Neoplatonism

Neoplatonists consider Aristotle to be the greatest student of Plato and recognize Plotinus (204/5 to 270 AD) as the founder of this new interpretation of Plato, with Lamblichus being credited with shaping later Neoplatonism.  Since this philosophy had an impact on the formation of the church and its doctrine, it is interesting to review the knowledge of Neoplatonic philosophers.

Below are some of the papers presented at the ISNS annual meeting in Liverpool in June 2004 for your consideration.

Origen of Alexandria

"Origen: Heretic or Prophet" by Shawn Murphy

Reason: Drunk and Sober

"The Silence of Plotinus" by Gabriela Bal available in English or Portuguese

"The divine Iamblichus, on the other hand, holds that we should understand here the soul that is transcendent and hypercosmic and independent and exerting authority over all. Plato, he says, is not here concerned with the soul of the universe but with that Soul that is incapable of being participated in and placed over all the souls in the universe as their monad; for such, he says, is the nature of the primal Soul, and "the midst," in reference to it, denotes its being equally present to all things through neither being the soul of any body, nor yet being relative in any way, both ensouling all things equally and yet preserving its separateness equally from all; for it is not less distant from some things and more from others - it is, after all, free of all relativity but equally distant from all, even though all things might not be distant from it in the same way; far it is in participating entities that degrees of mare and less arise."

 (Proclus In Tim. II 104, 30 ff. Diehl)"