The religion of Plaot
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| The religion of Plat |
In the Preface to my Platonism, I said that my purpose in publishing that work was to lay the foundation for a series of studies on the origins and early environment of Christianity and on various modern revivals of philosophic religion. Four years have passed since those lectures were delivered and printed, and the project which then stood rather vaguely before I has taken a more definite shape. My plan now is that the series — or better, perhaps, the core of the series — should consist of four volumes.
Of these the first is presented herewith; the second will deal with the Hellenistic philosophies, principally Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Neoplatonism; the third will be on Christianity, and the fourth will contain a number of essays on fundamental questions raised in the course of the foregoing studies.
As I have already observed, and may have to observe again, my intention is not at all to compose a history of Greek philosophy or of Christian dogma ; the work in these fields has been done thoroughly and repeatedly.
Nor am I concerned with ultimate origins. No doubt, to take the present volume, an exposition of Plato's sources would be exciting and would throw a clarifying light on some of his religious ideas; but this field also has been well covered, notably by Erwin Rohde.
Somewhere one must start, some restriction one must accept; and the inclusions and limitations imposed on the task here begun are determined by the fact that it is undertaken with a very definite thesis in view. Just what that thesis is it may be well to state at the outset in the fewest possible words.
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