Socrates (Creation and Redemption)

As a philosopher, Socrates tries to answer the questions of meaning in being a human and the problems humans face in their lives. This qualifies him as a contributor to Creation. However, I feel Socrates’ life contributed to Redemption because of the numerous parallels in his perspective and the nature of salvation. From Socrates’ perspective, knowledge is parallel to virtue and morality. So this perspective is related to Redemption because to gain knowledge is parallel to gaining a new life in Christ. He believed immorality to be a product of ignorance, which is also parallel to sin. Sin separated the Israelites from God. So, in a sense, they were “trapped” within their own immorality and the only hope for salvation was Jesus, or knowledge. A search for knowledge is parallel to a closer walk with Christ. Similar to fact that no human can be perfect, it is also impossible to gain all knowledge. To Socrates, gaining knowledge involved methods of questioning things that were blindly accepted in society that included inductive definition. He even questioned his own wisdom and searched for suitable comparisons. He believed there was a structure to things like beauty and truth and sought to understand that structure. In following his own theory, Socrates’ answer for human purpose in life is, ultimately, to gain knowledge. — Denysha A. Taylor Communication Sciences and Disorders McNair Scholars Program Abilene Christian University *254-366-4397* *dat11a@acu.edu*