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From Plato to Christ

How Platonic Thought Shaped the Christian Faith

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From Plato to Christ

By: Louis Markos
Narrated by: Al Kessel
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About this listen

What does Plato have to do with the Christian faith?

Quite a bit, it turns out. In ways that might surprise us, Christians throughout the history of the church and even today have inherited aspects of the ancient Greek philosophy of Plato, who was both Socrates's student and Aristotle's teacher.

To help us understand the influence of Platonic thought on the Christian faith, Louis Markos offers careful readings of some of Plato's best-known texts and then traces the ways that his work shaped the faith of some of Christianity's most beloved theologians, including Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, Dante, and C.S. Lewis.

With Markos's guidance, listeners can ascend to a true understanding of Plato's influence on the faith.

©2020 Louis A. Markos (P)2022 Tantor Christianity Religious Studies
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Plato's vision brought to life, through many paths and enlightening different minds, giving the reader fresh insights.

The Philosophy of Reality made real

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As an Atheist who is fascinated by the question of how Greek culture and philosophy influenced ancient Judean culture, post temple Judaism, and therefore, Christianity, I was eagerly looking forward to a scholarly analysis of "How Platonic Thought Shaped Christian Faith." Of how, to give one example, my pet hypothesis that taking the arguments of the Greek speaking and heavily Greek influenced Paul of Tarsus as the root basis of their burgeoning Religion, later Church fathers determined whether a Gospel was canonical or heretical by how 'Greek' it was. Which is to say, by whether it was in line with the Platonic & Aristotelian philosophy which was the basis of Paul's arguments. But instead, this is yet another gushing screed about how the Heathen Plato 'Sensed' the truth about the one true God and 'Predicted' Christ & Christianity.

Of course, much of Plato's philosophy blatantly contradicts modern Christian theology. So having cherry picked the life out of Plato's dialogues in part 1, the second part is devoted to explaining how great Christian theologians of the past (as well as the one-note hack C.S. Lewis) have squared that particular circle. So in short, unless you're a Christian who's desperately struggling to reconcile your belief in your interpretation of the supposed 'Literal Truth' of the Bible with Platonic philosophy, this audiobook is a total waste of time.

Twisting Plato To Fit Christianity

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