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The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

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    II. Pagan Neoplatonism—Greek Philosophy’s Last Stand

    In his penetrating analysis of the history of Greek philosophy, the noted professor, John W. Draper, astutely summarized the “four problems,” or inquiries, of “Greek Philosophy” as: “1. Origin of the World; 2. Nature of the Soul; 3. Existence of God; 4. Criterion of Truth.” 33) John W. Draper, History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, vol. I, p. 207. And at the close of his able tracement of its development, as he looked back over the thousand years of its meanderings, he interestingly observed:CFF1 707.1

    “Under the shadow of the Pyramids Greek philosophy was born; after many wanderings for a thousand years round the shores of the Mediterranean, it came back to its native place, and under the shadow of the Pyramids it died.” 44) Ibid., p. 208.CFF1 707.2

    The last stand we will now trace with rapid strokes.CFF1 707.3

    In its declining days pagan philosophy became retrospective, falling back on the support of ancient mythicism and speculation, and borrowing heavily from Orientalism. Let us follow pagan Neoplatonism’s rise, dominance, and fall.CFF1 707.4

    1. PHILO: PRECURSOR, BUILDS UPON EMANATION THEORY

    Earliest precursor of Neoplatonism in point of time, as well as in importance, is PHILO JUDAEUS (c. 20 B.C.—c. A.D. 47). In laying the foundation for Neoplatonism he invoked the allegorizing method of interpreting the Old Testament, thereby wresting the Scriptures 55) Ibid., p. 209. in an attempt to harmonize Moses’ revealed theology with Plato’s speculative philosophy. It was an acknowledged “blending of Platonism and Judaism,” Deity and matter being regarded as the two first principles, existing from eternity. And he built his system upon the emanation concept. Draper specifically states, concerning his “mystical philosophy“:CFF1 707.5

    “It is very clear, therefore, that though Philo declined Oriental pantheism, he laid his foundation on the Oriental theory of Emanation.” 66) Ibid., p 210. (Italics supplied.CFF1 707.6

    That was the starting point. 77) Thrasyllus of Mender (d. A.D. 36) also had a contemporary part, by arranging the works of Plato and combining certain Neo-Pythagorean speculations with Platonism.CFF1 708.1

    2. LUCIUS: ASSERTS “WORLD-SOUL” PRINCIPLE

    This tendency to patronize Orientalism “occurs still more strongly” in Lucius APULEIUS (c. A.D. 126-c. 200), Numidian 88) Ibid., pp. 210, 211. teacher of the Platonic and Aristotelian philosophies, and Latin representative of the developing tendency to blend the Oriental with the Occidental philosophy. He tried to “bridge the gulf between a transcendent God and matter” by assuming that there were numerous demons as “intermediaries.” 99) Eduard Zeller, Outlines of the Historv of Creek Philosophy, p. 309.CFF1 708.2

    3. NUMENIUS: INCARNATIONS PUNISHMENTS FOR PREVIOUS-LIFE SINS

    NUMENIUS of Apamea (fl. A.D. 150-200), Neo-Pythagorean philosopher and forerunner of Neoplatonism, likewise had strong leanings toward the Oriental. He boldly declared what had then become a general belief, namely, that “all Greek philosophy was originally brought from the East.” 1010) Draper, op. sit., vol. 1, p. 211. (Italics supplied. He borrowed from “the magicians, Egyptians, Brahmans, and Jews.” 1111) Zeller, Outliner of the History of Greek Philosophy, p. 309. That is significant. He cited the Stoics as holding that the World-Soul alone is eternal, and that all souls are to be blended and intermingled immediately after death.CFF1 708.3

    He maintained that Plato constitutes the connecting link, actually proclaiming in Greek form the revealed teachings of Moses. Numenius went so far as to ask, “What is Moses talking but Attic Greek?” And he styled Plato the “Attic Moses.” This was the crowning argument of Greek philosophy as a “philosophical religion,” as it entered into mortal conflict with the rising power of Christianity.CFF1 708.4

