thought and its Departure from Eastern Orthodoxy

To understand why so many modern debates about God, miracles, and the Resurrection feel stacked against historic Christianity, we have to see how the main stream of Western thought slowly moved away from the older, sacramental and patristic vision of reality. The following list sketches a kind of “family tree” of that Western stream: from the classical Greek philosophers who supplied the basic metaphysical grammar, through Augustine and the medieval scholastics who tried to baptize those categories, into the early modern rationalists and empiricists who relocated authority in the autonomous individual, and finally to the Enlightenment and post‑Enlightenment theologians and critics who reinterpreted or abandoned the Church’s dogma. Each figure receives only a brief caption, a few representative works, and a note on where his outlook diverges from traditional Eastern Orthodox teaching, so that we can see not only who influenced whom, but also how the underlying assumptions about reason, revelation, and reality themselves kept shifting over time.

Classical Greek Foundations

1. Socrates (469–399 BC) – Sought ethical truth through rational dialogue and self‑examination rather than mythic or traditional authority.

• Works: No writings of his own; known through Plato’s dialogues (e.g., Apology, Crito, Phaedo), which depict his method of questioning and his trial and death.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Pre‑Christian pagan; valued for moral seriousness but lacks revelation of the incarnate God, sacramental life, and the Church.

2. Plato (427–347 BC) – Taught an eternal world of Forms and the soul’s ascent from the material realm to the Good.

• Republic – Explores justice, the ideal state, and the philosopher’s ascent from the cave of ignorance.

• Phaedo – Argues for the immortality of the soul and presents philosophy as preparation for death.

• Timaeus – Offers a cosmological myth about a divine craftsman ordering the cosmos.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Provides useful metaphysical language but posits an impersonal Good and denigrates matter; lacks the Creator–creature distinction and the goodness of embodied creation affirmed by Orthodoxy.

3. Aristotle (384–322 BC) – Developed a systematic metaphysics of substances, causes, and virtues grounded in empirical observation.

• Metaphysics – Investigates being as such and argues for an unmoved mover.

• Nicomachean Ethics – Describes virtue as a mean cultivated by habit toward human flourishing.

• Physics – Analyzes change, motion, and nature in causal terms.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Pre‑Christian; his natural theology and ethics can be appropriated but remain without revelation, grace, or theosis.

4. Plotinus (ca. 204–270) – Presented a hierarchical emanation from the ineffable One, with the soul’s goal being mystical return.

• Enneads – Collection of treatises outlining the One, Intellect, and Soul and the soul’s ascent.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Influential background but teaches emanation rather than creation ex nihilo and an impersonal One instead of the triune God.

Christian Patristic and Early Latin Reception

5. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) – Integrated Christian faith with a strongly interior, Neoplatonic vision emphasizing grace and the inner turn to God.

• Confessions – Spiritual autobiography tracing his conversion and theology of memory, time, and grace.

• City of God – Contrasts the earthly city with the City of God and interprets history theologically.

• On the Trinity – Reflects on the triune God using psychological analogies.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Orthodox on many essentials, but his views on original sin, inherited guilt, and certain legalistic emphases on grace and predestination diverge from later Eastern patristic consensus.

Medieval Western Scholasticism

6. Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033–1109) – Exemplified “faith seeking understanding,” using rational arguments for God and atonement.

• Proslogion – Presents the ontological argument for God’s necessary existence.

• Cur Deus Homo – Explains the incarnation and cross in terms of satisfaction for offended divine honor.

• Monologion – Early reflections on God’s nature and existence.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Satisfaction theory of atonement and legal categories of merit and debt differ from the Eastern emphasis on healing, victory over death, and deification.

7. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) – Built a comprehensive synthesis of Christian doctrine on an Aristotelian metaphysical framework.

• Summa Theologiae – Systematic treatment of God, creation, ethics, Christ, and sacraments.

• Summa contra Gentiles – Apologetic work arguing for Christian truths from reason.

• On Being and Essence – Short treatise on metaphysics of act/essence.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Affirms much common dogma, but his nature–grace schema, created “habitual grace,” and some views on simplicity and created beatific vision differ from Orthodox patristic emphases on uncreated energies and theosis.

Early Modern Natural Law and Rationalism

8. Hugo Grotius (1568–1645) – Helped secularize natural law, grounding it in reason accessible apart from explicit revelation.

• On the Law of War and Peace – Foundational text in international law and natural law theory.

• The Truth of the Christian Religion – Apologetic work using rational arguments.

• Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty – Early work on maritime and war law.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Treats moral order as intelligible “even if God did not exist,” separating ethics from worship and sacrament in a way alien to Orthodox integration of morality and deification.

9. René Descartes (1596–1650) – Grounded knowledge in the autonomous thinking subject and clear, distinct ideas.

• Meditations on First Philosophy – Introduces methodic doubt, cogito, and proofs of God.

• Discourse on Method – Outlines his method of systematic doubt and scientific reasoning.

