希腊古典文化和基督教传统是西方社会的两个重要基石。实际上，许多人认为基督教是在希腊文化世界中诞生和发展的，它从希腊文化中继承了很多东西。确实，经过仔细检查，许多基督教思想与希腊文化哲学的思想息息相关。尤其是，作为历史上最重要的思想家之一，柏拉图的永恒哲学理论通过其人物苏格拉底的声音预言并影响着基督教神学的世界观和解释。
首先，柏拉图的形式理论中，物理领域模仿了精神领域，这在基督教中预示了上帝和天堂的概念。柏拉图的形式理论在他的对话“ Parmenides”和他的比喻“共和国的洞穴寓言”中得到最好的证明。在《帕门尼德斯》中，柏拉图通过苏格拉底的声音辩解说，物质世界的背后是一个永久性世界，这个世界非常易变，因此不可靠。用柏拉图的话来说，这个永久世界就是形式或观念的世界。我们在物质世界中看到的一切都只是对完美形式的模仿。例如，在物理世界中，有许多不同种类的椅子。但是，必须存在所有椅子都具有共同点，以便人们认识到工艺品是否是椅子，这意味着“椅子”一词确实具有明确的含义。这样，所有椅子所共有的东西，即我们物质世界中所有特定椅子所模仿的完美抽象椅子，被称为“椅子的形式”，它存在于形式世界中。同样，我们在这个物质领域中看到的所有东西，在形式领域或精神领域中都存在着相应的形式。为了进一步证明人们在物质世界与形式世界之间的关系，柏拉图在《共和国洞穴》的寓言《第七卷》中进行了类比。在《第七卷》中，柏拉图描绘了一个洞穴，囚犯被绑在童年时期的岩石上。囚犯后面是炉火，囚犯和篝火之间是人行道，自由的人走来走去，头顶上扛着不同的物体，例如动物。这样，囚犯只能看到投射在墙上的那些物体的阴影，而囚犯则认为它们是“真实的”。在这种寓言中，囚犯每天观察到的并认为是“真实的”代表人们在我们的物质世界中观察到的“真实的”物理物体和事件。实际上，它们只是阴影，是篝火后面真实对象的模仿，它们代表了形式领域中的形式。
The classical Hellenistic culture and Christian traditions are two essential cornerstones of western society. In fact, many argue that Christianity, born and developed in the Hellenistic world, has inherited a lot from Hellenistic cultures. Indeed, upon a closer inspection, many Christian thoughts are connected to and echo the ideas in Hellenistic philosophy. In particular, the timeless philosophical theories of Plato, as one of the most significant thinkers throughout history, prefigure and influence the worldviews and interpretations of the Christian theology, through the voice of his character Socrates.
To start with, Plato’s theory of Forms where the physical realm imitates the spiritual realm prefigures the conception of God and of heaven in Christianity. Plato’s theory of Forms is best demonstrated in his dialogue “Parmenides” and in his analogy “Allegory of the Cave” from Republic. In Parmenides, Plato argues through Socrates’ voice that behind the physical world, which is very mutable and therefore unreliable, is a world of permanence. This world of permanence is the world of Forms or ideas in Plato’s word. Everything we can see in the material world is a mere imitation of the perfect Form. For example, in the physical world there are numerous different kinds of chairs. However, there must be something that all chairs share in common for people to recognize if a craft is a chair or not, which implies that the term “chair” does have a definite meaning. In this way, the thing that is common to all chairs, the perfect, abstract chair that all particular chairs in our material world imitates from, is called “the form of the chair” that exists in the world of Form. Similarly, everything we can see in this material realm have their corresponding Forms existing in the realm of Form, or the spiritual realm. To further demonstrate people’s relationship in the material world to the world of Forms, Plato draws an analogy in Allegory of the Cave in the Republic, Book VII. In Book VII, Plato pictures a cave where prisoners are tied to rocks from their childhood. Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between the prisoners and the fire is a walkaway where free people walk along carrying different objects on their head, for example, animals. In this way, the prisoners can look at nothing but the shadows of those objects cast on to the wall, which the prisoners would believe to be “real.” In this allegory, what the prisoners observe every day and believe to be “real” represent “real” physical objects and events people observe in our material world. And they are in fact only the shadows, the imitations of the real objects behind the campfire, which represent the Forms in the realm of Forms.
