Within the Platonic writings the Symposium deals the question, “What is love?” This question has remained the same for thousands of years and people’s answers change over time as they conceptionalize the idea of love. In the Symposium the Greek play write Aristophanes references the myth of the orignal humans who had two heads, four arms, and legs. The gods became jealous of these humans and the great king of the Olympians Zeus sent a thunderbolt to separate humans into two halves. Aristophanes then says that the sexual act of two people is not just a physical act, rather its the urning of the two souls to become one once more. My definition of love based on this myth is that what we see in our partners is the qualities that we lack and that’s what attracts us to one another. Our counterparts seem to have a divine presence because of these ideal qualities that we lack. The true definition of love in my opinion is that we see these qualities and our significant other’s help and push us to acquire these traits. So much so that in time they are not two individuals anymore, but they become more and more like another to the point where their souls become one . This is my interpretation of love and the myth of Aristophanes through my lens of my Christian background.
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We were seperated
before our souls were
encased in our prisons of flesh and marrow,
but still we were connected.
Not by knowledge or subconscious bridges,
but the metaphysical thread
of love.
Fragile
in it’s essence
but when we met
we weren’t just close;
our souls
that were once split
began to become one once more.
We took our broken hearts
and reformed them as one
marvelous mosaic of passion.
We are no longer apart
but now
one
who is both alike and unlike
shattered and broken once, but
now reformed and reborn
Power, something intanglible but worth far more than gold or any precious gems. If someone has power we precieve that they have capital and influence. The actual definition of power is the possession of the qualities (especially mental qualities) required to do something or get something done. WIth power there comes action then one reaps the benefits of their power. Power is the focal point of Peter’s speech at Pentecost in Acts 2. The day of Pentecost is actually a Jewish festival marking the end of the wheat harvest. Thus Peter being of Jewish decent before his walk with Christ Peter partakes in this Jewish festival in the upper room of a house with a multitude of people. It is at this time that the people encounter the Holy Spirit and start to speak in tongues. It’s funny that the people who did not receive the Spiritual gift of speaking in tongues mocked the people for being “drunk” assuming they had hit the wine a little to hard during their festivities, but we all know that is not true because as stated in Acts 2:8-11 “
8“And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?
9“Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
11Cretans and Arabs–we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” that all these people hear each other proclaiming what God has done in their own native languages. Then Peter gets before the crowd and explains what is happening and refers to two prophecies within the Hebrew Bible. The first is the prophecy of Joel which explains that God will pour His Spirit upon his people and they will perform signs, miracles, and wonders. And the second is David’s prophecy which states that he is God’s right hand and he won’t be shaken. Yahweh declared that David’s descendants would always sit upon the throne of Jerusalem as long as there is a kingdom, and Peter uses this to link to the message of Jesus. He recounts that Jesus came and performed signs miracles and wonders and was put to death by the mob, and told them all to repent and to be baptized. Peter uses the word dunamis (dynamite/power) to explain the power of Jesus, and he tells the crowd to go forth and be baptized just like Jesus. Three main things to note are that Jesus was A) Baptized B) The Holy Spirit descended upon him and C) He performed signs, miracles, and wonders. Jesus didn’t need to be baptized; so why did he do it? He was baptized to set an example for us. Jesus came with power and He has called us to go forth with that same power “dunamis” and perform signs, miracles, and wonders to expand the kingdom. Without action this power can not be released, but just because we haven’t used it does not mean we do not have the same power of Jesus. We are seated with Him at the right hand of God and He prophesied that we would do many more great things than He did in His life time. The only thing that holds us back is the eighteen inches between our hearts and our brains.
It was during one of philosophy classes that this old saying came up, “Bite before bitten.” At first it seems to be promoting the dog eat dog mind sent that most of the post industrial world lives in. But I chose to see the other side of the coin. The current state if the Church as a whole has been weighing on my heart lately. I have been reading When Heaven Invades Earth written by Bill Johnson, and in his book he brought up an interesting point. The point was that Christians are more likely to acknowledge to dark power of Satan rather than believing in the healing power of the almighty Yahweh, who’s scared texts they live their life by. The Bible is filled with what God has done and His promises of what He will do; the problem is not with God that these things have not come to pass it’s our insecurities as believers. At sometime or another in our life rather when we were little or when we were older we all had some kind of encounter with God, but people that didn’t understand what happened and we were made insecure about our encounter with the divine. As believers who grew up in church we all have heard 1 Peter 5:8 “Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” Bill Johnson also asserts that Jesus’ task in life was to do two things 1.) Do the work of the Father and 2.) Destroy the works of the Devil. So we are raised with this mentality that there is this invisible “monster” running around us in our lives to destroy us, and we are aware that this happens because we have the biblical account of Job. We always focus on what the Devil did to Job rather than what God does in chapter 42:10, “10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.” We are so concerned with what we might lose and this prevents us from experiencing what God wants to give us. If we continue to expand the church inundated with a doctrine of fear we are not allowing God’s plans for our lives and the lives of other, and in turn increase the power of the Devil in this world. We need to raise up a generation that is so hungry for God and his anointing that are confidant in signs, miracles, and wonders. we need to instill a bite before bitten mentality in this coming generation because the Devil isn’t going to wait for them to go a 1/3 of their life before they start learning about signs, miracles, and wonders. The Devil knows the in’s and out’s of human insecurities and if we don’t prepare this generation for the battle they are going to be thrown into he will have already have been building walls in their hearts that might prevent them or inhibit them to the very real power they have in signs, miracles, and wonders.