    Numenius himself syncretized Pythagorean, Egyptian, Persian, and Oriental dogmas. More especially, he made the Gospels the subject of philosophical allegory, just as Philo had done with the Pentateuch. 1212) K. O. Müller, History of the Literature of Ancient Greece, vol. 3 p. 182. So highly was Numenius esteemed that some regard him as the real founder of the Alexandrian School. And it is significant that Numenius held the soul to be immortal and immaterial, with its descent from its former incorporeal state implying moral delinquency in a previous life. So the basic emphasis continues.CFF1 708.5

    4. AMMONIUS: LAYS FOUNDATIONS FOR NEOPLATONISM

    Usually regarded as the founder of the Alexandrian school of Neoplatonic philosophy, AMMONIUS SACCAS (c. A.D. 175-c. 242) was born of Christian parents in Alexandria and trained in the Christian faith. He lapsed into paganism, however, when his mind became absorbed in the study of heathen philosophy, and he helped in laying the foundations of pagan Neoplatonism. His fame was dwarfed by that of his famous pupil Plotinus. He is also said to have had Origen as one of his students, but he left no authentic writings. 1313) Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, art., “Ammonius Saccas,” p. 44.CFF1 709.1

    Pagan Neoplatonism, now assuming the aspect of a philosophical “religion,” soon began to combat the rising power of Christianity, with Alexandria the scene of the contest. Here the pagan school was established that lasted for some three hundred years. It was identified with the expiring effort of decadent Greek philosophy. 1414) Draper, loc. cit. In this Ammonius played his part.CFF1 709.2

    5. PLOTINUS: ORIENTALISM, DUALISM, EMANATION, REASSORPTION

    We now come to the celebrated Egyptian Neoplatonic philosopher PLOTINUS (c. A.D. 205-270), the first to develop, systematize, and put into written form the now-crystallizing Neoplatonic positions. For eleven years he sat under the teachings of Ammonius, then traveled to India and Persia to acquaint himself with Eastern thought, studying under the Brahmans and the Magi. Finally he opened a philosophical school in Rome in 244, teaching there until his death. His writings were published posthumously—one dealing just with the soul.CFF1 709.3

    Plotinus acquainted himself with every system of philosophy, and culled whatever supported his solution of the great problem of thought and existence. But to him Plato was the supreme authority and the starting point of his extended speculations. Plotinus’ Neoplatonism was a religio-philosophical eclecticism. However, it was all markedly tinctured with Orientalism, mysticism, and pantheism.CFF1 710.1

    Ascetic in habits, Plotinus held his body in utter contempt, regarding it as a phantom and a clog to his soul. He considered it a “penitential mechanism for the soul.” So ashamed was he of his body that he would never name his parents, nor remember his birthday, nor allow a portrait to be painted. These were all, he believed, alien to the soul—the real self. He found justification in Plato for the concept that “Thought is the Soul.” So he disparaged the life of sense, and extolled the life of pure thought—transcending the world of matter.CFF1 710.2

    He stressed union with God, and return to Deity. Denying the personality of God, he held Deity to be the first principle. The soul belongs to the supersensuous world, he said, and leads an eternal life without time. Further, the first soul sends forth the second from it, like a beam of light. This Plotinus called Nature. 1515) Draper, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 211-213; Zeller, Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy, pp. 313-32.CFF1 710.3

    Under the Neoplatonic impulse this philosophical attitude was carried into an intellectual mysticism. It became a process of high abstraction—mere being, as in the East. God became the infinite background—mystic contemplation being the ultimate for man melting into oneness with the Absolute.CFF1 710.4

    Plotinus based his Neoplatonism on a new theory of emanation. Finite existence was considered a progressive falling away from original perfection—the eternal one overflowing from its central being, losing itself in the surrounding darkness, through spirit, soul, and body—the body being the lowest of all. Thus individual souls separate from the World-Soul by a mystic process. Such were the lengths to which Plotinus went.CFF1 710.5

