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We saw the church in the Middle Ages, in the monastic movement and so on, try to deny all things physical. Where does that idea come from? It doesn't come from the Old Testament, where when God creates a physical world, what's His judgment on it? It's good. But remember, in Plato's schema, you have two worlds, the ideal world, the eternal world of ideas, and then this world.
Ideas have consequences. We've seen that all week, and unfortunately, sometimes those ideas even creep into the church. I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and I'm glad you're joining us for the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind. Yesterday we met Socrates. Well, today we'll meet a famous student of his, Plato, who is considered one of the twin giants of Western philosophy.
His influence has been significant, impacting the church in the Middle Ages and even some in the church today. So what did Plato teach? Here's R.C. Sproul to explain.
Almost 30 years ago, I had the opportunity to visit my older cousin, who was an Episcopalian priest of the Anglo-Catholic mode in Philadelphia. And this cousin of mine is very refined and cultured. He's a real student of the fine arts. And on that occasion, he took me downtown to Wanamaker's department store.
Now, the purpose of that visit was not to make purchases, but because Wanamaker's was featuring a display of a famous painting by Rembrandt von Rheim. And the name of the painting is Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer. And so my highly refined cousin said to me as we approached the store, he said, boy, you're going to get an expansion of your understanding of beauty today, he said, cousin.
He said, we're going to get to see that world-famous painting, Aristotle Contemplating the Home of Buster. I said, wow. Obviously, I haven't forgotten that slip of the tongue. But today we're going to contemplate a bust, but it's not the bust of Homer, it's the bust of Plato, because I've sort of wanted to have Plato come and visit us as we discuss some of his thinking.
I was able to secure this bust recently in a trip to Italy in the coastal town of Amalfi, and I also purchased a bust of Alexander the Great. because I thought I shouldn't come home with just one because they tell me the two heads are better than one. But in any case, today we're going to be talking about my friend Plato.
who along with his most famous student, Aristotle, are considered the real twin giants of Western philosophy. In fact, one historian of philosophy made the observation that all subsequent work in the field of philosophy by future generations and future philosophers There's nothing more than footnotes added to the thinking of Plato and Aristotle. So prodigious were these men in their own day.
Now, we also notice that I have a chair with me today, and it's not because I'm going to be lazy and sit down and give you a fireside chat. But there's a method to my madness, as I hope we will see in a few moments.
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