Rooted in the Absolute

"The infinite and personal God, the one who made the physical realm, is also responsible for the world's intelligibility and the unfolding of historical events. As a result, the classical Christian position on truth, knowledge, and history differs significantly from the relativistic spirit so common in today's world. The Christian worldview is rooted in absolute truth." (1)

Throughout our study of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, we have continued to compare and contrast their views with that of biblical Christianity. The focus of our compare -and -contrast study has been Plato's philosophy. Since our semester comes to a close next week, yesterday's class consisted of reviewing and summarizing our observations.

We acknowledge that all truth is God's truth, and we do see several things in Plato's view of reality that we can agree with. One of those things is that he claimed that truth is absolute. His doctrine ,or theory, of the Forms conveys an absolute, eternal, immutable, perfect spiritual realm that is in opposition with the temporal, imperfect and ever-changing physical world of matter. Even as believers in our postmodern world, we see that the shadow of Plato's dualism often creeps into our thinking. We are tempted to divide our lives into the sacred and secular, separating our Sundy -morning- God from the rest of our week, the rest of our lives. Plato's most famous pupil does not hold to this dualism.

In the later life of Aristotle, we see a departure from the teachings of his mentor. In fact, we see an outright rejection of the world of the Forms. Unlike Plato, he views the physical world of matter as very good. This world is the arena for experimentation and exploration ; Aristotle is a classifier by nature with a love of what is now known as biology and zoology. As to the spiritual realm, he does not hold a complete reversal of Plato's views and, therefore, consider it evil, but his focus is on the physical world. Aristotle sees 'God' as the Unmoved Mover, an eternal being, a First Cause. Applications of Aristotles' philosophy can tend toward humanism.

The students have been asked to explain and discuss some of the things they have learned in this study with their parents. I'm excited to hear about the results!

(1) Kenneth Richard Samples, A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007), 74.

Lord Over All

In yesterday's class, we discussed some of the ways in which echos of Plato's dualism continue to influence the world in which we live today. Plato was correct in pointing out the duality of reality; this world is not all there is. The problem lies in the fact that his philosophy places an overemphasis on the unseen spiritual realm and dismisses the value of the material world. Duality, yes. Dualism, no. The Christian doctrine of creation shows no such enmity between the body and soul. Plato sees the physical realm as an evil that one must endure until the soul breaks free from the body, its "prisonhouse," and returns to its former state of perfection. Unfortunately, this doesn't always last since the soul continues its journey of transmigration when it must return to the "dreary world of matter" (as he says in the Republic) and inhabit another body.

This disdain for the physical world spills over into a devaluing of physical labor and those who perform it and an exaltation of those who are employed in activities that are "good for the soul." Plato's influence has led many to believe that the priesthood, or even the life of a pastor or missionary, is more holy than that of other professions. It must be noted that Plato included philosophers in the first category as those who look after the things of the soul. In his ideal city, philosopher-kings would rule!

In our current society, we see the imposition of a sacred/secular divide. God, religion and matters of the soul are all well and good as long as they do not escape the walls of the church. The Christian sees no such divide; Jesus Christ is Lord over all areas of life both inside and outside the church walls. This is not to say that believers see no difference in the roles of church and government. Martin Luther's "Creator-Redeemer Distinction" exemplifies this and sees all of life under Christ's Lordship. (Students, remind me to discuss this next time.)

I will close with a definition of "secular" which was given by one of my former students: "The secular world is not one in which God does not exist; it is one in which He is ignored." I couldn't have said it better!

Whoooo is really wise?

Is it the one with the highest academic degree? Is it someone with a lot of common sense? What about someone who is 'street smart'? Socrates thinks that the really wise person is the one who realizes his own lack or his own ignorance--that he doesn't know it all. We can certainly see some truth in that statement, and it does seem to be a humble stance, at least on the surface. We have outlined Plato's view of reality and have seen that, for him, real knowledge and truth reside in the supernatural realm of the Forms--the world of Ideas. We have also noted that, according to his theory, everything that exists in the material world is only a cheap imitation of its real form or pattern which is immaterial. So we might infer that if, and I repeat, if there is any wisdom to be found here, it is in the striving for those things which are good for the soul and for the ultimate Good itself. As Christian believers we will differ from the Platonists as to what is the only real ultimate Good for the soul, and we will also differ as to where truth, knowledge and wisdom are to be found. The scripture tells us that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 1:7). I look forward to sharing in the wisdom that you will discover in your scripture search this week.

