I was a neo-platonist, part the first

I don't know how much of this I'll write before I get too tried, but I just read Daniela's blog (see side links) and was inspired to write. Of course with a title like that, you'd expect a much longer, explanatory blog than this entry will turn out to be. But it's late and I really should be on my way to bed, so it probably won't be that long. But who knows.

So you're probably wondering about the title. I wanted to give a little snapshot of some of the things I'm learning in seminary and in my whole new life in general. For those of you who may not know, in July I started a whole new chapter in my life by leaving Campus Crusade after 8 years (12 if you count my entire college career) in order to pursue graduate work at Reformed Theological Seminary. I also work at Starbucks. Both are quite an educational experience. One I pay to receive, the other one pays me. It's a pretty decent trade off.

So I was a neo-platonist. That's probably one of the biggest revelations I've had in seminary. That is of course because I'm getting my degree in Philosophy, which I knew I was doing when I told people I was studying "Philosophy and History" but I don't think I really go it until after the first week of classes when I realized that I'm taking 2 Philosophy classes, one big fat Greek class (that counts as two classes) and one little class called "Classics of Personal Devotion" which I must admit I always leave a little emotional from...that's for another night.

So you might be asking now, "why, Amy, were you a neo-platonist, and what is that?" Well, there's lots involved with being a neo-platonist, and I don't know if I was one fully, but on a few levels I conciously or subconsciously subscribed to the belief that matter, the material world around us, was bad useless and the spiritual life is good and useful. That doesn't sound so bad, does it?

I don't know that I would have every verbalized that, so maybe I was just a functional neo-platonist and not a real one. But the way it played out in my everyday life came in the way I treated my body, in the way I thought about the world, creation, trees, squirrels, and even ultimately my heart. I denied that I needed to think about things that wouldn' t last for eternity. In fact, I think I was quite misconstrued as to what would last for eternity. The Bible talks about how the whole earth is groaning for redemption, a redemption that is coming (Romans 8). I interpreted that (along with a lot of reinforcement) to be that we didn't need to think about such things, only the spirtual things. That was what seeking first the kingdom of God meant, afterall, right? All that we need to worry about are souls, right? Nothing else? Well in a sense that is true, but in a sense, that really misses the mark.

Over time I began to see how God cares for each and every aspect of us--heart, soul, body, strength, mind, and the surrounding world he put us in. He created a world and he said that it was good. Even after the fall, he never said it was bad. Then why do we in evangelical circles live like it is so often? I always neglected things in more of the physical realm because I was too busy dealing with the spiritual. I had no time and we can let those who don't care about the spiritual deal with that, can't we?

So I was a neo-platonist. I didn't care about the environment or health or really anything. But time (and necessity in the health department) brought about the reality that God really does care for all of His creation--the greatest to the least. People are a big part the redemption--the ultimate of his creation. But the physical world, the penultimate, will be redeemed, too. He cares about it, we should too. This world will be redeemed one day. It is groaning and longing for it as we see clearly from events happening every day but in the meantime, we can do our little part to care and tend to the garden God has given us.

So I'm no longer a neo-platonist. I'm also not a tree-hugger. I'm somewhere in the middle in a place where balance is good--not the static kind that never ceases and dies but the place where you are struggling to remain and therefore find the strength to stand. One thing I've learned from yoga and standing on my feet for hours at Starbucks, if you lock your knees for an extended period of time, bad things happen. So be fluid, be flexible, be wise.

So there it is. It's not polished, I haven't gone back and edited. It's not a very clear explanation of what I mean to say which does dry me a little nuts to post it out there like that. But it's something, right? I'm back on the blog (again).