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How widely is it thought everything in 'this World' reflects a greater reality where those things are perfect (in God)? That we might reach this perfection via beatification? And how widely might we take that claim; can a love of fiction reflect this higher reality? Can films? Can objects?

And if this reality (to be) is greater, to what degree would it be sensible to assume it (they) might be perfected? Are words, to quote Jonathan Edwards,like joy but "low shadows" of how great and perfectly satisfying the joy of the World to come is?

To use an example, I have often hoped (via reading CS Lewis's platonism inspired writings) that my love for Norse Myth, Tolien,'Dr Who' (a tv series) and my nerdy interest in collecting figures based on that program's chacters and monsters, might in fact be instigations of something. I feel, via such, as CS Lewis felt via fairytales, a desire for something 'ineffible'- sehnsucht. Wordsworth felt a similar desire through nature...but how many christians believe that these feelings are 'for something' that they reflect when, I have also heard it argued (by highly professional and 'high up' theologins and Christian teachers) that the only similarity between objects and enjoyments here and the World to come, is that both are enjoyable. Merry Christmas, by the way, and to all a Happy New Year!

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    I do not see how this question can be answered except to say that paganism is alive and well in Christianity.
    – gideon marx
    Dec 27, 2013 at 9:16
  • But surely CS Lewis was no pagan? And St Augustine and Thomas Aquinas? All of them took some ideas from Plato. Of course, that doesn't mean they believed in disembodied spirits as Plato, as an ancient Greek, probably did...
    – Sehnsucht
    Dec 27, 2013 at 11:12
  • I'm not sure that this is one question, nor am I confident that I understand what is really being asked. "How wide.."? Pretty wide.
    – The Freemason
    Dec 27, 2013 at 15:39
  • I suppose I want to know if it is 'widely thought' or whether it is only considered to be so by a small minority. I also mention my understanding of what that idea might suggest, just to narrow down the answer in terms of "and platonism may equal THAT, right?" After all, it is very easy to get lost via non specific ideas. One might say the idea of Good= an perfect object aka God, is a given in Christianity! To that degree, we are certainly all followers of Plato! Hope that helps.
    – Sehnsucht
    Dec 27, 2013 at 16:04
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    Perhaps you could, "What was the basis for platonism as found in the writings of C. S. Lewis, etc.?"
    – Narnian
    Dec 27, 2013 at 21:58