Intellect ordered : an allusion to Plato in Dialogue with Trypho and its significance for Justin’s Christian epistemology
Date
2016Author
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Abstract
This article examines a previously unidentified allusion to Plato in the ‘old man’s’ final question to the still pre-Christian and Platonist Justin in Dialogue 4.1: ‘Or will the human mind (ἀνθρώπον νοῦς) ever see God if it has not been ordered (κϵκοσμημένος) by a holy spirit?’ I amplify this allusion in order to show how Justin, in the character of the old man, evokes Platonic language and ideas, and yet, at the same time, superimposes on them a Christian framework. By Christianizing this Platonic idiom he thus subverts his own erstwhile Platonic epistemology. I next relate this passage to a long-standing debate in scholarship on the Dialogue regarding the Christian epistemology that is being developed by Justin and, more specifically, to his oft-disputed descriptions of Christians as privileged recipients of a divinely granted ‘grace to understand’. I consider how the epistemological corollaries that ensue from the old man’s question in 4.1 sit alongside appeals to rational argument elsewhere in the Dialogue and Justin’s depictions of divine and human agency more generally.
Citation
Lang , T J 2016 , ' Intellect ordered : an allusion to Plato in Dialogue with Trypho and its significance for Justin’s Christian epistemology ' , Journal of Theological Studies , vol. 67 , no. 1 , pp. 77-96 . https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flw069
Publication
Journal of Theological Studies
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0022-5185Type
Journal article
Rights
© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flw069
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