You know the more and more that we mature, the more the stuff - all of the stuff - we have gathered over the ages begins to weigh heavily on not only our bodies but also our minds . . . .  And, eventually we make the move to begin downsizing - going through boxes of old papers in the attempt to determine what should be thrown in the shred-it bag this time . . . .  And, ocassionally we find a paper of importance that we still want to keep.      Such is the case with an 11 page paper that I wrote as a professional student for Dr. A. Thomas Kraabel's “religious studies” class in the Classics Department at the University of Minnesota almost 50 years ago.      Why do I want to keep it?  It's a damn good paper and at it's beginning has Dr. Kraabel's hand-writen determinnation - “60 points” ( out of 60 ); and at it's conclusion his comment “Perceptive - You've been at this a long time.”      In addition, portions of the paper relate parts of the background(s) to our current political situation.      The link above gives a good bit of Professor Kraabel's background. I am a student of the Jewish background of Christianity to this day.      In 1978, with the birth of my son, I named him Paul Thomas, his middle name after Dr. Kraabel.

The original paper was written on an old, portable, Smith-Corona typewriter and has Dr. Kraabel's notes scattered throughout in red ink. I OCR'd the paper into a Microsoft .rtf file, edited it for readability in Libre Office Writer before exporting it as an HTML document. Because of what I consider garbage in the generated HTML syntax, I ran the .rtf file through Open Office and also saved it as an HTML file. Almost the same outcome. So, I wrote the same paper in my slimmed down version of HTML for this presentation. If I recall correctly, then one of the questions for Takehome Essay A was “ Why are Plato and apocalyptic literature studied in this class? ” A note on sources: An attempt has been made to present links to the latest sources which as you might imagine after some 50 years may have been updated with pages added / deleted, etc. I will be visiting various and sundry libraries ( and utilizing Inter-Library Loan ) to track down the exact location of a reference, so give this octagenarian some leeway in that task . . . . Here it begins . . .

Peter Lawrence Boatman Classics 3071 Professor Kraabel Fall, 1976 Takehome Essay A

Ideology and Utopia Part I

Nilsson points to the importance of Plato for this course when he writes, . . . [ O ]nly one [ religious ] genius arose in Greece, Plato. Even he wished to be regarded as a philosopher rather than as a prophet, and he was accepted as such by his contemporarires. The religious importance of his thought did not come to the fore until half a millenium after his death, although since that time all religions have been subject to his influence. 1

Because Guthrie points out the importance of the socio-anthropological perpective to his understanding of the task of the historian of Greek religion, 2 it is not surprising to find Greek religion intimately bound to the city-state organization of society. What should one expect, then, when that organization is called into question as it was, not only by the proponents of natural philosophy, mysticism, and sophism, but also by the fact of inter-state rivalry, beginning about 450 BCE? Looking for the hot and cold on the continuum of response to this crisis, Guthrie suggests two possible courses of action: Either . . . join with the disruptive forces, consign the city-state with all its institutions and convictions to the past, and out of the different elemets that had brought about the downfall build up a new society and a new religion to take its place; or else . . . uphold the city-state, refuting its opponents when they were wrong, and using them only to add strength to the framework when they were right and represented an element whose lack was a weakness in the existing order. ( G:335 ) In choosing the conservative option and upholding the ideal of “ a reformed society based on the purification and strengthening . . . of the city-state ”  ( G:335 ), Plato had to confront the three threatening movements of thought mentioned above. About 450 BCE, speculation concerning “ the One and the Many ” had culminated in the opposite extremes of Eleaticism and atomism, the one declaring that all motion was illusion and the real world nothing but immovable plennum, the other that the only realities were atoms and the void and all perceptible qualities merely subjective. ( G:338 ).

