More Greek Philosophy vs. Christian Doctrine
March 10, 2009
Another couple good quotes on one of my favorite subjects. From Justo L. Gonzalez's book, A History of Christian Thought, Vol 1, From the Beginnings to the Council of Chalcedon:
pg. 50 " Among all the ancient philosophers, it is Plato who had the greatest influence on the early development of Christian thought. Of his teachings, those that most concern us here are the doctrines of the two worlds, of the immortality and the pre-existence of the soul, of knowledge as reminiscence, and of the Idea of the Good."
Most Christians don't realize that early Christianity was heavily influenced by Greek philosophical thought. Its influence really stands out when you look at how early Christianity departed from Jewish thought. So, for example, the average Christian has come to believe that the future life consists of our spirits living in a spiritual place called Heaven, as opposed to the Jewish idea of the resurrection of our dead bodies at some future time. Here's another quote:
pg. 50 " The Platonic doctrine of the two worlds was used by several Christian scholars as a means of interpreting the Christian doctrine of the "world" and also that of heaven and earth. Using the platonic teaching it could be demonstrated that the material things around us are not the ultimate realities, but that there are others of a different order and of greater value. It is easy to understand the attractiveness of such a doctrine to a church enduring persecution. But some Christians were soon led into attitudes toward the material world that constituted a negation of the doctrine of creation. This was aggravated by the Platonic tendency to make an ethical distinction between the two worlds, in which the visible world is the homeland of evil, while the world of ideas is the goal of human life and morality."
There's a lot more here but here's the quote I really wanted to get to:
pg. 52 " From this—and also from the monotheism that Plato's dialogue seemed to uphold—there arose the custom, deeply entrenched in some theological circles, of speaking of God in the same terms Plato used to refer ot the Idea of the Good: God is impassive, infinite, incomprehensible, indescribable and so on."