1/7. Hegel is an Absolute Idealist & believes that material things are constructs of consciousness. Ultimate reality is not matter, but mind. From some of the reaction against Xian Platonism, it seems to me that there is widespread confusion bet. the views of Plato & Hegel.

2/7. Absolute Idealism holds that mind is ultimately real & matter is not. Materialism (its opposite) holds that matter is real & mind is just an epiphenomenon of matter. Dualism says both matter & mind are real. Platonism & Xianity are 2 (not identical) species of dualism.

3/7. Platonism holds that the Ideas are most real & individual things in the world participate in them. So the material world is real & important, but not ultimate. The Xian doc of creation reinforces this evaluation of the physical universe. It is good but not eternal like God.

4/7. Absolute Idealism denigrates matter by viewing it as not real. Some apparently think that Platonism says this. They should note that modernists accuse Xianity of the same fault: we must think bodies are unimportant since there is a sphere of reality even higher than bodies.

5/7. In fact, both Platonism & Xianity have a pos. view of matter but neither say matter is eternal or of ultimate value. Matter can be good or evil depending on the degree to which it participates in the transcendentals (Goodness, Beauty, Truth). Both reject AI & Materialism.

6/7. It should be obvious why the ch. fathers saw Platonism as a worthy dialogue-partner, rather than the materialists or the mythologizers. Today we must fight Hegel's massive influence on systematic theology. Know your enemy! It is not Plato but Hegel.

7/7. What is the biggest diff bet Platonism & Xianity? The doc of creation ex nihilo & the Incarnation. These are the revisions to Platonism that are necessary to make Xian Platonism. But note: adding these docs to materialism (eg Marx) or AI (eg Hegel) would not make them Xian.