With the absence of absolute values and standards, the sophists held a sceptical attitude toward philosophical issues and concentrated on the practical conduct of human affairs. This presented a problem for Plato, however, for if there are no absolute values or standards, then his conduct is determined only by what is most advantageous at the moment. There is no final justification for his elite position in society. Faced with this ultimate concern, Plato argued that there is a reality apart from action, and that just like the atoms of the atomists it cannot be identified with any objects or actions in the perceptible world. It is, in fact, an ideal world outside space and time; that which inspires us, our soul ( ψυχή ), really belongs to that ideal world. 3 [ 2 ] It has had many lives, and before and between them, when out of the body, has had glimpses of the reality beyond. Death is not an evil for it, but a release from imprisonment in the body enabling it to fly back to the world of Ideas with which it had converse before its life on earth. Immediately before incarnation it has drunk the waters of Lethe . . . and forgot- ten all or most of its knowledge of that other world; but in perceivng through the senses, which are now its only instru- ments, the imperfect approximations here below, it is daily reminded of the full and perfect knowledge which it once had. All knowledge acquired in this world is in fact recollection, and once set on the way by sense-perception, the philosopher will ignore the body as far as possible and subdue its desires, in order to set free the soul . . . and allow it to rise above the world of sense and regain its awareness of the perfect forms. ( G:346-7 )

Platonism stood for a view of reality as spiritual, ideal, invisible; the external, visible objects in the universe being only           copies or shadows of the invisible realities.4 At first a principle of epistemology, Platonism carried over into the first century CE in an ontological form influencing, among others, Philo and, in general, the Judaism of the Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora. A comparison of the following summary of Philo's thought with that of Plato's above will show Plato's influence on Philo:

Philo maintains a sharp dualism of soul and body or of the rational and sensual elements in man, and insists on the necessity of man's liberating himself from the power of the sensual. Virtue is the only true good, and in regard to the passions apathy is to be aimed at . . . . [ M ]an's task is to attain the greatest possible likeness to God. This is an interior task and so public life is discouraged because of its distracting influence, while science is to be pursued only in so far as it is an aid to the soul's inner life . . . . The passive state of ecstasy thus becomes the highest stage of the soul's life on earth, as it was later to be in the Neo-Platonic philosophy. 5

[ 3 ] Ideology and Utopia Part II One turns to apocalyptic literature. Thanks to the rich promises of the Second Isaiah, the Jews who returned from the Babylonian Exile looked forward to a glorious future, when all the sorrows of the Exile would be forgotten in joy and prosperity. Promises! Promises! For the glory of post-exilic Jewry is the story of dreams that never materialized. There were the short-lived successes of Judas Maccabaeus, Simon, John Hyrcanus, and Alexander Jannaeus but not without internal strife which weakened the nation. 6

Looking for the hot and the cold on the continuum of response to this crisis, Kee suggests two possible lines of development for the covenant people: [ I ]t could repeat the hopes of the ancient prophets, and leave to God the time and circumstances under which the promises would be fulfilled, or it could assess the national calamities as the work of a demonic power opposed to God and shift the sphere of the final triumph of God from the chronological future to the cosmic realms.7

The latter of these two options is expressed in a genre of literature called apocalypse and then apocalyptic. 8 For the past fifty years, the method of approach to this literature has been the phenomenological method of comparison. The book of Daniel in the Old Testament is singled out as the earliest apocalyptic work ( ca.  166 / 165 BCE ),9 and its characteristics are noted. [ 4 ] These characteristics are then contrasted with the characteristics of pre-exilic prophecy, and the conclusion drawn is that there is no essential connection between the two types. The picture one gets can best be illustrated as follows: 10

		Prophecy		Apocalyptic
Eschatology:		Native, monistic		Foreign ( Iranian ) and dualistic
Object of hope:		Fulfillment of Creation		Dissolution of Creation by a different type of world
Judgment:		Coming event announced to the unrepentant; not irrevocable		Unalterable final event with firmly fixed date

