10 November 2025
Brief Notes on Various Topics – 72
1. Evaluating the Relationship between Christianity and Platonism
I was listening to a short video on an atheist channel because the channel had a focus on Platonism and I was wondering what contemporary atheists might think about the Platonic tradition. (As an aside, Book X of Laws, where Plato offers an extended critique of atheism was not mentioned.) The question was focused on whether or not Plato would have approved of the way Christianity incorporated Platonism into its theology. The discussion remained at an abstract level; by ‘abstract’ I mean that the historical context in which this process of the absorption of aspects of Platonism into Christianity was not mentioned. Personally, I think it is crucial to take the specific historical context into account. Here are a few comments:
1.1 By historical context I mean that Platonism was dealing with two strong interpretations of the world that ran counter to what traditional, or Orthodox, Platonism presented. These two were Christianity and Theurgy as presented by Iamblichus. What I’m getting at is that for Platonism the historical situation wasn’t a choice between Christianity and traditional Platonism. Instead, I see the historical situation as a choice between two views that equally diverged from what Platonism had previously, or originally, taught.
1.1.1 I think it is helpful to look at the specific teachings that I see as running counter to what I call Orthodox Platonism. For example, Christianity offered a personal view of ultimate nature in the person of Jesus Christ. In contrast Platonism’s philosophical path to the ultimate was a journey to the impersonal transcendental; an ineffable realm without any material features that would form a personality.
1.1.2 Platonism also rejected the idea of bodily resurrection; even some early Christian Bishops, such as Synesius of Cyrene (373-414), rejected bodily resurrection on Platonist grounds. Bodily resurrection is taken very seriously in Christianity, but in Platonism the path to the ultimate divests the practitioner of individuation, particularly the individuation of the body.
1.1.3 Platonism argued for the everlasting nature of material existence, the material cosmos. Christianity argued for the creation of the material cosmos by God at a specific point in time. In addition, Christianity argued for the dissolution of the material cosmos at the end times. Proclus wrote a treatise called On the Eternity of the World which contained 18 arguments supporting the everlasting nature of the material cosmos. This irritated Christians; John Philoponus wrote a treatise attacking the treatise written by Proclus. There was a lot of theological and philosophical activity centered on this issue because how one views this issue shapes one’s conception of creation, God, and the transcendental.
1.1.4 There were other disagreements, but the above touches on some significant disagreements that, ultimately, could not be reconciled. Instead of reconciling these differences, Christianity chose a supersessionist approach in which Christianity was presented as the completion of philosophy (you could also call it the correction of philosophy). Plato was thought of as wise, but unable to encounter the whole truth because he was born before Christ. This allowed Christianity to absorb what was consistent with Christianity and at the same time to put aside those aspects of Platonism that were not consistent.
1.2.1 It is also useful to list aspects of Theurgy that were undermining traditional Platonism, or were in conflict with traditional Platonism. These differences, or conflicts, were presented by Iamblichus in various writings. The first conflict centered on vegetarianism and the sacrifice of animals for ritual purposes. Traditional Platonism rejected such sacrifices and took a vegetarian approach to diet which Platonism absorbed from Pythagoreanism and Orphism. In contrast, the Theurgy of Iamblichus vehemently argued for the necessity of animal sacrifice in certain circumstances, such as when a particular deity required such sacrifice in order to make contact with that deity. This was a direct attack on the heritage of Platonism in general, on Platonism’s ancient foundations (the above-mentioned Pythagoreanism and Orphism), and on Porphyry in particular who wrote two treatises arguing for abstaining from either eating animals or sacrificing animals for the purposes of ritual efficacy.
This attack on Platonism by Iamblichus undermined Platonist ethics as well as to how Platonism understood how reincarnation works. This usage of animal sacrifice also ignores the teachings of Platonism on non-harming and non-retaliation.
