ABSTRACT
Western philosophy emerged in ancient Greece in predominantly polytheistic cultures. The ideas of the various schools of Greek philosophy shaped the intellectual histories of the lands that were subsequently conquered by the Romans. When Christianity rose to be the dominant religion in the declining Roman Empire, the primary intellectual task became the integration of revealed Christian doctrine with that Greek philosophical inheritance. However, after the collapse of the Roman Empire much of the Greek philosophical inheritance became inaccessible to Christian thinkers, and was preserved primarily in the vibrant intellectual climate of the Muslim world. From the Muslim world, that preserved philosophical inheritance then made its way back into Christian intellectual life around the time of the rise of universities, and contributed significantly to a philosophical flowering that has continued to the present day.
