Catholic Thought discussion

Book VIII
Subchapters
- Plato’s Predecessors
- Socrates
- Plato and the Platonic Division of Philosophy
- The Superiority of the Platonists
- The Closeness of the Platonists to Christianity
- The Issue: the Worship of Many Gods
- The Platonists on the Demons: Apuleius
- Apuleius’s Definition of the Demons
- The Demons as Intermediaries between the Gods and Human Beings
- Hermes Trismegistus on the Demons: the Art of Making Gods and the Coming Abolition of the Gods
- Hermes Trismegistus: the Art of Making Gods Is Rooted in Error and Unbelief
- Hermes’s Lament and the Memorial Shrines of Christian Martyrs
- Christians Do Not Worship the Martyrs

In Book VIII, Augustine refutes the pagan philosophic underpinning to the divine, first acknowledging the Platonists similarity to Christianity and then showing they actually worship many gods. Augustine then turns to undermining the validity of Apuleius’ claim that demons serve as intermediaries between gods and men, and finally Augustine rebuts the Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus on his magical creation of gods and how they are rooted in dead men. Augustine concludes with rejecting the claim Christians worship martyrs in the same way.

Another fascinating Book. I'll post something on this in the next few days, but for now we are also turning to our Christmas read. It will be a couple of weeks before I get to the next Book in City of God. There are only two more to go for this interval in our recurring reads.

We're finished with the short read and resume with City of God. I'll post the next chapter (called a "Book") this week.