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Differences between

Greek & Hebrew

Worldviews

simplistic, quick & dirty

Differences between the Greek and Hebrew World Views

Greek	Hebrew
Spiritual means immaterial	Spiritual means life-giving
From Plato, via Augustine	From the Jews, via prophets & Jesus
Matter is sinful or, at most, tolerated	Matter is God-made and holy
One should limit pleasures	Ecstasy is a gift of the Creator
Religion is private (God and me) [I do not agree with this characterization of Greek religion]	Religion is political (God and us)
Centered around theological theme of the Fall and humankind's need for redemption	Creation is good, and we say thank you for it by enjoying it, and sharing the enjoyment of it
Artists choose between sacred and secular subjects, between spiritual and material expression	Every experience of beauty is an experience of God. Artistic expression shares the beauty of God
Humankind's relationship with God is vertical; God is up, humankind is below	Humankind's relationship with God is horizontal. God as more pantheistic

from Matthew Fox,
On Being a Musical, Mystical Bear,
Paulist Press, 1976

My personal opinion, for what it's worth, is that some of these characterizations of differences between the Greek and Hebrew wisdom traditions are a bit overdrawn and over-generalized. Just to put this in context, in Matthew Fox's book (from which this chart is taken) he is trying to make a case for the Hebrew perspective and against the Greek perspective.