PLATONISM AND CHRISTIANITY.
Christian Estimate of Plato (§1).
Platonic Philosophy Spiritual (§ 2).
Platonic Philosophy Theistic (§ 3).
Platonic Philosophy Teleological and Ethical (§ 4).
Religion, Rewards, and Punishment in Plato (§ 5).
Merits and Defects (§ 6).
Later Platonic Schools (§ 7).
" The peculiarity of the Platonic philosophy," says Hegel, in his " History of Philosophy " (vol. ii.), "is precisely this direction toward the supersensuous world, — it seeks the elevation of consciousness into the realm of spirit. The Christian religion also has set up this high principle, that the internal spiritual essence of man is his true i. Christian essence, and has made it the universal Estimate principle." Some of the early Fathers of Plato, recognized a Christian element in Plato, and ascribed to him a kind of propedeutic office and relation toward Christianity. Clement of Alexandria calls philosophy " a sort of preliminary discipline for those who lived before the coming of Christ," and adds, " Perhaps we may say it was given to the Greeks with this special object; for philosophy was to the Greeks what the law was to the Jews, — a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ (cf. Strom., I., v.-xx.; Eng. transl., ANF, ii. 305-324). " The Platonic dogmas," says Justin Martyr, " are not foreign to Christianity. If we Christians say that all things were created and ordered by God, we seem to enounce a doctrine of Plato; and, between our view of the being of God and his, the article appears to make the only difference " (cf. II Apol., xiii.). " Justin " (says Ackermann, Das Christliche im Plato, chap, i., Hamburg, 1835; Eng. transl., The Christian Element in Plato, Edinburgh, 1861), " Justin was, as he himself relates, an enthusiastic admirer of Plato before he found in the Gospel that full satisfaction which he had sought earnestly, but in vain, in philosophy. And, though the Gospel stood infinitely higher in his view than the Platonic philosophy, yet he regarded the latter as a preliminary stage to the former. And in the same way did other apologetic writers express themselves concerning Plato and his philosophy, especially Athenagoras, the most spirited, and philosophically most important of them all, whose ' Apology ' is one of the most admirable works of Christian antiquity." The Fathers of the early Church sought to explain the striking resemblance between the doctrines of Plato and those of
RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Platon
Platonism and Christianity
Christianity, principally by the acquaintance, which, as they supposed, that philosopher had with learned Jews and with the Jewish Scriptures during his sojourn in Egypt, but partly, also, by the universal light of a divine revelation through the " Logos," which, in and through human reason, " lighteth every man that cometh into the world," and which illumined especially such sincere and humble seekers after truth as Socrates and Plato before the incarnation of the Eternal Word in the person of Jesus Christ. Passages which bear a striking resemblance to the Christian Scriptures in their picturesque, parabolic, and axiomatic style, and still more in the lofty moral, religious, and almost Christian sentiments which they express, are scattered thickly all through the dialogues, even those that treat of physical, political, and philosophical subjects; and they are as characteristic of Plato as is the inimitably graceful dialogue in which they are clothed. A good selection of such passages may be seen in the introductory chapters of Ackermann's work (ut sup.). A still more copious and striking collection might be made.
Perhaps the most obvious and striking feature of the Platonic philosophy is that it is preeminently spiritual. Hegel speaks of " this direction toward the supersensuous world," this " eleva- 2. Platonic tion of consciousness into the realm of Philosophy spirit," as " the peculiarity of the Pla- Spiritual. tonic philosophy." There is no doctrine on which Plato more frequently or more strenuously insists than this, — that soul is not only superior to body, but prior to it in order of time, and that not merely as it exists in the being of God, but in every order of existence. The soul of the world existed first, and then it was clothed with a material body. The souls which animate the sun, moon, and stars, existed before the bodies which they inhabit (Timceus). The preexistence of human souls is one of the arguments on which he relies to prove their immortality (Phcedo, 73-76). Among the other arguments by which he demonstrates the immortality of the soul and its exalted dignity are these: that the soul leads and rules the body, and therein resembles the immortal gods (ib. 80) ; that the soul is capable of apprehending eternal and immutable ideas, and communing with things unseen and eternal, and so must partake of their nature (ib. 79) ; that, as consciousness is single and simple, so the soul itself is uncompounded, and hence incapable of dissolution (ib. 78); that soul, being everywhere the cause and source of life, and every way diametrically opposite to death, can not be conceived as dying, any more than fire can be conceived as becoming cold (ib. 102-107); that soul, being self-moved, and the source of all life and motion, can never cease to live and move (Phcedrus, 245) ; that diseases of the body do not reach to the soul; and vice, which is a disease of the soul, corrupts its moral quality, but has no power or tendency to destroy its essence (" Republic," 610), etc. Spiritual entities are the only real existences: material things are perpetually changing, and flowing into and out of existence. God is: the world becomes, and passes away. The soul is: the body is ever changing, as a garment. Soul or ideas, which
are spiritual entities, are the only true causes; God being the first cause why every thing is, and ideas being the secondary causes why things are such as they are (Phcedo, 100-101). Mind and will are the real cause of all motion and action in the world, just as truly as of all human motion and action. According to the striking illustration in the Phcedo (98, 99), the cause of Socrates awaiting death in the prison, instead of making his escape as his friends urged him to do, was that he chose to do so from a sense of duty; and, if he had chosen to run away, his bones and muscles would have been only the means or instruments of the flight of which his mind and will would have been the cause. And just so it is in all the phenomena of nature, in all the motions and changes of the material cosmos. And life in the highest sense, what we call spiritual and eternal life, all that deserves the name of life, is in and of and from the soul, which matter only contaminates and clouds, and the body only clogs and entombs (Gorgias, 492, 493). Platonism, as well as Christianity, says, Look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, only for a season; but the things which are not seen are eternal (cf. II Cor. iv. 18).
The philosophy of Plato is eminently theistic. " God," he says, in his " Republic " (716 A), " is (literally, holds) the beginning, middle, and end of all things. He is the supreme mind or reason, the efficient cause of all things, eternal, un- 3. Platonic changeable, all-knowing, all-powerful, Philosophy all-pervading, and all-controlling, just, Theistic. holy, wise, and good, the absolutely perfect, the beginning of all truth, the fountain of all law and justice, the source of all order and beauty, and especially the cause of all good " (Philebus, Phcedo, Timceus, " Republic," and " Laws," passim). God represents, he impersonates, he is the true, the beautiful, but, above all, the good. Just how Plato conceived these "ideas " to be related to the divine mind is disputed. In discussing the good, sometimes it is difficult to determine whether he means by it an idea, an attribute, a principle, a power, or a personal God. But he leaves no doubt as to his actual belief in the divine personality. God is the reason (the intelligence, Phcedo, 97 C) and the good (" Republic," 508 C); but he is also the artificer, the maker, the Father, the supreme ruler, who begets, disposes, and orders all (cf. Timceus, with places just cited). He is Theos and Ho Theos (Phcedo, 106 D, and often elsewhere). Plato often speaks also of gods in the plural; but to him, as to all the best minds of antiquity, the inferior deities are the children, the servants, the ministers, the angels, of the supreme God (Timceus, 41). Unity is an essential element of perfection. (There is but one highest and best — the Most High, the Supreme Good, God in the true and proper sense is one. The Supreme God only is eternal, he only hath immortality in himself /) The immortality of the inferior deities is derived, imparted to them by their Father and the Father of all, and is dependent on his will (Timceus, 41). God made the world by introducing order and beauty into chaotic matter, and putting into it a living, moving,
Platonism and Christianity