Living thought …

… What Would Plato Say? Rebecca Newberger Goldstein on Philosophy - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

For a long time, she argues, "the notion of virtue was monopolized by monotheism, by Judeo-Christian theology, but the Greeks were pre-monotheistic, and they were really, really consumed with the question of what is it to live a life that matters." The ancient Greeks had religion, "but you didn't want the attention of the gods—they were terrible." So the Greeks approached virtue from a secular standpoint, as many people do now, she says. Today, "religion doesn't quite grip us the way it has."

Well, that Judeo-Christian theology owes a heck of a lot to a guy named Plato.