1.2.2 The second disagreement that arose from Iamblichus’s teachings was the idea that the soul is fully descended from higher realities such as the noetic and the transcendental; that is to say the soul is separated from these higher realities by falling into materiality and has no ability to ascend to higher realities.
In contrast, Orthodox Platonism regarded the soul as in some way always in contact with higher realities and for that reason when we follow the soul we find the path to the divine.
1.2.3 These two disagreements are connected. The inability of human beings to ascend to higher realities means that they must depend on the rituals of Theurgy because human beings need the assistance of the Gods who are contacted through these rituals.
1.2.4 I should also mention that Iamblichus didn’t consider the traditional Platonist approach of wisdom, and the approach of Theurgy to be alternate paths to the divine. Iamblichus and his heirs, like Proclus, dismissed the approach of wisdom as inefficacious; from their perspective only Theurgy, including animal sacrifice, could lead someone to the divine.
1.2.5 From the perspective of wisdom (sophia), the teachings of Iamblichus were, and are, more pernicious for Platonism than those of Christianity. I say this because Christians didn’t claim that, for example, creation at a moment in time was what Platonism really taught. In contrast, Iamblichus argued that animal sacrifice, and the fully descended soul are actual Platonism and this sleight of hand remains with us today.
1.3 Given the historical circumstances I think Plato would have approved of the absorption of Platonism into Christianity as a means of preserving the teachings and passing them on into the future. When I say ‘approved’ I don’t mean ‘agreed’; rather I mean something closer to ‘accepting.’ I say this because Plato was familiar with the ups and downs of political strife and the shifting nature of political power. Plato lived through several dramatic changes in how Athens was run by different political groups; it was a politically chaotic period. This kind of background gives people who experience intense political strife both the capacity for resilience and the strength of endurance. Based on this, I speculate that Plato would have been fine with Christianity’s appropriation of Platonism for its own purposes, knowing that this would eventually pass.
2. Tim Addey on Philosophy as a Yoga
Last week I posted from an essay by Eric Fallick on Platonism as a type of Dharma, akin to the Dharma traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism (as well as Pythagoreanism and Orphism). Continuing with this theme of Philosophy in general, and Platonism in particular, as a spiritual tradition that resembles Indian spiritual traditions, or Dharmas, here is a quote from Tim Addey’s Preface to the book Philosophy as a Rite of Rebirth: From Ancient Egypt to Neoplatonism by Algiz Uzdavinys:
“Ancient understanding viewed reality as a series of descending steps, starting with the most ineffable and most simple which is first unfolded through divinity and then moves down through varying conditions of existence – the highest of which are closest to the originating simplicity and are purely intelligible, but the lower being increasingly complex and changeable, ultimately becoming perceptible to the senses. These lower conditions of existence were not rejected as evil or illusive, but they were seen as deriving their worth and trustworthiness from their relation to the highest. Each plane of reality had its answering correspondence in the nature of the human being. Since the highest levels possessed the greatest intelligibility and stability, it was here that philosophers sought to centre the art and science of philosophy. For this reason philosophy was seen as an interior discipline which allowed a conscious and active participation in a divine and intellectual drama – in more modern terms it was considered to be a spiritual path, or a yoga of enlightenment.”
(Page i from Philosophy as a Rite of Rebirth by Algiz Uzdavinys, ISBN: 9781898910350)
2.1 Tim Addey is one of the leaders of the Prometheus Trust in England. The Trust is focused on making available the translations of Platonist works through the translations of Thomas Taylor. The Trust also publishes books by contemporary authors and scholars on the Platonist tradition.
2.1.1 As an aside, many of the Trust’s publications are at very reasonable prices. This is noteworthy because many academic publications on Platonism are very expensive and I want to take a moment to express my thanks for the Trust’s pricing policies.
2.2 This quote is a bit more general in focus than the quote I posted last week on this topic. Nevertheless I think it is worth sharing because Addey has a gift for concisely writing about the past of Philosophy and how it contrasts with contemporary Philosophy.