物质世界在精神领域中模仿其相应概念的想法在基督教世界观中得到了很大的呼应。在构成基督教世界观创世纪的最主要和最基本的文章中，反映了从完美形式中创造细节的想法。在创世纪中，叙述者说：“让我们按照我们的形象，按照我们的形象造人……所以，上帝按照自己的形象创造了人类，按照上帝的形象创造了人类。他创造了男性和女性。”在柏拉图理论的背景下反映了这些引述，在这里，天上的上帝就像在形式领域中人的完美观念，按照上帝的形象创造的人就像对柏拉图框架中人形式的特殊模仿。 。圣经中的另一个地方，在加拉太书中显示了相信存在一个与物质世界相对应的天国的信念。保罗在加拉太书中指出：“但上方的耶路撒冷是自由的。”保罗在这里暗示，在我们尘世的世界中，有一个比耶路撒冷城更自由的“天堂耶路撒冷”。地上的耶路撒冷仅仅是天堂里的耶路撒冷的模型。这样，这句话引述了柏拉图在基督教思想中的形式思想的轮廓，其中每一个世俗的，有形的事物在形式的更高境界中都有对应关系。最后但并非最不重要的一点是，在以弗所书中很直接地体现了物理细节是从柏拉图理论的形式领域中的对应物衍生而来的。 “我跪在天父面前，天上的每一个父亲都从他那里得名。”这句话表明，我们物质世界中的每个父亲都源于基督教的天父，或者用柏拉图的话来说，是完美的父亲形式。总而言之，柏拉图认为存在与物理领域相对应的形式领域的想法在基督教世界观中得到了回应。
柏拉图以形式世界的思想为基础，发展了他的认识论思想，这一思想也引起了基督教思想的共鸣。如上所述，由于洞穴中的囚犯只能看到投射在其上的真实物体的阴影，而看不到真实物体的阴影，柏拉图建议人类的感知可能会非常有限，除非将它们引向洞穴外部的“真实世界”。同样，保罗在基督教经典著作《哥林多前书》中说：“现在我们看到的只是镜中的暗淡反射，然后我们将面对面看到。现在，我已经部分地知道了，那么，即使我已经众所周知，我也将完全知道。”保罗就像柏拉图洞穴中的囚犯一样，认为人们只能以非常模糊的方式看到现实世界的某些痕迹或反射，这受人们的感知和知识的限制。此外，在洞穴寓言中，柏拉图建议穴居人从他的铁链上松开，进入洞穴外的“真实”世界，在那里看到真实物体而不是阴影。这位自由人从观察那些真实的物体开始，将逐渐导致他们寻找照明的源头-太阳。基督教的教义中也显示了关于知识获取的类似观点。保罗认为，正如前引言所暗示的那样，人们只有在上帝的参与下或柏拉图结构中光照源的面相才能获得全部知识。这样，被释放的囚犯向上寻找阳光的旅程就可以解释为寻求真理的追求，最终在基督教认识论中与上帝达成了联合。
The idea of material things imitating their corresponding concepts in the spiritual realm is very much echoed in the Christianity worldview. In the most primary and fundamental text that frames the Christianity worldview Genesis, the idea of creating particulars from a perfect Form is reflected. In Genesis, the narrator says “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…… So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Reflecting those quote within the context of Plato’s theory, here, God in the heavenly world is like the perfect idea of men in the realm of the Form, and men created in God’s image are like the particular imitations of the Form of men in Plato’s framework. Another place in the Bible where the belief of the existence of a heavenly realm corresponding to the physical realm is shown in Galatians. In Galatians, Paul marks that “But the Jerusalem that is above is free.” Here, Paul implies that there is a freer “heavenly Jerusalem” than the city of Jerusalem in our earthly world. And the earthly city of Jerusalem is a mere mock-up of its counterpart in the heavenly world. In this way, this quotation shows a silhouette of Plato’s ideas of Forms in Christian thoughts where every earthly, physical thing has their correspondence in a higher realm of the Forms. Last but not the least, the idea that the physical particulars are derived from their corresponding counterpart in the realm of the Forms in Plato’s theory is very directly epitomized in Ephesians. “I kneel before the Father from whom every father on heaven and earth derives his name.” This quote suggests that every father in our physical realm is derived from the heavenly father of Christianity, or in Plato’s word, the perfect Form of father. In conclusion, Plato’s idea that there is a realm of the Forms corresponding to the physical realm is echoed in the Christian worldview.
