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Article: Aristotle
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Science and Religion
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Aristotle
The great monotheistic religions have regarded Aristotle's philosophy with both appreciation and hostility. Christian, Islamic, and Jewish theologians generally approved of his well-ordered, teleological world in which final causes ordained that natural processes were directed toward the fulfillment of particular ends. Yet Aristotle rejected various important monotheistic tenants, including the belief that God is the ultimate cause of the existence of the world, the resurrection of the body, and the full immortality of the soul. As unqualified believers in these latter doctrines, Christians were particularly compelled to repudiate Aristotle. Theologians thus tended to ...