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The Religion of Socrates
Mark L. McPherran
A rigorous scholarly study of a question usually skated over: what did Socrates actually believe about the gods? Mark McPherran, treating Plato's early dialogues as broadly reliable evidence for the historical Socrates, works closely through the texts to reconstruct his views on the divine, the soul, the daimonion or inner sign, prophecy, and piety. His central claim is that Socrates saw his religious commitments as inseparable from his philosophical mission, and that he used reasoned argument to reform the conventional religion of his day, helping shape the theology later developed by Plato. Published by Penn State University Press in 1996, it is a specialist book but a clarifying one. It speaks to students of ancient philosophy and anyone puzzled by the piety of the man executed for impiety.
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The author
Mark L. McPherran (1948-2015) was a philosopher who taught for many years at the University of Maine at Farmington and later at Simon Fraser University, becoming a leading specialist in Socratic and Platonic studies and in ancient philosophy of religion. He also edited collections on Plato's Republic and on wisdom and religion in the ancient world.
The book
Published by Pennsylvania State University Press in 1996, it offers a comprehensive, close analysis of the Socratic texts on religion. McPherran argues that Socrates' rationally derived convictions and his piety reinforced rather than opposed each other, yielding a reformed, argument-driven approach to Greek religion that influenced Plato.
How it reads
As serious academic philosophy: careful, argumentative, and assuming familiarity with the dialogues. It was well received in classics circles and remains a standard reference on the topic. General readers may find it demanding, but its central thesis reframes the famous charge of impiety in illuminating ways.
For more context
Pair it with Gregory Vlastos's Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher and the Bryn Mawr Classical Review assessment of McPherran's book.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Mark L. McPherran
- Publisher
- Pennsylvania State University Press
- Place of publication
- University Park, Pennsylvania
- Year
- 1996
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Spirituality & Philosophy
- Location
- Colorado