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St. Augustine, and subsequently all Christianity, was profoundly influenced by neo-platonism and Plotinus. Augustinianism/ neo-platonism are sometimes called rational mystic philosophies.
Thomas Aquinas is usually considered an empiricist. I suspect though that these epistemological generalizations are overly simplistic and anachronistic. Rationalism v. Empiricism was a 17th and 18th c. debate. Thomas thru Aristotle e.g. believed the primacy of experience yet held certain propositions to be self-evidencing knowledge while memory of past events mere opinion.
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*Peter Gray* Elkins Park RPCNA
"Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. " Mk 9:24
"The greatest thing we can desire, next to the glory of God, is our own salvation; and the sweetest thing we can desire is the assurance of our salvation. In this life we cannot get higher than to be assured of that which in the next life is to be enjoyed. All saints shall enjoy a heaven when they leave this earth; some saints enjoy a heaven while they are here on earth." Joseph Caryl
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