RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Platonism and Christianity
looking at them now only on the ethical and practical
side, are eternal and immutable, and not dependent
even on the will of God (the holy, for
6. Merits instance, is not holy because it is the and will of God, but it is the will of God
Defects, because it is holy, just, and good — Euthyphron, 10 D); the indispensable necessity of a better than any existing, not to say better than human, society and government (like the ideal republic, which is not so much a state as a church or a school, a great family, or a man " writ large "), in order to the salvation of the individual or the perfection of the race; the degenerate, diseased, carnal, and corrupt state into which mankind in general has fallen since the reign of Kronos in the golden age (" Laws," 713 C; " Politics," 271 D; Critias, 108 D), and from which God only can save any individual or nation (" Republic," vi. 492, 493); and the need of a divine teacher, revealer, healer, charmer, to charm away the fear of death, and bring life and immortality to light (Phcedo, 78 A, 859).
But a passing glance may be given to the radical defects and imperfections of Plato's best teachings— his inadequate conception of the nature of sin as involuntary, the result of ignorance, a misfortune, and a disease in the soul, rather than a transgression of the divine law; his consequent erroneous ideas of its cure by successive transmigrations on earth, and protracted pains in purgatory, and by philosophy; his philosophy of the origin of evil, viz., in the refractory nature of matter, which must therefore be gotten rid of by bodily mortification, and by the death of the body without a resurrection, before the soul can arrive at its perfection; his utter inability to conceive of atonement, free forgiveness, regenerating grace, and salvation for the masses, a fortiori for the chief of sinners; the doubt and uncertainty of his best religious teachings, especially about the future life ("Apology," 40 E, 42; Phcedo, 107 C); and the utter want in his system of the grace, even more than of the truth, that have come to us by Jesus Christ, for, after all, Platonism is not so deficient in the wisdom of God as it is in the power of God unto salvation. The " Republic," for example, proposes to overcome the selfishness of human nature by constitutions and laws and education, instead of a new heart and a new spirit, by community of goods and of wives, instead of loyalty and love to a divine-human person like Jesus Christ.
In the Middle and the New Academy, there was always more or less tendency to skepticism, growing out of the Platonic doctrine of the uncertainty of all human knowledge except that of " ideas." The Neo-Platonists (see Neo-Platon-
7. Later ism), on the other hand, inclined Platonic toward dogmatism, mysticism, ascet- Schools. icism, theosophy, and even thaumat-
urgy, thus developing seeds of error that lay in the teaching of their master. After the Christian era, among those who were more or less the followers of Plato, were, at one extreme, the devout and believing Plutarch, the author of " Delay of the Deity in the Punishment of the Wicked," and the practical and sagacious Galen, whose work
on the " Uses of the Parts of the Human Body " is an anticipation of the Bridgewater Treatises, both of whom, as also Socrates, would have accepted Christianity if they had come within the scope of its influence; and, at the other extreme, Porphyry and the Emperor Julian, who wielded the weapons of philosophy in direct hostility to the religion of Christ; while intermediate between them the major part of the philosophers of the Neo-Platonic and eclectic schools who came in contact with Christianity went on their way in indifference, neglect, or contempt of the religion of the crucified Nazarene. But not a few of the followers of Plato discovered a kindred and congenial element in the eminent spirituality of the Christian doctrines and the lofty ethics of the Christian life, and, coming in through the vestibule of the Academy, became some of the most illustrious of the Fathers and Doctors of the early Church. And many of the early Christians, in turn, found peculiar attractions in the doctrines of Plato, and employed them as weapons for the defense and extension of Christianity, or cast the truths of Christianity in a Platonic mold. The doctrines of the Logos and the Trinity received their shape from Greek Fathers, who, if not trained in the schools, were much influenced, directly or indirectly, by the Platonic philosophy, particularly in its Jewish-Alexandrian form. That errors and corruptions crept into the Church from this source can not be denied. But from the same source it derived no small additions, both to its numbers and its strength. Among the most illustrious of the Fathers who were more or less Platonic, may be named Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Irenseus, Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Minutius Felix, Eusebius, Methodius, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Augustine. Plato was the divine philosopher of the earlier Christian centuries; in the Middle Ages Aristotle succeeded to his place. But in every period of the history of the Church, some of the brightest ornaments of literature, philosophy, and religion — such men as Anselm, Erasmus, Melanchthon, Jeremy Taylor, Ralph Cudworth, Henry More, Neander, and Tayler Lewis — have been " Platonizing " Christians.
Bibliography: No attempt can be made here to give a complete list of works on Plato, the works now cited being those which probably best illustrate the subject of the article. A notable bibliography, covering editions, translations, and critical treatises, is to be found in Baldwin, Dictionary, iii. 1, pp. 404-423, to be supplemented by the list entered under " Philosophy " in Fortescue's Subject Index of Modern Works of the British Museum,
London, 1902 sqq. For the works of Plato the best eds. for general use are that on the basis of Stephens by C. D. Beck, 8 vols., Leipsic, 1893-99; and the ed. by J. Burnet, vols, i.-v., Oxford, 1900-07. The classical Eng. transl. is that of B. Jowett, The Dialogues, 3d ed., 5 vols., Oxford, 1892, with E. Abbott's Index, ib. 1895, The Republic, 2 vols., 3d ed., ib. 1908. Of prime importance are the works on the history of philosophy by Ueberweg, ed. M. Heinze, 9th ed., Berlin, 1901-05, Eng. transl. of the 4th ed., London, 1875-76; W. Windelband, 4th ed., Tubingen, 1907, Eng. transl. of 1st ed., New York, 1893; J. E. Erdmann, 2 vols., Berlin. 1895-96, Eng. transl., 3 vols., London, 1892-98; and E. Zeller, new ed., Tubingen, 1892, Eng. transl., London, 1897. Consult: G. C. B. Ackermann, Das Christliche im Plato und in der platonischen Philosophic, Eng. transl., The Christian Element in Plato, Edinburgh, 1860; F. Schleiermacher, Introduction to Dialogues of Plato, translated by W. Dobson, Cambridge and London, 1836; E. Zeller, Platonischen Studien, Tu-
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