2.3 Addey writes that “philosophy was seen as an interior discipline.” I take ‘interior discipline’ to mean a discipline that is based on withdrawing from a focus on the sensations of the world around us and turning inward to the realms of mind and soul. There are practices and disciplines that were, and still are, used to assist in this turning to the interior and cultivating a relationship with this interior realm of clarity and peace.
2.4 Addey closes this paragraph by saying, “in more modern terms it [Philosophy – my addition] was considered to be a spiritual path, or a yoga of enlightenment.”
I’m not sure if Addey is using the word ‘yoga’ in the kind of loose way it is used in the West, or whether Addey is referring to the Classical tradition of Yoga as found in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. But either way Addey is linking Ancient Philosophy with Dharma traditions by using this kind of reference.
2.5 Addey continues by writing about the loss of a spiritual focus in Western Philosophy:
“But at some point in the passage between the ancient and modern era, this view of philosophy and its purpose was largely lost, and today we find that . . . what is still called philosophy has allowed its centre to slip down the levels of reality. And, of course, the human faculties upon which modern philosophy is based are necessarily at the lower levels of thought: where philosophy was meditative, contemplative and even unitive, it is now confined to a narrow form of logical reason – forever stuck in the temporal world. Reason, once valued as a launching point to the realm of eternal intellect and thence super-eternal divinity, is now an end in itself. Modern philosophy has lost its nerve: like a pilot who no longer trusts his aircraft the forward thrust of reason races us along the ground but is never transferred to an upward movement into the free air.”
(Ibid)
2.6 I think this is beautifully put. But it is worth noting that there are exceptions to this generalization. For example, there are modern works of Indian philosophy that express this ‘upward movement’ that Addey is referring to. Many of the contemporary works on philosophy that have this upward movement are commentaries on ancient works, but I would still consider them to be philosophical works in the sense that Addey is suggesting.
3. No Gaps
I have commented now and then on this blog that philosophers in the East (India, China, Japan, and so forth) are often very well read on Western philosophy, but the opposite is not true. However, there do seem to be signs that this is changing. There is a series of books published that are collectively called The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps. It is a multi-volume work and is an ongoing project. It includes Indian philosophy as well other regions such as Islamic philosophy.
My sense is that these works are introductory; they are modest in size and price. I think that is a good thing because it offers those who are inclined to explore non-Western philosophy an entry point for their studies. As someone who spent many years studying Buddhist philosophy, I am happy to see this kind of thing emerging.
4. Haiku
Rereading a book,
5. Time’s Arrow
It is said that time only flows in one direction and that it is not possible to recover the past. I think about this in the context of Platonism because I am interested in shifting the way Platonism is thought about in modernity to something that, in my view, more closely resembles the spiritual tradition that it was in the Ancient period of its origin. Perhaps that is futile.
The thing about modernity, for all of its flaws and drawbacks, which I tend get a bit obsessed about, there are also aspects of modernity which providentially serve Platonism and create a space in which Platonism might flourish. I am thinking of what is often observed as the dissolving nature of modernity, how modernity disintegrates every tradition and every concern except those that are of a material nature.
As an example, think of how modernity dissolves, or threatens to dissolve, the status of religious traditions that had been central for society until very recently. This is true in the East and in the West. From the perspective of Platonism this dissolving, this weakening, of dominant religious traditions creates an opening for Platonism, a kind of grotto for the contemplation of eternity. It wasn’t too long ago when such a project as creating, or finding, a grotto of eternity for the study of Platonism would have been impossible because Platonism was not considered to be a complete spiritual tradition. There are still many who think of Platonism as deficient in comparison with dominant spiritual traditions. But that view of the deficiency of Platonism is no longer enforced.
I don’t know exactly what Platonism will look like if Platonism does find its grotto of eternity. It will bear some resemblances to the past, but in significant respects it will differ from the means and methods whereby Platonism was presented in the past and transmitted to the future.
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