Built upon the idea of the world of the Forms, Plato develops his epistemological ideas that are very much resonated in Christian thoughts as well. As discussed above, as the prisoners in the cave can only see shadows of the real objects cast on but not the real objects, Plato suggests that human perception could be very limited, unless they are led to the “real world” outside the cave. Similarly, in the Christian classic text Corinthians, Paul says “now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” Much like the prisoners in Plato’s cave, Paul thinks that people can only see some traces or reflections of the real world very dimly, limited by people’s perception and knowledge. Further, in the cave allegory, Plato suggests that the caveman loosed from his chains and led into the “real” world outside the cave and see the real objects instead of their shadows there. This freeman from looking at those real objects would gradually be lead to look to the source of illumination, the sun. Similar ideas concerning the acquisition of knowledge is shown in the Christian teaching. Paul thinks that, as the former quote suggests, people can only gain the full knowledge with the involvement of God, or the facing of the source of illumination in Plato’s structure. In this way, the freed prisoner’s upward journey in search of the sunlight can be interpreted as a quest seeking for truth that eventually achieves union with God in Christian epistemology.
另外，柏拉图的认识论发展了不朽灵魂的观念，这激发了基督教中人类灵魂不朽的观念。根据柏拉图的认识论，知识是与生俱来的和超验的，因此存在着一个与人不同的灵魂。他在法多提出了这一论点。柏拉图通过苏格拉底辩称，一个人不会学习新知识，因为如果一个人对待询问的事物还没有想法，就不会询问该事物。因此，柏拉图认为“学习”的过程只是在回忆人们在出生前已经知道的东西，从而推断出人们在实际出生之前就有“灵魂”存在的观点。在对话的稍后部分，柏拉图进一步指出，是生命赋予生命的生命动画的灵魂，因为他指出“当存在于体内时，是什么使生命得以生存？ —一个灵魂”。相比之下，这种将灵魂赋予身体活力的想法也反映在基督教神学中。创世记解释说，万物创造时，“主神从地上的尘土造了一个人，将生命的气息吹进了他的鼻孔；这个人就变成了生物。”这句话表明，人类是用“地面的尘土”和“生命的气息”创造的。 “地上的尘土”代表人类的身体，而“生命的气息”则代表人类的灵魂。它是通过“生命的呼吸”或灵魂，即“地面的尘土”，换句话说，就是身体，被动画化为生物。
值得注意的是，柏拉图认为灵魂是不朽的，这在苏格拉底的几次对话中都可以看出来。在《法多》中，柏拉图提出《周期性论》，要求灵魂永生。周期性论证认为，既然我们的出生来自死者或不存在的状态，那么灵魂必定是不朽的。用苏格拉底的话说：“现在，如果活着的人真的死了，那么我们的灵魂就必须存在于另一个世界中；如果没有，他们又如何重生？”苏格拉底然后用例子来证明他的观点。据他说，一个人睡着后就醒了。直到他醒了才睡着。他得出结论，事情来自相反的事物。例如，热的东西来自冷。这样，生命是周期性的，其中生命是由死者通过出生产生的，而死者是由生命通过死亡产生的。这样，灵魂必须永恒，才能在死后复活。相比之下，很显然，柏拉图关于不朽灵魂的观念被早期的基督教哲学家所接受。即使灵魂不朽的思想在旧约中没有得到体现，神学家仍然“自信地指出圣经假定每个灵魂都是不朽的”，这表明了早期的基督教神学家和哲学家如何受到柏拉图思想的深刻影响。在解释圣经中的教导时。威斯敏斯特坦白的文件证明了神学家对灵魂永生的接受和相信。根据记录，威斯敏斯特坦白会裁定：“人的尸体在死亡后重归尘土，看到腐败：但是他们的灵魂，不死不眠，永生不死，立即返回给了他们的上帝”该文件清楚地表明，神学家相信灵魂具有“不朽的生存能力”，并且在人死后存在。因此，柏拉图和基督教神学不仅都同意灵魂的存在，而且都提到灵魂是不朽的。
In addition, Plato’s epistemology develops the idea of the immortal soul that inspires the idea of the immortality of human soul in Christianity. According to Plato’s epistemology, knowledge is innate and transcendental, and therefore there exists a soul apart from one’s body. He put forwards this argument in Phaedo. Through Socrates, Plato argues that one does not learn new knowledge, because if one does not already have an idea of the thing to be inquired, one cannot inquire about the