platonism beliefs compared to Christianity?

Question

What are some differences between the two?
Do Platonist's believe in God etc?

Answer 1

Plato is dead.
Jesus Christ is alive and doing very well.
'nuf said.

Answer 2

Platonism is a philosophy which had huge influence upon early Christianity. There are some significant points of disagreement, but still the early church fathers found alot of Truth in Plato.

Plato was one of the first philosophers to question the immoral behavior of the pagan gods. He declared that God could not behave in any immoral behavior, and therefore the pagan gods must be false gods.

Plato also believed that there were two levels of existence. First the realm of "pure being" where we are perfected into what we were meant to be, the realm of the soul. Second, the realm of "becoming", the realm of the body or the physical earth we now inhabit. We are in this life engaged in the process of "becoming" what we were meant to be, what we will be perfected to once we die and we simply "are". This realm is incessant change; that realm is eternal, constant, perfect. Soul good, body bad. If you don't get this basic dichotomy, nothing else about Plato makes sense.

You can probably see why this idea appealed to Christians. However, the basic problem with Platonism is that Christians believe God came to earth as a man, incarnate, in a body. If the body is bad, and God is only good, how do you reconcile that? The gnostic Christians kept Plato's ideas and declared that Jesus only took on the "appearance" of a man. The Church, however, said that God became man for the purpose of redeeming us in all our imperfections; meaning that because Jesus took on a human body, the human body (and not just the soul) could become Divine. They kept only the parts of Plato they could reconcile with the life of Jesus. Still, the idea of "soul good, body bad" crops up in Christian circles even today. (Think of the preoccupation with sexuality among Christians).

Hope that helps a bit. Things can get a bit hairy when you're mixing philosophy AND religion. Nice question, though.

Answer 3

Christianity is a form of Platonism.
Platonism is not a religion, it is a philosophy. Platonists believed that a series of abstract principles emanated from the Godhead to weave the fabric of reality. That is an over-simplification - there were many different types of Platonism.

Jewish theology was heavily Platonic before the time of Christ. The Apostle Paul was a Platonist, and uses Platonic terminology throughout the New Testament. Later Christian theologians developed the Platonic concepts in Scripture - especially Pseudo-Dionysius, who was a disciple of the great pagan philosopher Plotinus (founder of Neo-Platonism).

Answer 4

While Plato had a big influence on early Christianity, just as Aristotle did there is a foundational discrepency between the two which is irreconcilable. Greek Philosophy deemed man as dual in nature that is being corporeal and noncorporeal.

Christianity according to the Bible sees man as tripartite with body, soul and spirit.

Answer 5

While, I don't agree with the first sentence, Utuk's answer is largely true.