One can go either of two ways to interpret the discontinuity between the lists, either view apocalyptic “ as a decadent late development with no religious worth ( Buber ) or as a new phenomenon without primary connections to prophetic Yahwism ( von Rad ). ”  ( H:15 ) Pursuing the latter of these two options, one looks for an outside influence which is usually found in Zoroastrianism, an ancient Perso- Babylonian religion mediated by Hellenistic culture and civilization to Palestine. Norman Snaith provides a brief sketch of the Zoroastrian conception of the world which we can use to understand its essential notions: [ 5 ] The Persian ( Iranian ) conception . . . evisages four world-periods, or ages, each of 3000 years in duration. In the first age the creation was entirely spiritual and invisible. From before the beginning there were two spirits, Ahura Mazda, the good spirit, and Angra Mainyu, the evil spirit. When Angra Mainyu saw the light of this first creation he sought by every means to defeat the good spirit, Ahura Mazda. All the efforts which he made were unavailing during the second Age of 3000 years. They were years of blessedness, a veritable Golden Age. But in the third period of 3000 years the evil spirit gained an ascendancy and created every kind of evil thing . . . . At the end of this period of 3000 years Zarathushtra ( in the Greek Zoroaster ) appears and the victory of Ahura Mazda begins. At the end of each 1000 years a deliverer ( Shaoshyant ) appears, born of the line of Zarathushtra, though earlier tradi- tions suggest that this Shaoshyant is always Zarathushtra himself. At last there comes the great consumation when Angra Mainyu ( Ahriman ) is cast into the abyss by Ahura Mazda ( Ormuzd ), and the end of the world takes place. Then the dead will be raised and all men will be judged. Fire will descend from heaven and all things will be burned. All men will pass through this purifying fire, but finally all will be saved, and a new Age will begin with new heavens and a new earth. All will be happiness, and there will be no evil, nor sorrow. 11

Most textbooks describe the essential notions of apocalyptic by drawing on the following list of J. Lindblom: transcendentalism, mythology, cosmological survey, pessimistic historical surveys, dualism, division of time into periods, teach of Two Ages, numerology, pseudoecstacy, artificial claims to inspiration, pseudonymity, and esoterism. 12 To which Russel adds: the idea of the unity of history and the conception of cosmic history which treats of earth and heaven; the notion of primordiality with its revelations concerning creation and the fall of men and angels; the source of evil in the universe and the part played in this by angelic powers; the conflict between light and darkness, good and evil, God [ 6 ] and Satan; the emergence of a transcendent figure called 'the Son of Man' the development of belief in life after death with its various compartments of Hell, Gehenna, Paradise, and Heaven and the increasing significance of the individual in resurrection, judgement, and eternal bliss. ( R:105 )

Unfortunately, this method leaves much to be desired. Among its adverse results, Paul Hanson lists the following: (1) the sources of apocalyptic are misunderstood, (2) the period of origin is centuries off the mark, meaning that the resulting typology of apocalyptic literature is grossly inaccurate, (3) the historical and sociologicial matrix of apocalyptic is left unexplained, (4) the essential nature of apocalyptic is inadequately clarified. ( H:7 ) 13

