The Cave of Christianity

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Plato's Allegory of the Cave but you can find it here.

We talked about it today a bit in my Poli-Sci class and while Plato wrote it on the acquisition of knowledge or wisdom I can more easily relate it to Christianity. In a nutshell he tells of people who have been chained in a dark cave their whole lives. On a ledge above they see shadows all day long of people passing. But because this is all they've ever known they do not know them to be shadows but believe them to be all there is; until one person ventured out to find that shadows were just a reflection of an actual person. The person is the reality, not the shadow. But when the man who discovered this proclaimed to the others what was real, he was not met well.

I was relating it to how Christians I have perceived truth. If I'm only aware of/exposed to/open to one idea of what Christianity means then that makes me ignorant just as the people in the cave. In the past, I have been content to sit and watch the shadows and call them Jesus not knowing or not wanting to know that Jesus is so much greater than a shadow.

I don't know if I'm making any sense but I think the lesson here is to seek Him out for yourself and not rely on others for truth. And at the same time be mindful of the fact that there are people who will read the same Bible as you and not receive the same message, and that is okay. As my mom often tells me "you can't be someone's Holy Spirit."

In reading through the Bible this year with our church I have realized how unlikely it is that any of us have all the right answers. The chances of me being absolutely right in all regards is slim. But I'm choosing not to remain ignorant but to inform myself through Bible study, small group discussions and learning others' beliefs. I'm venturing out of the cave. I have my beliefs and convictions but I don't pretend to have it all figured out. Goodness knows I have more questions than I do answers.

"This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed."