Largely this blog is used for us, the students, to talk about things that “jumped out at us” in the texts we are reading each week. Thus I am going to show you something that jumped out this week. One thing that continually caught my attention was the concept of The Good and a person’s journey to The Good. I never thought of reality in the way Socrates thinks of what is real. I think something is real when I can touch or feel it. Socrates says quite the opposite. All the things we can see or feel are just shadows. He says that what is really real is found in the realms of The Good. Life, to Socrates is a journey to find The Good. Oh my goodness, to me this is so close to the believer’s journey towards God. No, we don’t have to get better and better on a journey to get to God. We are saved as soon as we ask the Lord into our hearts. Immediately we have a personal relationship with God, on the spot. However, many call our life following Jesus, a journey. It is a journey… not a tea party. God grows us with every hard, sometimes unstable, footstep of the way.
It seems to me that Socrates really had taken the time to think about life. He concluded that there must be more than the commoner’s living. Doesn’t that sound familiar? So many times people find themselves asking the same question. Working, eating, sleeping, working, eating, sleeping—“there must be more” they say. Yes! There is more! We were created with a longing for more. As humans we try to fill in the blanks ourselves, “___ will make me feel happy.” Yes, even Christians incorporate this in their relationship with God. “If God would do ___, I would be happy.” But the thing is, all we need is God. We need God himself…..no one else. We don’t need God to be the way we want Him to be towards us ….we need God. I’m going to go as far as saying we don’t even need to strive for high intellect, to have all knowledge. We don’t need things, money, pleasure… we need God. The, I AM WHO I AM, God. Socrates was so close to finding something so much higher than he could imagine.
I don't know if this has been brought up, but I do remember at some point of my Philosophy 101 class, Socrates was called a "christian before Christ came"...or something of the liking. Also, I would recommend you read about Sisyphus, if you have not already.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do agree with you. When I first read the text, I thought much the same thing. Our quest for knowledge, for understand rest in God...or does it? While I believe He holds all the answers (for he is God)however, is it our "journy" with Him that we slowly learn about the Forms, or will He just tell us in the end, when we are in heaven with Him? Is it that the story is about reaching the end, or about the chapters within it. That, is what I contemplate when I read Plato.