We often think that philosophy and religion are in direct opposition of each other, though sometimes this opinion is true it is not always the case. The Greek philosopher Socrates became a martyr because his accusers claimed that he was trying to destroy the city gods (polis). One of Socrates most prominent students Plato often uses his mentor Socrates within his Socratic dialogues. It was Socrates’ belief that there were in fact divine being, but he always used inquiry to find the truth behind the gods or divine beings. Both Socrates and Plato believed that the divine did not interact directly with humans but they were objective and the mission of the philosopher within their lives is to purify their souls so that it will have no bodily attachments. I am going to explain Plato’s theory of recollection and the theory of forms and compare it to the Judaeo-Christian view of the Holy Spirit. Firstly I will briefly explain Plato’s theories of recollection and forms. The Theory of Recollection states that learning is simply the soul remembering this it already knows. And the Theory of Forms makes the assumption that there is the visible and invisible realms, the visible realm is where the mortals dwell and the invisible are where forms dwell for eternity and unchanging. The best way to think of forms are by using examples (i.e. beauty, justice,honor, and so forth) In the visible realm we recognize flawed and imperfect examples of these forms with experienced by our senses. in the Socratic view of the soul and the body is simply put that the soul was immortal and part of the invisible realm that was in the mortal body. The soul was identified with the divine, and juts like the divine leads the mortal realm so does the soul lead the body. It is my view that the soul served as a receiver of the invisible realm’s “transmissions” if you will and that is how I connected the theory of recollection and the theory of forms. The forms send out the transmission about what they are about and their qualities are like and the soul receives these transmissions and recalls in a broad sense what the said form is.In the same respect the Holy Spirt serves the Christian in the same respect, connecting us to the will and power of God himself. In John 4:15-17 Jesus states “15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you.” In the same way the the Holy Spirit dwells within the believer and is described as a comforter, spirit of truth, and a consular. The Holy Spirit links the Christian directly to God. Apostlatic believers hold the belief that believes who have received the Spirit are charged by God not only to spread the word of God but to perform signs, miracles, and wonders just like Jesus did during His time on earth. The Holy Spirit gives us the authority and ability to do all the things that Jesus did. In both of these examples taken from Ancient Greek socratic philosophy and Judaeo Christian doctrine this is something within all humans that links us to the invisible. This is a prime explain that shows that philosophy and religion both share not just differences but also commonalities.
A hug means
I want to strangle you with my love.
I hold your hand
With our fingers sown together while
This love flows from my heart
Seeps into your palm like a polite poison
Slipped into something sweet
As we are hand in hand,
And every kiss
Is a new bitter apology gilded with a fresh confession
And with each confession
Comes an even sweeter song of praise
Like an old hymn
Both hated and loved but
Never forgotten.
Stop calling me a saint
Because I live to eat all of your
Sweet sins.
I remember that night where
My heart was running frantically like a child
Lost in a department store
Starved for parental consent
And I closed my eyes
And we met half way between
The lush sky saturated
With the lost dreams of orphans
Like a lover that’s lost
There were bright tears in heaven’s dark eyes.
And the earth with its’ insipid Juliette
There our lips meet
Half way to heaven and close to
No where
love is cliché”
But that night with our lips pressed
There I confessed
And received communion
It was the North Star led me to your lips
And there I spoke my peace.
O you were, the Atlas that refused to hold
That poor boy’s world; you left him
There that day shattered
A broken mosaic.
Did your arms get tired? …
And again his ears are overwhelmed
By your silent simple refusal.
His heart fled after what you denied him.
Like a fox wounded from a hunter’s arrow
And it ran out of the shards until it was buried deep
Within a thicket’s security.
He burned all the watercolor paintings.
He wept for you.
He has tried to paint a pleasant memory
Of his time spent with you,
But every time he tries he just ends up painting himself
In a corner.
There is no reason to dwell here
In this place
Filled with absence of your affections
Now he’s packed his bags and sails across the sea
In search of the three words you couldn’t continue
To say to me.
The smoke had just fled from his lips.
The lips of a sinner.
And arrived on the cheeks of saints.
He looked side to side,
Squinting,
The artificial light from their rusted towers
Had always given him headaches.
He retreated into the nature preserve
Even though he knew it was late.
The gate was inhospitably closed,
But the lock had the night of.
Mother nature enveloped him
With the comfort of shadows.
He couldn’t see what laid head,
But he wasn’t looking for anything anyway.
So what good were his eyes
When there wasn’t even enough light to refract within his iris.
It was that transitional time
In between winter and fall.
But on this night winter was discontent
Claiming this one last night.
He continued onward
Fallen branches as brittle as frail bones
Shattering beneath his heavy steps.
He was relieved
When the bench offered him company.
It wasn’t one for talking but it did listen.
Although he could tell it was tired
By the way it swayed as he sifted his weight
From time to time.
A sheet of black glass
Was stretched across the still pond.
As he stared into its depths he wasn’t
If it really had a bottom.
It seemed that it would swallow anything
That dared venture too close to its edge.
He lifted his head
Looking up towards the stars.
They were dim
Just barely flickering
From many miles away.
Then there were ripples in the heavens and
All the stars turned and slowly walked away.
O you were the Atlas that dropped
That poor boys world; a world so full of potential.
You left him there that day a broken mosaic.
His heart fled after what you denied him.
It ran and ran until it was buried deep with in the security of a thicket.
He burned all the watercolor paintings he wept for you.
He has tried to paint a pleasant memory of his time spent with you,
But every time he tries he just ends up painting himself in a corner.
No he’s packed his bags and sails across the sea
In search of the three words you couldn’t continue to say to me.
