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Excerpt from The Influence of Plato, on Saint Basil The relation of Plato to the Church Fathers is a subject that has received considerable attention in special treatises as well as in general works. A brief survey of some of the results obtained will be given to show how widespread this influence was. Justin Martyr (c. 100 - 165 a, d.), the earliest apologist whose works have been preserved even in part, was a Platonist before he was a Christian and Platonic quotations abound in his works, Huber, however, points out, Die Philosophie dev Kirchenvater, p. 14, the difficulty of harmonizing Justin's pro-Platonic and anti-Platonic views. In Apol., n, 13 (Migne, Pat. Gr., vi, p. 465, B. 11) he states that the teachings of Plato are not foreign to Christ, and then again in many places we And that he attacks the heathen philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, etc.; see Cohan', ad Graecos, chap. 5 ff., and declares Plato's inconsistencies in chap 7.1 But whether as an advocate or an opponent of Plato's doctrines he shows a thorough knowledge of his works, quoting from the Republic, Timaeus, Meno and Phaednis. Similar views of the importance of Plato were likewise held by Athenagoras, a contemporary of Justin, and a man who, like Justin, was trained in the Greek philosophy, see Hnber, op. cit., p. 24, and Ackermann, Das Christticke im Plato und in der platonisehen Philosophie, p. 3. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfection