Plato's Belief that the Human Soul is Immortal

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Recommended: The notion of trinity

The Nicene Creed appointed the roles of trinity by using the familiar triad set forth by Plato. God maintains His position as the Father and most important; Jesus becomes a divine human - born of the Father and the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit brings knowledge and truths which are set forth by both the Father and Son. “The true foundation upon which the doctrine rests is God himself… it is God as he acted in history, entering our world as a Jewish carpenter named Jesus, dying and rising again to save. It is God as he acted in history at Pentecost, descending as the Spirit to share life with the Christian church.” Thus the Trinity Doctrine was born out of Plato’s triad. The Goodness is God; the ideas are Jesus; and the World-Spirit is the Holy Spirit. All were the same theory except reshaped in order to fit into Christian doctrine.
While the divine aspects of Christianity are obviously derived from Plato’s theories, it is also important to discuss human nature – more specifically the idea of the immortal soul. Plato believed in the idea that the human soul is immortal and returns to the Goodness once freed from the body and purified. This is stated in Phaedo. Plato writes, “Our souls must exist in the other world, for if not, how could they have been born again?” According to Plato, the soul is reborn in another world once the body dies. It does not cease to exist – it merely changes planes. This is a theory that has no place in the Old Testament, but does have one in the New Testament. It can be concluded that Christianity adopted yet another Platonist theory into its own doctrine.
Prior to the usage of Plato’s immortal soul theory, the Old Testament focused on absolute death. In Genesis 35:18, it is written that, “Her soul...

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...that the hell of Plato does – one of punishment.
The New Testament’s version of Hell does follow the Platonist theory. This Hell is one of punishment for the souls of the corrupt who did not adhere to God’s teachings. This punishment is severe for the sinner – far more so than what Plato’s version of hell dictated. In 2 Thessalonians, it is revealed that, “The Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” Both versions of Hell (Platonist and Christian) depict an afterlife of suffering and eternal punishment for the soul of the wicked; something that is decidedly absent from the Hell of the Old Testament.

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