Plato’s Shadow: The Encroaching Doctrine of the Soul’s Immortality in the Early Church

Abstract

The influence of Plato’s concept of the soul as innately immortal and indestructible had a profoundly unbiblical influence upon many of the early church fathers’ views regarding human nature, the final judgment of the wicked, and God’s gift of immortality to believers. I will argue my thesis by initially defining the nature of the soul according to the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament, with an emphasis on its mortality. I will primarily utilize Scripture itself, although secondary sources—such as commentaries on the Hebrew and Greek versions—are essential due to interpretational differences. This will help to demonstrate how the Biblical view differs significantly from the Platonic view. Likewise, I will explore the Platonic view of the nature of the soul through the use of various primary and secondary sources. Additionally, I will use the writings of many early church fathers to highlight various instances in which the early church adopted the Platonic view of the soul and applied it to areas of their theology. Lastly, I will use both primary and secondary sources to make the case that the adoption of Platonic doctrine on the immortal soul has had an ‘unbiblical’ influence on how many Christians have viewed human nature, which alters the views of the final judgment of the wicked as well as the concept of God’s gift of immortality to believers in Christ. Ultimately, I will argue that this issue is important because it affects how we see the character of God and is, therefore, related to how we worship him.