What then is “the sociological matrix of apocalyptic”? Not surprizingly, it developes out of events not unlike those which stimulated Plato. The surrender of Jerusalem ( March 16, 597 BCE ) and its eventual destruction ( July, 587 BCE ) ( B:323 ff. ) were decisive events for the social history of Israel. When the time came to restore the community ( 538 BCE ) (B:360 ff.), there were two groups suggesting models for its reconstruction. The result, as often in time of crisis, was a bitter struggle for legitimization. Briefly ( and over-simplified ), the argument runs as follows: A unified eschatological ideal originating in a community sympathetic to Second Isaiah is to be found in a polemical form throughout the last eleven chapters of Isaiah ( Third Isaiah ). The polemical form suggests that [ 7 ] the prophetic community was engaged in struggle with the uneschatological community that controlled the official cult and threatened to compromise the eschatological ideal upheld by the prophetic group. Because of the oppression suffered by the minority prophetic community at the hands of the "hierocrats" the prophetic oracle was transformed and the development of prophetic eschatology toward apocalyptic eschatology began. 14 For what happens to a nation's eschatology which hitherto was construed in the historical terms of Yahweh's restoration of the nation to its original political autonomy and integrity when that nation is no longer a recognizable historical entity, when the historical boundary demarcating Israel from the nations is replaced by the spiritual boundary setting Israel off from Israel? . . . [ R ]estoration was seen more and more as an event of the new era, an event losing connections with the concrete realities of history, an event removing the elect from any relation of responsibility to the present political order, an event no longer interpreting divine action in the historical terms of Yahweh directing the destiny of nations and kings, but tending to be viewed in terms of a more direct forensic intervention whereby Yahweh separates the righteous from the wicked. ( H:150-51; cf. 209-10 ) Viewed in this manner, the inclusion of Plato and apocalyptic literature in this class enables one to see two contrasting mentalities. Plato a proponent of ideology, a member of the ruling class, so interest-bound to existing structures that he posits them as "absolute and eternal." And the apocalypticist, a proponent of utopia, a member of an oppressed group, whose thinking is marked by a harsh incongruity between the vision and the actual state of reality. And, with Hanson, one can see the application to our own time: When the utopian thinking becomes a direction for action, as it always threatens to become, it leads to the destruction of existing structures in the attempt to realize the utopia. It is thus understandable why representatives of the given order try to render the utopian notions socially innocuous by confining them to a realm beyond history and society, where they are unable to disturb the status quo. But . . . in a period of national disaster, such control of the utopian impulse is no longer possible, and therefore it bursts forth in new vigor. (H:213) BIBLOGRAPHY [ 9 ] 1  Martin P. Nilsson, Greek Folk Religion, p. 4 Plato is of extra-primary importance for this course because he found it profitable to employ his leisure time ( σχολή ) near the sanctuary of the hero Academus, thus establishing the first European university. Even in America the most recent statistics suggest that only one out of ten persons is able to be similarly employed. One wonders at our participation in this minority institution. To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ 2  W. K. C. Guthrie, The Greeks and Their Gods, pp. 16-17; 334 Subsequent references in parentheses following the quotes in the text, e. g., ( G:16-17; 334 ). To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ 3  Guthrie remarks, “. . . [ O ]ne of the most fruitful developments of twentieth-century anthropology has been a growing awareness that religion is a function of the whole personality, and that the personality is intimately bound up with the contemporary organization of society.”  ( G:16-17 ) To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ 4  Frederick C. Grant, Hellenistic Religions, p. xxvii. To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ 5  Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, Vol. I, Part II, p. 205; cf. Charles K. Barrett, Editor, The New Testament Background:  Writings from Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire that Illuminate Christian Origins, Revised Edition, pp. 252-268. To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ 6  For fuller background on this, indeed, turbulent time, the Wikipedia article on Judas Maccabeus has sub-links for most of the family members cited in the text for which this endnote was generated. To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ 7  Howard Clark Kee, The Origins of Christianity: Sources and Documents, p. 171. To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ 8  From the Greek: