ABSTRACT
Clement of Alexandria used Neo-Platonism, Thomas Aquinas used Aristotle. They tried to make Christian doctrines consistent with each other. But these are contentious matters. Some think that Aquinas' use of Aristotle has been a disaster for theology. So most theologians think that something substantive should be on offer from philosophy. The great theologians have little to do with Ludwig Wittgenstein. Karl Barth had heard of him, but having been told that he was an analytic philosopher and a positivist, he took no further notice of him. There are theologians such as Nicholas Lash, Colin Gunton and Rowan Williams who pay attention to the grammar of religious language, but only the last can be said to be directly indebted to Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein's thoughts have influenced the treatment of negative theology, but their main influence is on the conception of theology as grammar. Philosophers may refrain from making truth-claims amid all this; but the theologian cannot.
