Christian Cyclopedia

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Place, Josué de la

(Placeus; Placaeus; Josua; ca. 1596 to ca. 1655/65). Ref. theol.; b. Saumur, Ft.; pastor Nantes 1625; prof. Saumur* 1633; held modified Calvinism, rejecting direct imputation of Adam's sin on mankind in favor of indirect imputation as a result of hereditary corruption. See also Reformed Confessions, A 10.

Placebo

(Lat. “I will please”). Traditional name for Vespers of the Dead (see Burial, 4); derived from 1st word of the opening antiphon in Lat. (Ps. 116:9 [Vulgate 114:9] Placebo Domino in regione vivorum).

Planck, Gottlieb Jakob

(1751–1833). Ev. theol.; hist.; b. Nürtingen, Württemberg, Ger.; educ. Tübingen; taught at Tübingen and Stuttgart; prof. Göttingen; rational supernaturalist; works marred by subjectivism.

Plath, Karl Heinrich Christian

(1829–1901). Ger. Luth. promoter of for. miss.; educ. Halle, Bonn, and theol. sem. at Wittenberg; preacher and instr. Halle 1856–63; inspector Berlin* Miss. Soc. I 1863–71, Gossner* Miss. Soc. 1871–77; lecturer U. of Berlin 1867, prof. 1882; 1st inspection visit to India 1877–78, 2d to india and Palestine 1887–88, 3d to India 1895–96.

Platner, Tileman

(1490–1551). B. Stolberg, Ger.; friend of M. Luther, P. Melanchthon, and J. Jonas; supt. Stolberg, where he introd. the Reformation.

Plato

(ca. 428/427–347 BC). Gk. philos.; b. perhaps on the island Aegina (or Athens?); of aristocratic Athenian descent; saw Athens decline politically and commercially as a result of the Peloponnesian War 431–404 BC; founded the Academy (perhaps ca. 386 BC), which became the 1st endowed university (it flourished till closed by Justinian 529 AD). Originally named Aristocles, he was popularly called Plato (from the Gk. for “broad”), probably either because of the breadth of his forehead or chest and shoulders or because of the breadth of his literary treatises. Influenced by the posit of Socrates (virtue is knowledge, which includes the ability to define abstract terms and to maintain definitions against dialectic questioning) and with a propensity for mathematics, Plato held that the material sensible world is merely a temporary copy of permanent unchanging Forms, which are the object of all real knowledge. The theorems of geometry, e.g., hold true not for the symbols which humans construct and which are necessarily faulty, but only of the perfect triangle, circle, etc., which exist in the suprasensible world of Forms (Ideas). The link bet. such a dualistic universe is the immortal soul, which has had contact with the Forms before its incarnation, and which, during its human existence, relearns as best possible its prenatal knowledge by dialectic recollection. True ethical values are attained only by those individuals who have the proper perspective of soul or mind as more important than physical bodies and possessions, and who place reason above the high-spirited and appetitive elements of their personality. Moreover, the best govt. is possible only when philosophers (the rational element of the state) attain adequate concept of the perfect Forms and become rulers. Plato's influence on Aristotle, the Stoics, Cicero, Plutarch, the Neoplatonists, and early ch. fathers (esp. Augustine of Hippo and Origen) is inestimable; his influence on psychol., ethics, and aesthetics is increasing. See also Socrates.

Works include (1) Socratic dialogues, e.g., Charmides (on temperance), Laches (on courage), Lysis (on friendship), Euthyphro (on piety), Apology (of Socrates), Protagoras and Meno (on the teachableness of virtue), Gorgias (on rhetoric); (2) highly literary writings that develop his views more extensively, e.g., Symposium (on the good), Phaedo (on the soul), Republic (on the just), Phaedrus (on love); (3) less literary writings on more abstruse questions of ontology (Parmenides), epistemology (Theaetetus), logic (Sophist), cosmology (Timaeus), ethics (Philebus), and politics (Statesman [or Politicus] and Laws). RGH

See also Aesthetics; Being; Jowett, Benjamin; Philosophy; Psychology, C; Transmigration of Souls.

