The Platonic-Christian Trinity: Use and Inversion of Eusebius of Caesarea's Apologetic Strategy in Ralph Cudworth

NATALIA STROK; GABRIELA MÜLLER

Historia Philosophica

Fabrizio Serra

Año: 2018 p. 117 - 135

1724-6121

Ralph Cudworth explicitly mentions Eusebius of Caesarea in many instances throughout Paragraph XXXVI of Chapter 4 of The True Intellectual System and almost all references belong to Book XI of Praeparatio Evangelica, especially the section comprising Chapters 9 to 20. In the present paper we analyze these references in order to show that the Cambridge professor considers these chapters when discussing the Trinitarian theme, because he intends to argue in favour of the continuity between Christianity and Platonism, like Eusebius, but reversing the apologetic strategy that the Caesarean author uses in his work. This difference is due to the particular historical contexts of each author: Eusebius makes an apology for Christianity, showing its agreement with Platonism, while Cudworth makes an apology for Platonism, presenting its affinity with Christianity.«Historia Philosophica» is an International Peer-Reviewed Journal.The eContent is Archived with Clockss and Portico.Classificazione ANVUR: A. (Se encuentra también indexada en HIstorical Abstracts).