Plato and the Shepherd-gods

[hyongho]

Ancient Greek philosophers like Plato built their concept of justice and good leadership on the gods. This was captured by Laniak in Shepherd after my own Heart when he says: " Plato believed that in mythic/primeval time the gods ruled directly over flocks of humans as shepherd. Human rule was meant to be an extension of that beneficent rule in the age of human history" p.73. Plato in his book the Republic sees the gods as the true shepherds of the people. Plato believes that the human leaders are just representatives of the gods. When we juxtapose Plato's view and the leadership pattern in Israel, one could certainly agree with Laniak that both societies considered human rulers as under shepherds while the true shepherd(s) is God or are gods from a Platonic perspective. A German philosopher Emmanuel Kant started that one cannot be indifferent to that which does not leave one indifferent. According to Kant, there are divine forces altering or directing human activities whether we are conscious of it or not. As such, one will think that Kant fell short of telling his audience that there is a shepherd; God overseeing human activities.
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Henry Yongho