/lit/ - Literature

self bump

>>19478823
Awesome cover, anon

>>19478823
For me I allow the creation by saying the spirit never individuates from God. God's spirit fills everything so there's natural communion.

Bumping so I can answer in a bit, busy.

>>19478823
Not a metaphysical answer, but for Wagner the true emotional content of God is only manifested through Jesus.

>Of Greek theogony it may be said that, in, touch with the artistic instinct of the nation, it always clung to anthropomorphism. Their gods were figures with distinctive names and plainest individuality; their names were used to mark specific groups of things (Gattungsbegriffe), just as the names of various coloured objects were used to denote the colours themselves, for which the Greeks employed no abstract terms like ours: "gods" were they called, to mark their nature as divine; but the Divine itself the Greeks called God, "ó θeóς." Never did it occur to them to think of "God" as a Person, or give to him artistic shape as to their named gods; he remained an idea, to be defined by their philosophers, though the Hellenic spirit strove in vain to clearly fix it —till the wondrous inspiration of poor people spread abroad the incredible tidings that the "Son of God" had offered himself on the cross to redeem the world from deceit and sin.

>>19478823
>Pseudo
please...

>But Pseudo-Dionysius and Eriugena don't leave much room for a personal God, like the Lord of the Hebrews or Jesus Christ
yes, because in Neoplatonism microcosm is identical to macrocosm, or rather, they are inseparable, and as such any personalisations of The One are meaningless as it already exists within any human, or at least a theurgist. There are Chaldean Oracles though, which were largely perceived as a sacred text. But if you're intending to synthesise Neoplatonism and Christianity, then better leave your attempts at once, as the former doesn't fit into the dogmatic character of the latter and neoplatonists rightfully believed Christianity to be a religion of plebeians. Just read Iamblichus if you're looking for expansion on a more mystic side of Neoplatonism.

>Plotinus, Dionysius etc

You miss a few things, first the mythology to all of them is the flesh and the theological and mystical the soul, they are not separate nor necessarily just symbolic but rather just as the body is symbolic of the spiritual mysteries yet fully existent so also is it with the person and life of Christ. And all of these, from Dionysius to Bonaventure and so forth agree that when you go to the highest level of divinity you realize his most simplistic divine nature is his person and personality, and if you go to the depths of his personality and person you quickly find the depths of boundless deity, to go to God as the great universal you find the particular and vice versa, let me present an allegory, imagine for a moment infinity, if the infinite sequence contains all numbers, it must necessarily contain the one, thus the limited, the finite, the individual and personal are not the opposite of the infinite but are a part of the most universal. Once more consider the circle, endless of beginning and end yet any point you to point to of it, there is the center of the rope which is both beginning and end, in likewise fashion in the infinity of Godhead his three persons are ever the center and sole attribute of God.
>Are there any Christian philosophers who manage to uphold both platonism and personal Judeo-Christianity Maybe Origen Gregory/Gregory/Basil or Justin Martyr? Or even Philo? Or do they all counter impersonal philosophy with sheer faith in the dogma and revelation of the church, so you have to pick one or the other, or at least awkwardly try to hold both together unsythesized? Is there no authentic middle ground between the two?

Faith of course is the supreme in all but all of these men maintain the divinity has the finite and that the vastness and personality are one through simplicity, whether you go to Aquinas, Hugh of st victor, Augustine, Dionysus or what have you.


I recommend above all else, prayer and study of the Bible, if you must have more lit on the topic, I recommend boehme, angelus silesius, eckhart and Tauler.

Remember the words of our Lord concerning our unity with him and the triune unity.

John 14:20
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

This is the unity of the godhead, not a sterile monism, but an ever living perichoresis in love.

>>19480395
>But if you're intending to synthesise Neoplatonism and Christianity, then better leave your attempts at once
Augustine did a pretty good job of it.

>>19481351
Wouldn't say so, Christianity made him oppose matter and spirit which is uncharacteristic of Neoplatonism. Recognition of hierarchical order of layers of reality in the latter doesn't result in condemnation of the matter as it is still remarked with the presence of The One, which is denied mystical cognition in Christianity.