thing. Therefore, Plato thinks the process of “learning” is but recollecting what one already knows before birth, which deduces the point that people have a “soul” exists before one’s physical birth. Later in the dialogue, Plato further points out that it is the soul that animates one’s physical body of a living thing, as he marks “What is it that, when present in a body, makes it living? — A soul”. In comparison, this idea of soul animating the body is reflected in Christianity theology as well. The Genesis explains that upon creation, “the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” This quote shows that the man is created with “the dust of the ground” and “the breath of life.” While “the dust of the ground” represents men’s physical body, “the breath of life” represents human soul. And it is with “the breath of life,” or the soul, the “dust of the ground,” in other words, the physical body, is animated into a living being.
Noticeably, Plato believes that the soul is immortal, which is shown through Socrates’ voice in several of his dialogs. In Phaedo, Plato proposes the Cyclical Argument to claim the immortality of the soul. The Cyclical Argument supposes that since our birth come from the dead, or the state of nonexistence, the soul must be immortal. In Socrates’ words, "Now if it be true that the living come from the dead, then our souls must exist in the other world, for if not, how could they have been born again?" Socrates then uses examples to prove his point. According to him, one awakens after falling asleep; and one falls asleep only after he has been awake. He concludes that things come from their opposites. For example, things that are hot come from being cold. In this way, life is cyclical, where the living is generated from the dead through birth, and the dead are generated from the living through death. In this way, the souls must be eternal for them to be able to return to life after death. In comparison, it is very clear that Plato’s idea of the immortal soul is adopted by early Christian philosophers. The fact that even though the idea of soul being immortal is not put in word in the Old Testament, the theologians still “confidently state that the Scripture assumes the immortality of every soul” shows how early Christian theologians and philosophers are profoundly influenced by Plato’s idea when interpreting the teachings in the scripture. Theologians’ acceptance and belief on the immortality of the soul is evidenced by the documents of the Westminister Confession. According to the record, the Westminister Confession decides that “the bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption: but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them” This document shows clearly that theologians believe that the souls have “an immortal subsistence,” and exist after one’s death. Therefore, not only do both Plato and Christian theology agree on the existence of the soul, they also both mention the idea of the soul being immortal.