    Picture 1: Porphyry, Plotinus:
    Porphyry, Sophist and Skeptic, Nevertheless Held to the Immortal-Soul Concept.
    Plotinus—Stressed World-Soul, Emanation, Reabsorption, and Dualism.
    Page 711
    CFF1 711

    From his contact with Persian ideas a pronounced Dualism (found as noted in its most pronounced form in Persia) was also injected—and having a distinctly ascetic tinge. In the moral struggle there is division of the world into the two conflicting principles of good and evil. In Persia it was the contest between Ormuzd and Ahriman, or God and the devil, light and darkness. Evil was connected with the body and the lower appetites—that is, matter. The flesh is against the spirit. Salvation therefore lies in exterminating these desires and cultivating the pure life of the spirit, unsoiled by taint of body. At one point he even said, “Without the existence of evil the world would be less perfect.” 1616) Quoted in Petavel, The Problem of Immortality, p. 433.CFF1 711.1

    Plotinus likewise stressed the idea of the “World-Soul,” creator of all material things, an emanation from the Nous—the soul being the image and product of the Nous. The souls of men, in consequence of their descent into human bodies, have forgotten their divine origin, and have become estranged from the Good One. And the highest duty of man is, he held, to return into mystical union with the Deity. 1717) The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, art., “Plotinus,” pp. 1084, 1085. This return to original perfection must be accomplished by ridding ourselves of the restrictions of matter, rising above the finite and retracing our steps toward God.CFF1 711.2

    The great goal of existence, he taught, is to withdraw the soul from external things and fasten it in contemplation upon God. This is reached when the soul, in ecstasy, loses all thought and desire in union with God, “is loosened from its material prison separated from individual consciousness,” and becomes one with God, absorbed and cojoined, center with center. 1818) Draper, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 213, 214. That, of course, is straight Orientalism.CFF1 712.1

    Plotinus’ ideas on the Trinity were based on a mystical theory of emanation—the second principle issuing by emanation from the first, and the third out of the second—“Thought arising from Reason, but Thought is the Soul.” “Reason,” he held, “is surrounded by Eternity, but the Soul is surrounded by Time.” Such were the new concepts he added to Platonism.CFF1 712.2

    We are to devote life, he urged, to intimate communion with God, divesting ourselves of all personality, and passing into the condition of ecstasy, in which the soul is loosed from its material prison and separated from individual consciousness and reabsorbed into the infinite intelligence whence it emanated. Thus in Plotinus the strain of Orientalism is predominant, together with specific Indian principles and practices—even “the process for passing into ecstasy by sitting long in an invariable posture .... or by observing for a long time an unusual or definite manner of breathing,” familiar to Eastern devotees. 1919) Ibid., p. 214. This was the complex pattern of the new pagan Platonism. But, whether pagan or Alexandrian Christian, it involved the natural-immortality-of-the-soul thesis.CFF1 712.3

    6. PORPHYRY: SKEPTIC, YET HOLDING TO UNIVERSAL SOUL

    The opinions of Plotinus were strengthened and turned against Christianity by his celebrated pupil PORPHYRY, of Tyre (c. A.D. 232-c. 304). Of pagan parentage, he studied philosophy at Athens, becoming persuaded of the Neoplatonic principles by Plotinus. He was also devoted to Aristotle’s postulates. And he too established a school at Rome. He was pronounced in his hostility against all religions, with special bitterness against Christianity. Strangely, he too was a pagan mystic, but denied immortality to the demons who allegedly rule the air. His emphasis likewise attempted to withdraw the soul from contact with the sensible world. And he similarly recommended Oriental silence in worship and pure thought. 2020) Ibid., pp. 214, 215. This emphasis had now become more than a trend, it was a characteristic.CFF1 713.1

