, and continued with Augustine, and through all the other Essentialists. Existentialism on the other hand has an approach in which the existence of the thing precedes its essence. For Saint Thomas, the basic premise that leads him into his particular view of Christianity is the following: “Man is a rational animal”. This idea of putting reason above all is common to both the Greek philosophers and those who have picked up the ideas of these Greek philosophers. Reason has been a driving force, and has mingled with Faith in the Christian religion. But where Essentialism promotes the mingling of Faith and Reason, or Faith through Reason, since essentialist views have to use some kind of justification to explain the separation between ideas and forms. Existentialism promotes Reason before anything else.We can therefore see that Essentialism and Existentialism, even though they are but two sides of the same coin, are two completely different and separated views/constructions of reality. Saint Augustine was the first Christian thinker to delve into the Greek philosophy and incorporate it and adapt it to the Christian dogma. He chose Plato’s view, which is an essentialist view, and thus influenced Christian dogma. On the other hand, later on in time, when the church was confronted to a rise of the works of Aristotle in the west, and that Reason was becoming an important factor, Saint Thomas adapted Aristotle’s view to Christianity. These two ways of viewing life are still very much present today, and even though, through Sartre and other Existentialists, it seems that Existentialist thinking is nowadays more popular, both ways are still present and will remain because of their inherent duality. ...