• Principles of Philosophy – Synthesizes his metaphysics and physics.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Elevates individual reason as ultimate arbiter, separates mind and body sharply, and relocates certainty away from ecclesial tradition and sacramental life.

10. John Locke (1632–1704) – Emphasized experiential empiricism and a “reasonable” minimal Christianity.

• Essay Concerning Human Understanding – Argues mind is a blank slate formed by experience.

• Two Treatises of Government – Defends natural rights and government by consent.

• The Reasonableness of Christianity – Presents Christianity as simple belief in Jesus as Messiah.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Reduces faith to minimally rational propositions, sidelines sacramental ecclesiology, and reinforces individualist, voluntarist religion.

High Enlightenment Deism and Skepticism

11. Voltaire (1694–1778) – Promoted deistic, rational religion and sharp critique of church authority and miracles.

• Philosophical Dictionary – Aphoristic critiques of dogma, miracles, and intolerance.

• Candide – Satirical tale attacking naive providential optimism.

• Letters on England – Praises English religious tolerance and critique of French church.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Rejects revealed dogma, sacramental church, and supernatural interventions, reducing religion to moral deism.

12. David Hume (1711–1776) – Pushed empiricism into deep skepticism about causation, miracles, and natural theology.

• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding – Includes famous sections “Of Miracles” and on causation.

• A Treatise of Human Nature – Early, more technical statement of his philosophy.

• Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion – Critiques rational arguments for God.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Treats miracle testimony as intrinsically suspect and undercuts rational grounds for belief in providence and revelation.

13. Jean‑Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) – Elevated inner sentiment and civic “general will,” proposing a civil religion of sincerity and virtue.

• The Social Contract – Develops general will and civil religion concepts.

• Émile – Educational treatise stressing natural goodness and authenticity.

• Confessions – Introspective autobiography stressing sincerity.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Replaces sacramental, revealed faith with a vague, moralized religiosity rooted in sentiment and collective political identity.

Critical Philosophy and German Idealism

14. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) – Limited knowledge of God to practical moral reason and denied speculative access to noumenal realities.

• Critique of Pure Reason – Argues we cannot know things‑in‑themselves, including God.

• Critique of Practical Reason – Grounds God and immortality as postulates of moral law.

• Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason – Reinterprets Christianity as moral symbolism.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Relocates religion from encounter with the living God in Church to moral autonomy, relativizing dogma and miracle.

15. G. W. F. Hegel (1770–1831) – Interpreted reality and doctrine as stages in the self‑unfolding of Absolute Spirit.

• Phenomenology of Spirit – Traces Spirit’s journey to self‑consciousness.

• Science of Logic – Systematic treatment of dialectical logic.

• Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion – Reads Christian doctrines as moments in Spirit’s self‑revelation.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Historicizes dogma, blurring Creator–creature distinction and making the Church’s confession part of a philosophical process rather than timeless revealed truth.

Classical Liberal Protestant Theology and Historical Criticism

16. Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) – Grounded theology in religious feeling and experience rather than objective revelation.

• On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers – Defends religion as feeling of absolute dependence.

• The Christian Faith – Systematic theology built on God‑consciousness, not dogma.

• Brief Outline of the Study of Theology – Influential account of theological disciplines.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Replaces sacramental, dogmatic revelation with subjective experience as norm; undermines binding authority of creeds.

17. F. C. Baur (1792–1860) – Applied Hegelian dialectic to early Christianity, seeing New Testament as product of party conflict.

• Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ – Interprets Paul within a Petrine‑Pauline conflict.

• Church History of the First Three Centuries – Reads early church development dialectically.

• Various essays on New Testament criticism.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Denies apostolic harmony and scriptural unity, treating much of the New Testament as late ideological construction.

18. David Friedrich Strauss (1808–1874) – Read Gospel miracles as myths expressing community belief rather than historical events.

• The Life of Jesus Critically Examined – Systematic mythological reading of Gospel narratives.

• Later popularized versions of his Life of Jesus.

• The Old and the New Faith – Programmatic statement of his post‑Christian stance.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Denies historicity of key events like virgin birth and Resurrection, reducing Christ to mythic symbol.

19. Albrecht Ritschl (1822–1889) – Centered Christianity on moral community and values, sidelining metaphysics and classical dogma.

• The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation – Emphasizes moral community and value‑judgments.

• A Critical History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation – Historical groundwork for his system.

• Instruction in the Christian Religion – Popular summary of his theology.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Treats Trinity, Incarnation, and atonement as secondary to ethics; weakens sacramental and ontological dimensions of salvation.

20. Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918) – Developed Documentary Hypothesis, treating the Pentateuch as a late, composite human product.

• Prolegomena to the History of Israel – Classic statement of his source‑critical theory.

• History of Israel – Historical reconstruction built on his hypothesis.