诚然，在某些情况下，基督徒的观点和柏拉图的观点是不同的。例如，关于善与恶，柏拉图的伦理理论认为，所有生物都希望尽其所能，正如在《梅诺》中通过苏格拉底所主张的那样。一个人不可能知道真正的好处就做恶事。因此，邪恶只是对正确事物的错误认识或判断的结果。因此，苏格拉底得出的结论是，美德是知识（什么是好的），而邪恶则是知识的缺乏。相反，基督教持有不同的观点。基督教认为，由于亚当的罪恶，人天生就是有罪的，换句话说，是邪恶的。 “如因一个人的罪进入世界，因罪而死亡；死亡因此降临在所有人身上，因为所有人都犯罪了。”乍一看，基督教信仰似乎对人性不那么乐观。然而，基督教认为，通过信仰和悔改，可以赦免自己的罪过，并可以赎回自己的罪过。换句话说，基督教有一个非常积极的观点，即每个人都可以通过信仰和努力而减少罪恶或邪恶，而变得更加贤惠。但是，另一方面，尽管柏拉图认为美德是知识，而邪恶则是无知，但如上所述，他的认识论却认为知识是与生俱来的，这意味着对于那些对自己的灵魂善良有先天知识的人，他们可以回想起这些知识并且有德性；但是对于那些尚不具备此类知识的人来说，他们不可能是道德的。一言以蔽之，他认为知识，尤其是关于美德的知识，不能以任何方式被教，学，或通过一个人的努力获得。在梅诺（Meno）中，苏格拉底提出了这样的论点，即：因为在许多情况下，贤良的父亲有一个凶恶的儿子，所以无法教授美德。苏格拉底得出的结论是，“天生不会通过教养来获得美德。谁拥有它就可以通过神圣的分配得到它而无需考虑”。在这句话中，柏拉图关于道德美德的观点似乎更为致命，同时也暗示了神的介入，就像上面提到的基督教思想一样。但是，这种细微的分歧不能削弱柏拉图的思想在基督教思想中的共鸣和深刻影响，如上所述。
总之，如上所述，基督教思想在很大程度上受到柏拉图思想的影响。实际上，阅读具有柏拉图思想的知识或语境的基督教经典文本可以使人们对基督教的世界观和教义有更深刻的了解。因此，不可否认的是，柏拉图的文本和思想仍然对我们今天重新审视具有极大的重要性和价值。
Admittedly, in some cases, the Christian view and Plato’s view diverge. For example, concerning good and evilness, Plato’s ethic theory believes all living things desire to do good of their perception, as argued in Meno through Socrates. It is impossible for one to do the evil things knowing what is truly good. And hence evilness is only the result of incorrect perception or judgement of what is the true good. Thereby, Socrates concludes that virtue is knowledge (of what is good) and evilness is the lack of knowledge. On the contrary, Christianity holds a different view. Christianity argues that man is born inherently sinful, in other words, evil, because of Adam’s sin. “As by one-man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” On the first sight, the Christian belief may appear to be less optimistic about human nature. Nevertheless, Christianity believes that through faith and repentance, one’s sin can be forgiven and one can be redeemed. In other words, Christianity has a very positive view that everyone can become less sinful or evil, and more virtuous, through faith and effort. On the other hand, however, even though Plato believes virtue is knowledge, and evilness is ignorance, his epistemology, as aforementioned, argues that knowledge is innate, which implies that for people who have the innate knowledge of what is good in their soul, they can recall such knowledge and be virtuous; yet for people who don’t have such knowledge already in their soul, they cannot be virtuous. In a word, he thinks that knowledge, and knowledge about virtue in particular, cannot be taught nor learned, or acquired through one’s efforts in any means. In Meno, Socrates raises the argument that virtue cannot be taught because there are often cases where a virtuous father has a vicious son. Socrates concludes that “virtue will be acquired neither by nature nor by teaching. Whoever has it gets it by divine dispensation without taking thought”. In this remark, Plato’s ideas on moral virtue seem more fatal, while also suggesting a divine involvement, just like the ideas in Christianity mentioned above. However, this nuanced divergence cannot diminish the resonance and profound influence of Plato’s ideas in Christian thoughts as illustrated above.
In conclusion, as argued above, Christian thoughts are greatly influenced by Plato’s ideas. In fact, reading the Christian classic text with the knowledge or context of Plato’s ideas may allow a more insightful and renewed understanding of the Christian worldview and teachings. Therefore, it is undeniable that the text and ideas of Plato still carry great importance and value for us to reexamine today.
Bibliography
Ackrill, J.L. "Anamnēsis in the Phaedo," in E.N. Lee and A.P.D. Mourelatos (eds.) Exegesis and Argument: Studies in Greek Philosophy Presented to Gregory Vlastos. Assen, 1973. 177-95. On the theory of recollection in Plato's Phaedo(73c-75).
Edward Fudge, The Fire That Consumes, 1994, p. 22
Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments: King James Version. American Bible Society, 2010.
"Plato's Parmenides". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
Plato, and D. J. Allan. Republic. Methuen, 1965.
Plato, and Benjamin Jowett. Meno. Dover Publicationc, Inc., 2019. Book VII.
PLATO. PHAEDO. BLURB, 2019.
Schaff, Philip. The Revision of the Westminister Confession of Faith. 1873
The New Encyclopædia Britannica (1988), Volume 11, page 25
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