S P R I N G 2012
gustine’s warning. When philosophy, and, by extension, the liberal arts, allows itself to be hijacked by philosophical materialism and methodological naturalism, universities falter and lose their connec‐ tion to eternal truths and fixed standards. The rigidly evolutionary mindset of the last 150 years does not mark a progression in philoso‐ phy, but a return to the materialistic theories of Pre‐Socratic philoso‐ phers whose reductive worldviews Plato decisively dealt with 2,400 years ago!
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t is well known that for most of the Middle Ages, the Timaeus was the only Platonic dialogue available (though Plato’s ideas contin‐ ued to be conveyed indirectly through Aristotle, Cicero, Virgil, and Plotinus, among others). A close reading of The City of God makes it clear that this was essentially the situation by 410, a rather lamen‐ table situation aided by the fact that even the great Augustine had little knowledge of Greek. And yet, one cannot help wondering if this was not divinely ordained. Of all Plato’s dialogues, Timaeus comes closest to expressing Christian truths; indeed, it is perhaps the only Gentile, pre‐Christian work that approaches the great and distinctive biblical teaching of creation ex nihilo. It is certainly one of the few that speaks of creation as a good and positive thing with which the Crea‐ tor was pleased. Augustine, one of the great defenders of matter and flesh against the heresies of Gnosticism, marvels again and again at how percep‐ tive Timaeus is in its treatment of creation. And as he marvels, he wonders what the source might have been for Plato’s surprising dec‐ laration “that the best reason for creating the world is that good things should be made by a good God. It may be that [Plato] read this Scriptural passage or learned it from those who had, or, by his own keen insight, he clearly saw that ‘the invisible things’ of God are ‘understood by the things that are made,’ or, perhaps, he learned from others who had clearly seen this.” The passage Augustine en‐ closes in quotes is taken from Romans 1:20; in this verse, Paul ex‐ plains the nature of general revelation and how God spoke even to the pagans through the power and beauty of the cosmos. Regardless of whether Plato gained his knowledge from general revelation, by reading Genesis 1, or by having it read to him by someone else, the fact remains that Plato was aware of the goodness of creation. 15