There is much to love about Louis Markos’ “From Aristotle to Christ” (IVP Academic, 2025). The clearest statement of the book’s putative upshot is the subtitle: “How Aristotelian Thought Clarified the Christian Faith.”
But the project contained in the book’s pages swerves slightly from this subtitle. In actual fact, Markos traces connections and influences he sees between Aristotle and the modern world. I say “modern world” rather than “Christian faith” because sections of the book seem centered more on questions attending contemporary America than with the historic creeds of the church.
Markos organized “From Aristotle to Christ” thematically, treating five significant domains of Aristotelian thought in five major sections: methodology, metaphysics, ethics, social science, and rhetoric and aesthetics. Along the way, Markos comments on the influence Aristotle exerted on Christianity and, for lack of a better phrase, Christian civilization.
The great strength of the book is its exposition of Aristotle’s notoriously difficult thought. Markos does a splendid job explaining, for example, Aristotle’s cosmology, including the connection between that cosmology and teleological metaphysics more broadly. Likewise, the role of Aristotle’s distinction between theoretical and practical virtue in his conception of the good life is clarifying and useful. None of the exposition in “From Aristotle to Christ” is weak, even if I have quibbles here and there about details.
Perhaps my favorite chapter of the book is chapter 11, “Studying the Psyche.” Markos’ exposition of Aristotle’s views of psyche, including the role of capacities and powers in understanding various kinds of soul and the irreducible unity that soul grounds in individuals, is lucid and simple without being simplistic. He also shows Aristotelian ties between cosmology and anthropology. The unity of the human person and the explanations of human action run parallel with a broader metaphysics that is likewise unified and explains the movements of the cosmos. These strengths are typical of other parts of the book as well.
On the other hand, “From Aristotle to Christ” is a bit short on engagement between Aristotle and Scripture, or even between Aristotle and abiding Christian theological concerns. For example, though I love “Studying the Psyche,” there is only one sentence, the last of the chapter, that mentions the Bible. Markos explains that the powers of the soul could, for Aristotle, conflict with one another, and he quotes Romans 7 and 1 Peter 3 as examples of Paul’s and Peter’s experience with that sort of intrapersonal tension. But there is no extended reflection, no attempt to glean any insight in light of Aristotle’s work, and no lessons drawn that perhaps are easier to miss without the backdrop of Aristotelian thought.
Markos instead focuses on the interaction between Aristotle and significant Christian thinkers; unsurprisingly, Aquinas makes numerous appearances. “Studying the Psyche,” for example, contains extended reflection on Aquinas’ views of the soul’s fate after bodily death.
Chapter 15 explains Aristotle’s distinction between theoretical and practical virtue and their respective roles in the good life. Markos also does an excellent job revealing the role of this distinction in the development of medieval theology, especially in Boethius, Aquinas, and Dante. Missing in that discussion is direct engagement with biblical material on the good life, or even classic statements on the telos of humanity from, say, the Heidelberg or Westminster Confessions. Though biblical material occasionally plays a more prominent role, many of the chapters are light on biblical interaction.
This pattern becomes most prominent in Part 4, which concerns issues of politics. In these chapters discussions even of theologians give way to thinkers like Rousseau, of whom Markos is broadly critical, and Burke, of whom Markos views more favorably.
However, Part 4 also contains an extended discussion of usury, which Aristotle opposed. This section is among the most theologically and biblically lengthy and interesting aspects of the book. I finished the book longing for more of that sort of thing.
On the whole, “From Aristotle to Christ” is wonderful, but only if you let it be what it is. Perhaps part of the problem is that I’m robustly Protestant. In the preface, Markos writes to his Christian readers, “especially those who share my evangelical faith [which would likely include Presbyterians], I ask that you extend grace to the medieval and Renaissance Christians … who were willing to learn at the feet of Aristotle and to be guided in their thoughts and actions by his insights.”
This request is crucial, for as Markos notes in the very next sentence, Aristotle has exerted far more influence among Catholics than Protestants.
The book’s focus on the Christian inheritance passed down from Aristotle is instructive, but perhaps more directly so for Catholic readers. The book nevertheless functions as a model for Protestants on how to engage with Aristotle rather than something that speaks directly to Protestant’s biblical and theological concerns.
“From Aristotle to Christ” could, however, be useful beyond its stated aims. For example, some among us may be inclined, for both purely theological but also pastoral reasons, to dig into the mechanics of providence so as to understand how God’s decree does not do “violence…to the will of…creatures” and establish “the liberty [and] contingency of secondary causes” (Westminster Confession III.1). Aristotelian resources may be useful in such tasks.
And for a quick but helpful introduction to Aristotle, including pointers to locations in Aristotle’s corpus where he discusses issues of cause and cosmology and interaction with Aristotle through history, Markos’ book is a useful starting point. Examples of this sort could be multiplied.
On top of it all, “From Aristotle to Christ” is just a lot of fun. Nerdy fun, no doubt, but fun nevertheless.
Timothy Pickavance serves as professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. He is a ruling elder and scholar in residence at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, California.