"Christian Metaphysics and Neoplatonism" (1936) is the title of

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the s ...

' thesis that would obtain for him permission to teach in the secondary schools of France. It was published when Camus was 23 years old. Camus uses

Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...

and

Pelagius Pelagius (; c. 354–418) was a British (Celtic Britons, Brittonic) theologian known for promoting a system of doctrines (termed Pelagianism by his opponents) which emphasized human choice in salvation and denied original sin. Pelagius was accus ...

to elaborate his moral views in regard to Greek thought and Christianity. This book is important as it is the first attempt of Camus to explore humanist ethics. Although it has never been published separately, this text was included in his collected works from the :fr:Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. An English translation under the hand of Ronald Srigley was published in 2007 by the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

Environment and circumstances

Camus wrote his thesis in order to complete his studies at the

University of Algiers The University of Algiers 1 (), commonly called Benyoucef Benkhedda, is a public research university based in Algiers, Algeria. Founded in 1909 from the amalgamation of different French colonial educational institutions, it has become the oldes ...

. The thesis is a historical study, in which Camus attempts to elucidate the relationships between evangelical

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

, the

Greek philosophy Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysic ...

of the first few centuries

anno domini The terms (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used when designating years in the Gregorian calendar, Gregorian and Julian calendar, Julian calendars. The term is Medieval Latin and means "in the year of the Lord" but is often presented using "o ...

, and the

dogmatic Dogma, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, Protes ...

Christianism established by

. Camus knew how to read

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

(quotes from the work of Augustine are mostly in Latin), but knew very little of

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

, and the Greek philosophers are quoted in French translations. As is required for such a dissertation, Camus not only had recourse to primary sources namely,

Plotinus Plotinus (; , ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a Greek Platonist philosopher, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher was the self-taught philosopher Ammonius ...

and Augustine, but he also studied and used studies of recent French authors, notably

Émile Bréhier Émile Bréhier (; 12 April 1876, Bar-le-Duc – 3 February 1952, Paris) was a French philosopher. His interest was in classical philosophy, and the history of philosophy. He wrote a ''Histoire de la Philosophie'', translated into English in seven ...

Franz Cumont __NOTOC__ Franz-Valéry-Marie Cumont (3 January 1868 in Aalst, Belgium – 20 August 1947 in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre near Brussels) was a Belgian archaeologist and historian, a philologist and student of epigraphy, who brought these often isolated ...

Étienne Gilson Étienne Henri Gilson (; 13 June 1884 – 19 September 1978) was a French philosopher and historian of philosophy. A scholar of medieval philosophy, he originally specialised in the thought of Descartes; he also philosophized in the tradition ...

, René Arnou, Pierre de Labriolle and Aimé Puech. Camus' bibliography also contains works written in English, such as ''The Philosophy of Plotinus'' by W. R. Inge. Camus had already read the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

a few years before.'' Les Essais '' de Camus, p. 1173

References

1936 essays 1936 in Christianity Essays about religion Essays by Albert Camus Theses {{philo-essay-stub