αποκαλυψις, meaning revelation; first used with this meaning in the New Testament Apocalypse of John ( 1:1 ) where it is also first used to designate a book; cf. Edgar Hennecke, New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. II: Writing Related to the Apostles, Apocalypse, and Related Subjects, pp. 582 ff. To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ 9  John Bright, A History of Israel, 4th Edition ( with an Introduction and Appendix by William J. Brown ), p. 426;     subsequent references to dates in parentheses following the dates in the text, e. g., ( B:426 ). To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ 10  Paul D. Hanson, The Dawn of Apocalyptic:  The Historical and Sociological Roots of Jewish Apocalyptic      Eschatology, Revised Edition, p. 5; originally in Martin Buber, Kampf um Israel; Reden und Schriften ( Berlin:      Schocken Verlag, 1933 ), pp. 59 ff.; subsequent references to dates in parentheses following the dates in the text,      e. g., ( H:5 ). To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ 11  Norman H. Snaith, The Jews from Cyrus to Herod, pp. 95-96. To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ 12  David Syme Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic:  200 BC - AD 100, ( The Old Testament      Library ), pp. 95-96. To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ 13  Cf. p. 6 where Hanson states, “The origins of apocalyptic cannot be explained by a method which juxtaposes      seventh- and second- century compositions and then proceeds to account for the features of the latter by reference      to its immediate environment.” To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ 14  “. . . [ T ]he originally separate salvation and judgment oracles were fused into one hybird oracle, thereby enabling      the visionary to deliver a word which was simultaneously a word of salvation and a word of judgment.  The Sitz      Im Leben of this hybrid oracle was a new situation in the post-exilic community within which there was no one      Israel being promised either salvation or judgment, but two Israels, one the object of Yahweh's saving acts, the other      of his wrath and judgment.”  ( H:404 ) To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ Bibliography Works Cited In the Text Barrett, C. K.  The New Testament Background:  Selected Documents.  Harper Torchbooks.  New York:  Harper & Row, Publishers, 1961. Bright, John.  A History of Israel.  2nd ed.  Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1972. Copleston, Frederick.  A History of Philosophy, Vol. I, Part II:  Greece & Rome.  Image Books. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday      & Company, Inc. 1962. Grant, Frederick C.  Hellenistic Religions.  The Library of Liberal Arts.  Indianapolis:  The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1953. Guthrie, W. K. C.  The Greeks and Their Gods.  Boston:  Beacon Press, 1955. Hanson, Paul D.  The Dawn of Apocalyptic.  Philadelphia:  Fortress Press, 1975. Hennecke, Edgar.  New Testament Apocrypha.  2 Vols. Edited by Wilhelm Schneemeleher.  Translated by R. McL. Wilson.      Philadelphia:  Westminster Press, 1965. Kee, Howard Clark.  The Origins of Christianity:  Sources and Documents.  Englewood Cl1ffs, N. J.:  Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1973. Nilsson, Martin P.  Greek Folk Relig1on.  Philadelphia:  University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972. Russell, D. S.  The Message and Method of Jewish Apocalyptic:  200 BC – AD 100.  The Old Testament Library.  Philadelphia:      Westminster Press, 1964. Snaith, Norman H.  The Jews from Cyrus to Herod.  New York:  Abingdon Press, [n.d.] - Other Works Consulted Copleston, Frederiok.  A History of Philosophy, Vol. I, Part I: Greece & Rome.  Image Books.  Garden City. N. Y.:  Doubleday      & Company, Inc., 1962. Hanson, Paul D.  “Jewish Apocalyptic Against Its Near Eastern Environment”.  Revue Biblique, 78 ( January, 1971 ), 31-58. Mannheim, Karl.  Ideology and Utopia, an Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge.  Translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils.      New York:  Harcourt, Brace and World, 1936. 10 Schmithals, Walter.  The Apocalyptic Movement:  Introduction and Interpretation.  Translated by John E. Steely.  Nashville:      Abingdon Press, 1975. Weber, Max.  The Sociology of Religion.  Translated by Ephraim Fischoff.  Introduction by Talcott Parsons. Boston:  Beacon      Press,  1963. To return to the page from which you came, click on the up arrow ↑ Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) About Me USHANABI View my complete profile Blog Archive ►  2024 (1) ►  February (1) ▼  2023 (1) ▼  June (1) Ideology and Utopia ►  2022 (2) ►  May (2) ►  2021 (2) ►  November (1) ►  July (1) ►  2020 (3) ►  April (2) ►  February (1) ►  2019 (2) ►  November (1) ►  July (1) ►  2018 (3) ►  May (2) ►  February (1) ►  2017 (5) ►  December (1) ►  April (2) ►  March (1) ►  February (1) ►  2015 (4) ►  May (1) ►  April (1) ►  February (2) ►  2014 (5) ►  November (1) ►  August (1) ►  July (1) ►  May (2) Ethereal theme. Powered by Blogger.