P. Shorey, What Plato Said (Chicago, 1933); A. E. Taylor, Plato: The Man and His Work, 6th ed. (London, 1949).

Platon

(original name Peter Levshin; 1737–1812). B. near Moscow, Russ.; adopted name Platon on becoming monk; bp. Tver (Kalinin) 1770; abp. Moscow 1775; metropolitan Moscow 1787. See also Eastern Orthodox Standards of Doctrine, A 4.

Platytera.

Representation of Mary standing in prayer, with the boy Jesus in a medallion on her breast; common in E Orthodox Chs.; found occasionally in the W.

Platz, Ludwig

(Placenta; d. 1547). Ev. theol.; educ. Erfurt; taught at Erfurt; Prot. ca. 1530; withdrew from the U. 1536; pastor Walschleben, near Erfurt; signed SA

Plenitudo potestatis.

Term of Leo I (see Popes, 2) referring to unrestricted papal power over a metropolitan bp.

Pliny

(Gaius Plinius Secundus; 23–79). “The Elder”; uncle of Pliny* the Younger; b. Como, It.; Roman procurator in Sp. ca. 70–72. See also Essenes; Heathenism.

Pliny

(Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus; 62–113). “The Younger”; nephew of Pliny* the Elder; b. Novum Comum (Como) in Cisalpine Gaul or in N It.; studied under Quintilian*; Roman proconsul (gov.) Bithynia and Pontus 111(112?). See also Agape; Music, Church.

Plitt, Gustav Leopold

(1836–80). B. Genin, near Lübeck, Ger.; educ. Erlangen and Berlin; instr. Erlangen 1862, prof. 1867. Ed. P. Melanchthon's Loci; coed. with J. J. Herzog* 2d ed. Real-Encyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche. Other works include Einleitung in die Augustana; Die Apologie der Augustana, geschichtlich erklärt.

Plockhorst, Bernhard

(1825–95). Painter; b. Brunswick, Ger. Works include “Christ Taking Leave of His Mother”; “The Consoling Christ”; “The Flight into Egypt”; “The Good Shepherd”; “Christ Walking on the Water”; “Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem”; “He is Risen.”

Plotinus

(ca. 205–270). Neoplatonic philos.; b. possibly Lycopolis, Egypt; of Gk., Roman, or Egyptian descent; pupil of Ammonius* Saccus; taught in Rome from 244. See also Aesthetics; Neoplatonism.

Plummer, Alfred

(1841–1926). B. Heworth, county borough Gateshead, Durham, Eng.; educ. Oxford; ordained deacon 1866; taught at Oxford; master U. Coll., Durham 1874–1902. Coed. The International Critical Commentary. Other works include The Church of the Early Fathers; The Church of England in the Eighteenth Century; commentaries on NT books.

Pluralism.

Belief that there are many ultimate substances, not only 1 (see Monism) or 2 (see Dualism). Empedocles* held that there are 4 elements; M. E. de Montaigne* felt that diversity is the rule of nature; G. W. v. Leibniz* advocated pluralism in his system of monads; C. S. S. Peirce,* W. James,* and J. Dewey* rejected monism in favor of pluralism; ideas of diversity are also found in the Gen. Semantics* movement.

Plutarch

(ca. 46–ca. 120). B. Chaeronea, Boeotia; educ. Athens; traveled; taught at Rome. Works include Moralia; Parallel Lives. See also Deism, I, 1.

Plütschau, Heinrich

(1678[7?]–1747[6?]). B. Wesenberg, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Ger.; educ. Halle; taught at the A. H. Francke* institutions, Halle, from 1703; commissioned 1705 at Copenhagen, Den., with B. Ziegenbalg* as miss. to India; arrived Tranquebar 1706; his chief work consisted in serving the Port. cong.; returned to Ger. 1711; pastor in Holstein. See also Frederick IV; India, 10; Missions, 5.


Edited by: Erwin L. Lueker, Luther Poellot, Paul Jackson
©Concordia Publishing House, 2000, All rights Reserved. Reproduced with Permission

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