The Theological Shift in the History of Platonism

2 November 2023

The Theological Shift in the History of Platonism

I recently noticed that Proclus wrote two large works that are concerned with ‘theology’ in a Platonic context: The Elements of Theology and The Theology of Plato. I had noticed this before, but this time it got me thinking about when Platonism started focusing on theology and what the shift from a focus on philosophy to this focus on theology happened and what it meant for Platonism at that time.  Here are a few thoughts:

1.  I didn’t recall Plato or Plotinus using the word theology to any great extent.  But I don’t know Greek and I thought that this might be a matter of translation or my own inattentiveness.  So I consulted with a friend who reads Greek.  There is a lexicon for the essays of Plotinus and it seems that Plotinus used the word theology, or closely related words, very rarely.  Plato uses the word, but it is not a major focus of his writing.

2.  This got me to thinking about the late Classical period and the shift that was taking place at that time.  I’m focusing on the shift from Paganism to Christianity.  My intuition is that the emergence of a Platonist ‘theology,’ as opposed to ‘philosophy,’ reflects the overall cultural concerns of that time.  And this reflects a new, for the time, way of looking at Platonism.

3.  In Christianity philosophy was transformed into the ‘handmaiden’ of theology.  This took some time.  Some very early Christian writers, notably Justin Martyr, would, at times, refer to Christianity as a philosophy or ‘our philosophy.’  But that didn’t last long.  Ultimate matters became the province of theology which was understood to supersede philosophy in terms of ‘completeness.’ 

4.  But what I am thinking is that the same process was taking place among some Platonists, particularly those with strong Pagan commitments; meaning commitments to traditional Roman spirituality.  This includes authors like Proclus. 

The shift to Platonist ‘theology’ is expressed by focusing on the Gods and arguing for their fundamental significance in an overall Platonist context.  From this perspective, the cultivation of wisdom is no longer primary.  Instead, it is the cultivation of our relationship to the Gods that is primary.  The function of wisdom becomes that of leading the student to the Gods rather than leading the student to the wisdom of transcendence, including that of transcending the Gods.  This is a theological turn that, I think, is, in its own way, just as dramatic as the shift of philosophy’s place and function in the growing Christian movement to that of a handmaiden to theology.

5.  In a way, I see this shift to Platonist ‘theology’ as Platonism trying to overcome Christian ascendency by adopting the same strategy, but in a Pagan context.   This understanding is re-enforced, in my understanding, by the attempt of the Emperor Julian to create a Pagan Church organization that mimicked the organization of the Christian Church at that time.  As is well known, this attempt did not materialize for various reasons, but it indicates a strong theological commitment on the part of at least some Pagan Platonists at that time.

6.  The process of shifting from philosophy to theology among Platonists took a long time to complete.  For example, one of my favorite works, The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius indicates that even at that late date, Boethius died in 524 CE, it was possible for someone to view philosophy as salvific and therefore a complete spiritual system.  But Boethius is commonly seen as the last one to do so.

7.  I complain a lot about modernity (probably too much).  But one thing modernity offers Platonism and its practitioners is the possibility of recovering Platonism as a complete spiritual tradition in the way that Buddhism is a complete spiritual system, or the way that Jainism is a complete spiritual system, or the way that Hinduism offers complete spiritual systems.  It’s not that modernity nourishes spirituality.  But because modernity has generated a broad critique of theology as such, this has raised the possibility of a return to the primacy of philosophy in the investigation of First Things.