John Mark Reynolds

This book is a great help for someone like me, who has had little exposure to ancient philosophy. As an introduction, it offers a necessarily simplified look at the pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle and is no substitute for reading the real stuff. I now feel a little better equipped to do so, though Dr. Reynolds makes it clear (and I'm sure his students, like my husband, could attest) that such reading is best done in intellectual community. The major disappointment for me was that early Christian thought is only discussed occasionally and in brief. I guess the reader is expected to be able to make the connections herself, and I do have a better understanding, now, of the situation of Christianity within the ancient marketplace of ideas. Still, I was left almost expecting (and certainly wanting) a sequel.… (more)