Early bird pricing for the Credo Conference - REGISTER
Skip to content
plato_academy_mosaic_1600

New Credo Podcast! Why did Platonism help Augustine read the Bible like a Christian?

, · March 8, 2023

What did Augustine and Athanasius, Origen and the Cappadocians, Boethius and Aquinas all have in common? They all critically appropriated Platonism. Platonism was not a set of doctrines that proved convenient. Rather, Platonism was an epic, even revolutionary outlook on transcendent reality that defied a materialistic understanding of God and the world. For example, Platonism prepared Augustine for Christianity’s transcendentalism. Augustine left behind his Manichaeism after reading the Platonist books, which opened his eyes to an infinite God and the the spiritual meaning of Scripture. Nevertheless, Platonism could only take Augustine to the summit; apart from Christ he could only look at the homeland from afar. And yet, if corrected and transformed, Platonism’s realism could be put into the service of Christianity. Augustine believed Christian Platonism could serve as a perennial philosophy.

In this episode, John Peter Kenney, an expert on the history of Christian Platonism, joins Matthew Barrett to discuss Augustine’s Confessions and City of God. Together they explore Augustine’s metaphysic, listening to the church father as he explains how God providentially used Platonism to correct his reading of the Bible and prepare him for the humiliation of a crucified and risen Christ. Using Augustine as a test case, Kenney reflects on the significance of Christian Platonism for theology and practice today.

John Peter Kenney

John Peter Kenney is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Saint Michael’s College. He was previously Professor of Religion and Humanities at Reed College. He studied Classics and Philosophy at Bowdoin College and completed his Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Brown University. He is the author of Mystical Monotheism: A Study in Ancient Platonic Theology, The Mysticism of Saint Augustine: Rereading the Confessions, Contemplation and Classical Christianity: A Study in Augustine, and On God, the Soul, Evil, and the Rise of Christianity. He also edited The School of Moses: Studies in Philo and Hellenistic Religion and co-edited Christian Platonism: A History

Matthew Barrett

Matthew Barrett is Research Professor of Theology at Trinity Anglican Seminary. He has been appointed the McDonald Agape visiting scholar at Dominican House of Studies and the Thomistic Institute. He is the founder of Credo. He is the author of award-winning books like Simply Trinity and On Classical Theology. Currently he is writing a Systematic Theology with Baker Academic. He is the theologian-in-residence of Anselm House at St. Aidan’s Anglican Church. Subscribe to his newsletter to receive updates on his writing.

Advertisment