Post by Tamrin on Oct 3, 2008 14:23:28 GMT 10
Brief Overview of Neo-Platonism
by W. Kirk MacNulty
[Appendix I - Freemasonry for Bobos - Linked Above]
by W. Kirk MacNulty
[Appendix I - Freemasonry for Bobos - Linked Above]
This Appendix is a very big oversimplification. It compresses twelve centuries of philosophical development into a few lines. Nonetheless, it makes a reasonably accurate description of Neo-Platonism as it was understood in the Renaissance. A creator is separate from his creation. From the point of view of the First Book of Genesis, this fact presents something of a problem. If the Divine Creator is separate from the Universe that He has created, then He must be limited. If the Deity is without limit, this is a contradiction, because a Being that is without limit cannot be separate from anything.
This the sort of problem that the Greeks concerned themselves with in the third century, and at the time—the time period when Christianity was just beginning to “take off”—an Alexandrian Greek named Plotinus set forth the idea of Neo-Platonism. He said that God, which is “beyond existence,” did not “create”the universe; rather,God willed Itself into existence as the Universe. The implication here is that the Deity is to be found everywhere and in everyone and everything.
Although Plotinus was a pagan who wanted to reform and revitalize paganism, but he did not go unnoticed. For example, St. Augustine, one of the early Fathers of the Church, was very attracted to the ideas of Neo-Platonism. For him, it explained such Biblical quotations as: “And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in Heaven.”; “Ye are the sons of the living God.”;“… the Kingdom of God is within you.”; “Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”; etc.
Neo-Platonism continued to be popular during the period of the Roman Empire, and it was revived by the mystical Sufi/Christian/Kabbalsitic philosophers in Moorish Spain. From there, Neo-Platonism became the foundation of thought in the philosophical schools in Florence where the Hermetic/Kabbalsitic Tradition of the Renaissance started.
The immediate implication of this philosophy, which was at the core of Renaissance thought, is that the Divine Presence is to be found within each human being.
This the sort of problem that the Greeks concerned themselves with in the third century, and at the time—the time period when Christianity was just beginning to “take off”—an Alexandrian Greek named Plotinus set forth the idea of Neo-Platonism. He said that God, which is “beyond existence,” did not “create”the universe; rather,God willed Itself into existence as the Universe. The implication here is that the Deity is to be found everywhere and in everyone and everything.
Although Plotinus was a pagan who wanted to reform and revitalize paganism, but he did not go unnoticed. For example, St. Augustine, one of the early Fathers of the Church, was very attracted to the ideas of Neo-Platonism. For him, it explained such Biblical quotations as: “And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in Heaven.”; “Ye are the sons of the living God.”;“… the Kingdom of God is within you.”; “Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”; etc.
Neo-Platonism continued to be popular during the period of the Roman Empire, and it was revived by the mystical Sufi/Christian/Kabbalsitic philosophers in Moorish Spain. From there, Neo-Platonism became the foundation of thought in the philosophical schools in Florence where the Hermetic/Kabbalsitic Tradition of the Renaissance started.
The immediate implication of this philosophy, which was at the core of Renaissance thought, is that the Divine Presence is to be found within each human being.
