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Does Plato's Allegory Of The Cave Relate To Christian Life

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Before diving into how exactly Plato’s Allegory of the Cave relates to the Christian life. Lets first take a look as to what exactly Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is. Inside of the cave are human beings who are facing a wall. Their necks and legs are chained and can’t move. They have never been exposed to the light, and don’t know what its like to have the sun on their skin. Life in the cave is dark, and the prisoners only know that life. The prisoners cling to the life they’ve known. If they were to get out of the cave, they would see it for what it really was – an illusion. However, one prisoner gets out and sees the sunlight. What would go on in his head? If he were to go back to the life he was knew, he would have a hard accepting it. …show more content…

If we look at this allegory candidly, we can see that it does. One example that comes to the mind is the idea of idolatry and lies. Imagine a Christian believer finds herself in the cave. She is bound by shackles, holding tightly to the idols in her life. She believes the voices and the lies that are cast by “the shadows” and believes that if she holds on to that dream or desire that they will satisfy her. That these dreams will give her everything she wants. She lives in a world of illusions, because that’s all she knows. But what she doesn’t know is that there is freedom outside the cave. That she doesn’t have to hold on and be bound by those shackles in her life. She doesn’t need to get that guy in order to know what love really is. She doesn’t have to hold on to those hopes that someday he will ask her out. The girl is blind to her circumstance and believes herself to be fine. Yet, what she doesn’t know is that there is so much life outside of the cave. If only she would open up her eyes to the light and see it. And she won’t realize it, until she steps out and the God who has been pursuing her tells her that she needs to let them go. The question then remains, after seeing the light will she go back to the old life she knew? One that is bound by shackles and grieving hope? Or will she step into the light, raise her white flag, and experience the life that her Father

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Plato tells us that the prisoners are confused on their emergence from the cave and that the prisoners’ will be blinded once they had been freed from the cave. After a period of time they will adjust their eyesight and begin to understand the true reality that the world poses. The stubbornness to develop a different perspective is seen in much of today’s society. The allegory of the cave is an understanding of what the true world is and how many people never see it because of their views of the society they are raised in.

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In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave the people think that their entire reality is the shadows that they see on the walls of the cave. Plato explores the truth and criticizes that humanity does not question what is real. Plato explores that the human understanding and accepting of what is real is difficult and

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