By Katherine Kloepping
“Philosophers are worth studying, but they will not save your soul. Only Christ can do that.”
On October 20, Southern Virginia University’s Dr. John Armstrong, professor of philosophy, spoke at the “Nature, Law, and Cosmos in Ancient Greek Philosophy” conference at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. This conference was in celebration of one of Armstrong’s undergraduate professors, Daniel W. Graham, a prominent scholar of ancient philosophy.
Armstrong stated, “The conference brought together scholars who have been influenced by Dr. Graham’s research and teaching”. There were guests from eight different American universities and two universities in Great Britain.
While an undergraduate, Armstrong took several courses from Graham, became his teaching and research assistant and under Graham’s supervision, wrote his honors thesis about Plato’s Timeaus. Graham retired in 2020, but he still continues to do research and wrote a new book, a biography of Socrates.
Armstrong’s talk was called “Plato on God’s Care for Humans.” He discussed Plato’s thoughts on whether the gods cared about humans. Armstrong argued that God, according to Plato, cares about humans. Armstrong stated, “God cares for humans in virtue of the fact that God has arranged for every part of the universe, including humans, to have an internal purpose that causes it to strive for the good of the universe, guiding the part’s growth and development.”
At the end of the conference, Armstrong was one of three individuals that was invited to talk about some memories of Dr. Graham and the experiences that he had as a student and assistant. One of the comments that Armstrong quoted from Dr. Graham was, “Philosophers are worth studying, but they will not save your soul. Only Christ can do that.”
Dr. John Armstrong’s talk “Plato on God’s Care for Humans” at Brigham Young University was originally published in The Herald on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.