The Philosophers

Yesterday's class marked the beginning of our look at the ancient Greek philosophers. We introduced Socrates, Plato & Aristotle, but our primary focus will be on Plato. The basis for our discussion was his Allegory of the Cave which is found in Plato's Republic. I took a few 'prisoners' myself in our darkened 'cave' of a classroom to illustrate the basis of the story. The point being that Plato views the material world as a mere shadow of what is really real--the immaterial spiritual world. This is the realm of ideas or Forms as Plato describes it. Next time we will dig a little deeper into the Theory of the Forms and see how Plato's ideas still influence the world today. (Click on the picture to read a short explanation of the cave allegory.)

Two Paths

In Virgil's Aeneid, the hero's visit to the Underworld illustrates the way in which the ancient Romans viewed the afterlife. It is very clear that, to their way of thinking, a person's life on earth determined their destination after death:



"It is here that the way splits into two paths; one track, on the right, goes straight to mighty Pluto's battlements and by it we make our journey to Elysium; and the other, to the left, brings evil men to godless Tartarus, and with never a pause, exacts their punishment"(1).



The Elysian Fields, the Roman idea of heaven, was called by various other names such as the Field of Joy, the Fortunate Woods and the Homes of Peace where the Souls in Bliss spend eternity singing, dancing and playing games while "snow white ribbons" encircle their brows (2).



Those who wound up in Tartarus, while they are hungry and thirsty, have plentiful food and drink in view, but it is guarded by monstrous creatures who ensure that it always remain just out of reach. And all the while, these tormented souls are undergoing unspeakable torture.



Romans 1:20 says that all men, since the dawn of creation, are made aware of God's nature and power through what is seen around them. With this knowledge comes an innate awareness that one is not in good standing with such a holy and powerful God. The ancient Greeks and Romans were, of course, no exception; however, they continued to worship gods made in their own image. As we mentioned last week, these gods and goddesses were considered to possess all the shortcomings and commit all the sins that human beings do. Next time we will begin to examine how the later philosophers thought that it was inappropriate to think of the divine in this way.

(1), (2) - All quotes are taken from Virgil's Aeneid translated by W. F. Jackson Knight, Penguin Books, New York, NY, 1958.

As we examine the ancient Greco-Roman world, we are summarizing the works of Homer and Virgil. War and peace, love and hatred, jealousy and vengeance, adventure and danger, heroes and cowards, not to mention a few monsters thrown in to keep things from getting boring! These stories run the gamut of all human emotion and passion-the good, the bad and the ugly. The problem is that this describes the gods and goddesses as well. Odysseus and Aeneus perceive the gods to be just like themselves except, of course, for the fact that they are all-powerful and immortal! Now that's a scary scenario! If the gods are just like human beings with all our shortcomings. . .well, this doesn't exactly sound like a refuge to run to when trouble comes in this life, does it? The gods are fickle. They plot and scheme to intervene in the events of earth to benefit their favorite mortals and then take vengeance against others. And what about beyond the grave. . .will I find favor with the gods?

According to Homer, Odysseus was able to visit the place of the dead. Later on Virgil writes that Aeneas also made this same voyage. What a picture they have provided. Yesterday we began to discuss the Greco-Roman concept of the afterlife. We will later see that some of their ideas are comparable to popular conceptions of heaven and hell even to this day. Next week we will place these ideas up against the standard of Scripture.

"Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods?"

We took a detour yesterday from our right-brained look at logic to enter into more of a relaxed left-brained story time! Just what does that have to do with Christian worldview thinking? The next topic in our text examines the Christian view of truth, knowledge and history, so this seemed to be a good time to back up and look at the worldviews which were prevalent in the centuries leading up to the birth of Christ. Our starting point for this segment is the worship of the gods and goddesses of Olympus by the ancient Greeks and Romans. This topic was introduced through the story of "The Golden Apple of Discord" which supposedly formed the backdrop for the Trojan War. Even though the Greek and Roman myths are 'just stories' to us, we can't lose sight of the fact that these myths, especially the works of Homer and Virgil, represented the history and the theology of these ancient people groups; these gods and goddesses were considered to be real.

We are going to spend a little time here and then move on to the different theological views posed by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Next week we will look at the anthropomorphic nature of the gods of Olympus.