• Various Old Testament essays and commentaries.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Undermines Mosaic authorship and strong view of inspiration, making Scripture primarily a record of evolving religious ideas.

21. Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930) – Reduced Christianity to ethical monotheism and saw dogma as Greek corruption.

• History of Dogma – Multi‑volume account of doctrine as Hellenistic distortion of simple gospel.

• What Is Christianity? – Presents Christianity as fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man.

• The Essence of Christianity (lectures and essays related to above themes).

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Marginalizes Trinity, Incarnation, and sacraments as non‑essential; treats Tradition as largely corrupting.

20th Century Liberal, Neo‑Orthodox, and Existential Theologies

22. Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) – Advocated “demythologizing” Scripture, reading miracles and Resurrection in existential terms.

• Theology of the New Testament – Interprets NT through existential categories.

• Jesus Christ and Mythology – Programmatic exposition of demythologizing.

• History of the Synoptic Tradition – Form‑critical study of Gospel materials.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Empties miracles and Resurrection of literal historicity, making faith an existential decision divorced from concrete events.

23. Paul Tillich (1886–1965) – Recast God as “ground of being” and doctrines as symbols of ultimate concern.

• Systematic Theology (3 vols.) – Correlation method between questions of culture and symbols of faith.

• The Courage to Be – Popular exposition of existential anxiety and faith.

• Dynamics of Faith – Defines faith as ultimate concern.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Depersonalizes God, treats dogma as symbolic rather than as true propositions about a real, personal Lord.

24. Karl Barth (1886–1968) – Reacted against liberalism with a Christ‑centered “neo‑orthodoxy” emphasizing God’s sovereign revelation.

• The Epistle to the Romans – Early explosive critique of liberal theology.

• Church Dogmatics – Massive, unfinished dogmatic project centered on Christ.

• The Word of God and the Word of Man – Sermons and essays on revelation.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Strongly re‑asserts many classical themes, but maintains critical stance toward Scripture as fallible witness and remains within a Western, dialectical framework rather than patristic sacramental ontology.

25. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) – Stressed costly discipleship and hinted at “religionless Christianity” for a secular age.

• The Cost of Discipleship – Call to radical obedience to Christ.

• Life Together – Reflections on Christian communal life.

• Letters and Papers from Prison – Fragmentary thoughts on a “world come of age” and religionless Christianity.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Deeply Christocentric and sacramental early on, but later “religionless” language, when abstracted from context, feeds trends that reduce Christianity to ethics and political resistance.

26. Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) – Developed “Christian realism,” stressing sin and power in social ethics.

• Moral Man and Immoral Society – Distinguishes individual and collective ethics.

• The Nature and Destiny of Man – Theological anthropology with strong doctrine of sin.

• The Irony of American History – Applies Christian realism to US politics.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Retains many Christian symbols but treats them largely in ethical‑political terms rather than as sacramental participation in divine life.

20th Century Psychological and Atheist Reinterpretations

27. Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) – Interpreted religious symbols psychologically as expressions of the collective unconscious.

• Psychological Types – Introduces typology and explores symbolic thought.

• Answer to Job – Bold psychological reading of biblical theodicy.

• Man and His Symbols – Popular exposition of archetypes and dreams.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Reduces dogma, sacraments, and visions to archetypal patterns of the psyche, subordinating revelation to depth psychology.

28. Richard Dawkins (b. 1941) – Prominent New Atheist who treats religion as a harmful evolutionary by‑product.

• The Selfish Gene – Popularizes gene‑centered view of evolution.

• The Blind Watchmaker – Argues that natural selection explains apparent design without a designer.

• The God Delusion – Polemical attack on belief in God as irrational and dangerous.

Deviation from Orthodoxy: Explicitly rejects all theistic belief, miracles, and revelation, promoting a thoroughgoing naturalism and often caricaturing traditional Christian faith.

Taken together, this chain of Western thinkers shows a steady migration of authority away from the living, worshiping Church toward abstract systems, the autonomous subject, historical criticism, psychology, and finally a closed naturalism. Each step does not erase what came before so much as reframe it: Plato’s metaphysics becomes raw material for Augustine and Aquinas; Aquinas’s synthesis becomes a quarry for Grotius and Descartes; Descartes and Locke prepare the ground for Hume, Rousseau, and Kant; Kant and Hegel reshape the very idea of revelation for Schleiermacher, Baur, Strauss, and their heirs; Jung and Dawkins then inherit a world in which “religion” is already reduced to inner experience or evolutionary by‑product. Seen from an Eastern Orthodox vantage point, the problem is not simply that particular doctrines are denied, but that the basic posture toward truth has changed: from participation in the life of the Trinity through the Church’s sacramental, ascetical, and noetic tradition, to an external, often suspicious scrutiny that judges revelation by the standards of systems foreign to it. Mapping this genealogy makes clear that modern objections to the Resurrection and to miracles are not neutral or inevitable conclusions of “reason,” but the fruit of a specific and highly contingent intellectual history.