Thursday, April 06, 2006

Did Jesus read Plato or influence him?

I’ve been reading Plato for the last year; I have Portable Plato in the wicker basket in the bathroom (read fully into that).  Plato, who came  a few centuries before Jesus and Paul, uses a number of illustrations/analogies that are then found on the lips/pen of Jesus and Paul.  In fact, most all of Jesus and Paul’s analogies are used by Plato and usually in the same basic way.

Does this mean that the heart of God is discernable rationally?  I am addressing here the critique of Rationalism and/or Modernism and/or Enlightenment.  Did Plato discern with his mind the heart of God’s way for relating one to another?

1 comment:

David Malouf -- said...

"common analogies" include the vine, the Body, the family, variations (both in the NT and in Plato) of a new creation.

Last paragraph restated: how can a mind that has not been "enlivened" by the Holy Spirit/God enter the heart of God as it pertains to His specific desires for human relations (and even some of human-to-God relations)? How did Plato come to things "Spiritual" without the Spirit (capitals on purpose)?