    As to the soul, Porphyry held that the universal soul embraces the essence of the individual souls, yet without dividing itself among them. He did not extend the migration of souls to the bodies of animals. The purified soul looks forward to complete liberation from the body. However, he held that remembrance of the earthly state is extinguished. For purification he advocated asceticism and celibacy. He repudiated the prevailing ideas about the gods. 2121) Zelle, Outlines of the History of Creek Philosophy, pp. 323-325. His treatise against the Christians was ordered publicly burned by Theodosius II in A.D. 448.CFF1 713.2

    7. IAMBLICHUS: MYTHOLOGY, ASTROLOGY, NECROMANCY

    Under the highly speculative and superstitious IAMBLICHUS, or Jamblicus (c. A.D. 250-c. 333), pupil of Porphyry and founder of Syrian Neoplatonism, the influences of the East were still more markedly felt. While Plato and Aristotle were still expounded, astrology, magical rites, and necromancy began to overshadow. Numerous Greek and Oriental pagan mythologies were introduced, including number symbolism. The concept of emanation was stressed. Iamblichus arranged the “various emanations in subordinated triads.” The “lowest of all in the cosmos” was “the world of sense.” 2222) The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, art., “Iamblichus,” p. 674; Zeller, Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy, pp. 325-327. He also challenged the transmigration of human souls into the bodies of animals.CFF1 713.3

    So, in the losing struggle against Christianity, the successors of Plotinus and other champions of paganism staged a resurgence of paganism. But this phase soon passed, for the future belonged to the Christian faith. Their pagan world was filled with a great hierarchy of souls—gods, demons, and men—“with mystical affinities and relationships between souls, which find expression in divination, astrology, and magical rites.” 2323) A. K. Rogers, A Student’s History of Philosophy, pp. 183, 184.CFF1 714.1

    8. JULIAN: SUPPRESSES CHRISTIANITY, EXALTS PAGANISM

    For the moment paganism seemed to have its chance, when the Roman emperor, JULIAN THE APOSTATE (A.D. 332-363), cousin of Constantine—brought up in the Christian faith but trained in the pagan philosophical school of the pagan Neoplatonists at Athens—tried to reverse the current of history. At Athens he was initiated into the old Eleusinian mysteries. Julian sought to repress Christianity and promote paganism by every means short of persecution. But his scheme came to nought at his death. Paganism had now lost the struggle against Christianity.CFF1 714.2

    9. PROCLUS: MYSTIC UNION OF SOUL WITH DEITY

    The last refuge of pagan Neoplatonism was the academy at Athens, in connection with PROCLUS (A.D. 412-485), just before its termination under Justinian. Proclus was a respected scholar, but ascetic and fervid, who had high regard for the ancient Orphic poems and Chaldean oracles. He now sought, ambitiously, to develop a complete theological system embracing all the theological and philosophical tenets of his predecessors, including the theory of emanation, embellished with mysticism.CFF1 714.3

    It was based on a complicated triadic development. “The soul comprises three classes of part-souls—divine, daemonic and human,” 2424) Zeller, Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy, p. 331. with demons connected with the gods. He too deals with the descent and future fortunes of the immortal soul. With him the final goal is likewise the elevation of the soul to mystic union with the Deity.CFF1 714.4

    Proclus enjoyed the study of Plato, and speculated particularly on the manner in which reabsorption is to take place—whether one can pass at once into the primitive or whether a returning succession of states is required. Under him Neoplatonism reached its final pagan form. 2525) Ibid., p. 332; Draper op. cit., vol. 1, p. 215, 216. But, unable to vie with Christianity, its mission had simply lapsed into an attempt to preserve the older traditions in their Oriental setting.CFF1 715.1

    The last refuge of Neoplatonism was the academy at Athens. But in A.D. 529 it was closed by Emperor Justinian, the property confiscated, the teaching of pagan philosophy forbidden, and the few remaining philosophers driven into exile in Persia. The future belonged to Christianity.CFF1 715.2

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