Austin Fontaine 
Megan Novelli I just wanted to expand a little more on what Dr. McAnulty touched upon in class. He spoke a little bit about Plato’s beliefs in the “forms” and how Christianity adopted a lot of Platonic thoughts.
I had learned in a philosophy class, that Plato determined that of all the possible forms that existed in the world, there are three on which all other forms were based. The three highest forms are that of Beauty, Truth, and the most important and basis of all other forms, is the form of Good. It is important to note that Plato beliefs in three higher forms, for that is one of the original concepts that early Christians were attracted to in Platonic philosophy. They drew a line between the three forms and the Holy Trinity.
I think it is interesting, that the early Christians latched so much onto Platonic philosophy and incorporated it into their interpretation of Christianity. Its is easy to see why. A lot of early Christians were in fact Greeks, the earliest Christian texts ever discovered are written in Greek. Plato played a very important part in Greek education at the time.
It’s also important to note, that the idea of forms goes well in an idea of otherworldly realms, such as heaven. And I can see how the early Christians picked up on the idea of the three highest forms and matched that up with the Holy Trinity. The thing I find most interesting, however, is the fact that even after most of Plato’s influence faded away from Christianity, modern Christians still latch onto ideas and fads that seem to satisfy our worldview.
I did not grow up in the Church of Christ, but I know that the Church of Christ started in a movement to get back to the basics of Christianity. But even CoC has let outside trends influence how they do Church. So, what do you guys think? Do you think its okay to incorporate non-Christian ideas as long as they do not conflict with mainstays of the Christian faith?
Probably the best example of this, is the tendency of Church’s to run like businesses. The Church adopts business terms such as Executive Pastor and budgets its money with the propensity of an accountant.
This is random, but I found this comic and thought it was hilarious.
Amy McLean
10:54 pm, 09.05.10
I agree that modern Christians do still latch on to fads and incorporate them into the church. A recent trend at my home church and the surrounding churches was the study of Dave Ramsey’s program, Financial Peace. While the basis of this study was on how a Christian should conduct their finances, it was not entirely scripture based. This is not to discount the program or it’s ideas, but to serve as an example of how many congregations incorporate outside ideas in weekly Bible classes or small groups. As to whether this is okay or not, I think depends on the nature of the material. I believe that intelligence comes from God and if new ideas are generated that are in accordance with the Bible, there is no problem with incorporating them in study. However, I believe that outside sources should be learning aides and not what we base our faith on.
Jason Herrington
12:29 am, 09.06.10
In the Church history class that I am taking this semester I have learned that the early church met in houses and had communion as part of their meal. They would wake up in the morning and have their worship before anyone else was awake. They bought plots of land to bury their dead, were viewed as people that took a part in incestuous relationships, (called themselves brothers and sisters) and were called cannibalistic (ate Jesus’ body and drank his blood).
While I had heard many of these things before I have read some of the earliest documents from emperors, rulers, historians, and scholars that confirm these beliefs over and over. I believe that our idea of church may contain similar practices such as these but most are very different than what was practiced in the early church. Therefore I believe that there are only a few sacraments that must be done and most of the rest made a preference.