High-Q | English פסיכומטרי

Unit 9

Text II

Though strongly colored by Greek and Neo-Platonic influences, Christianity belongs to the Hebraist rather than to the Hellenistic side of man's nature because Christianity bases itself above all on faith and sets the man of faith above the man of reason. Again and again, at the beginning of Christianity, St. Paul tells us that the faith he preaches is foolishness to the Greeks, for they demand “wisdom” - which of course to 5 the Greeks meant rational philosophy and not religious faith. But the historical fact that Christianity arose in a world which already knew about reason through the Greeks distinguishes Christian faith from the Hebraic faith of the Old Testament. Ancient biblical man knew the uncertainties and hesitations of faith as a matter of personal experience, but he did not yet know the full conflict of faith with 10 reason because reason itself did not come into historical existence until later, with the Greeks. Christian faith is therefore more intense than that of the Old Testament, and at the same time paradoxical: it is not only faith beyond reason but, if need be, against reason. This problem of the relation between faith and reason, stated by St. Paul, is not only the 15 root problem for centuries of Christian philosophers to come, it is the root itself of later Christian civilization.

18. The writer’s main purpose in this text is to -

(1) discuss the development of reason out of faith (2) introduce faith as the core of Christianity (3) present the advantages of faith over reason (4) distinguish Christian faith from Hebraic faith

מטרתו העיקרית של הכותב הינה להציג את האמונה (ולא השכלתנות) כגרעין של הנצרות.

19. According to the third paragraph, the main difference between Christian and Hebraic faiths evolved from -

(1) their different time of formation (2) their attitude towards the Greeks (3) different Neo-Platonic influences (4) St. Paul’s attitude towards philosophy

שורות 8-11 : "אך העובדה ההיסטורית כי הנצרות צמחה בעולם שכבר הכיר במושג הרציונליות (שכלתנות) דר ך היוונים יוצרת הבדל בין האמונה הנוצרית לאמונה העברית של הברית הישנה (התנ"ך)".

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