Plato's World of Forms Exists In The Mind Of God

How Philosophy finds fulfillment within Christianity

The Folly of Philosophy Without God

I think many would count Plato among the most important philosophers to have ever lived. The unique thing about Plato is that He discovered a variety of divine truths long before Christianity and even Judaism. I’ve noticed that as time goes on, philosophers build on Plato — but as they get further detached from his recognition of a sort of divine sovereignty, the madder they become.

In an effort to remove his philosophy from religion completely, Friedrich Nietzche self-destructed and found himself in a mental hospital due to his inability to answer his questions. Similarly without God, Albert Camus fell into a nihilistic hole. He said that because life is completely meaningless and absurd, he seriously questioned whether we should all just kill ourselves.

I don’t think its a coincidence that the greatest secular philosopher is also the one whose thoughts are most consistent with biblical teaching.

Plato’s Metaphysics

Plato believed that the true reality exists in the “realm of the forms” which is separate from the physical world. This realm was essentially a spiritual world where every idea exists in perfection. A perfect circle does not exist anywhere in our created universe, but the idea of a perfect circle does exist. Plato argued that this idea is the most real form of a circle and every circle that we encounter is a flawed and limited expression of it. This realm of forms is eternal, whereas the physical world was finite. The physical objects need the abstract idea, but the idea does not require the physical — so in many ways, the spiritual is more real than the physical.

However, Plato couldn’t articulate exactly where this realm of the forms existed. His thought pointed to a transcendent, eternal and perfect metaphysical reality — but he didn’t realize that he was talking about God. The realm of the forms is not a floating abstract of an idea, but something that lives definitely in the mind of God. All existence flows from the perfect mind of God.

The Greeks Foreshadowed Christ

Despite limited knowledge, Plato understood that the spiritual world is more real than the physical. He knew that goodness, truth and beauty were objective realities that exist somewhere — not mere subjective experiences. He almost seemed to have found God.

Other Greek philosophers also found their way to God in part. Unlike Plato, Aristotle recognized that the material world is good and beautiful, not something that we should escape. This points to the new heavens and new Earth that God will create where the physical and spiritual will live in harmony. Aristotle also sought telos or the idea that everything has a purpose. Similarly, the Stoics described the definitive reason, cosmic order and the governing principle of reality as the Logos.

This finds its answer in John 1:1 where it says “In the beginning was the Word [Logos] and the Word [Logos] was with God. And the Word [Logos] was God”.

The Word the Stoics were looking for was Christ. All true knowledge leads to Christ because all truth is God’s truth.

Many early christians celebrated the works of Plato as uncovering biblical truths. In the 1st and 2nd centuries, Clement of Alexandria said that Greek thought established the basis for Christian thought. Early Platonist turned Christian Justin Martyr also said that Christianity was the true philosophy — the one Plato was searching for.