In response to a question posed by Josh Claybourn, I made the offhand remark that Platonic idealism cannot be reconciled with Biblical Christianity and then promised to elaborate further in the future. This caught the attention of Jeremy Pierce, a PhD candidate in philosophy at Syracuse, who noted in the comments:

“I can’t think of any reason why Platonic idealism, once understood properly (properly for the Christian, anyway, with God as the Good), has any more trouble fitting with Christianity than Berkeley's idealism, which was thoroughly Christian from the get-go.”

And if that wasn’t enough to make me second-guess my opinion, I found that Dr. John Mark Reynolds, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Biola University, has written on his own blog:

“I eagerly await this argument. This seems unlikely on its face. I suspect we are about to get a misunderstanding of Plato, but I hope not since I like these guys a great deal.”

Not only does Dr. Reynolds teach at one of the most respected evangelical universities in the world, he has two of my intellectual heroes – Philip Johnson and J.P. Moreland – as references.

No pressure there, eh?

For a philosophy geek like me this is akin to being a high school basketball player and having two NBA stars looking over your shoulder saying, “I don’t think the kid can sink that jumpshot…”

Naturally, they’re probably right. Still, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. At least maybe I can hope to hit the rim…