The Canon · No. 038
Neoplatonism
The Platonic theology of late antiquity
c.245 – c.529 CE · Classical Mediterranean · Extinct · Alexandria, Rome, Athens, Syria
IV. THE CLASSICAL & IMPERIAL WORLD — c.200 BCE – 500 CE
How many
None as a distinct religion; absorbed into Christian, Jewish and Islamic mysticism, where it remains enormously influential.
Who began it
Plotinus (c.204–270 CE), taught in Rome; his student Porphyry edited and published his lectures as the Enneads. Later: Iamblichus, Proclus, and Hypatia of Alexandria.
What it is for
To explain how a plural, material world comes from an absolutely simple source, and to get back to that source — Plotinus described the goal as the flight of the alone to the Alone.
What it worships
The One — beyond being, beyond thought, beyond even the name one; it cannot be described, only approached by negation (this is where the whole tradition of apophatic or negative theology comes from). From the One emanates Nous (Intellect), from Nous the World-Soul, from that individual souls and matter. Emanation, not creation: the One does not decide to make anything, it overflows the way the sun radiates.
What it holds
Reality is a graded procession outward from unity and a return inward toward it. Evil is not a substance but a privation, the thinning-out of being at the furthest remove from the One — an argument Augustine took over wholesale and which is still the standard Christian answer to the problem of evil. The soul is immortal, has fallen into body, and can ascend by contemplation. Plotinus reportedly attained union four times in the years Porphyry knew him.
What it does
Contemplation and dialectic for Plotinus; strict ascetic and vegetarian discipline for Porphyry. Iamblichus introduced theurgy — ritual work with statues, symbols, names and materials to draw down divine presence, on the grounds that reason alone cannot reach the One. This is the point at which Neoplatonism becomes a practising religion rather than a philosophy, and it is the direct ancestor of Renaissance magic and much of Western esotericism.
After death
The soul is immortal and reincarnates. Ascent through the levels toward reunion with the One; failure means further descent into matter and further embodiment. Plotinus was notably uninterested in personal survival as a comfort — the goal is not to persist as yourself but to stop being separate.
Its texts
Enneads of Plotinus (six sets of nine treatises). Porphyry's Life of Plotinus and On Abstinence. Iamblichus, On the Mysteries. Proclus, Elements of Theology. The Chaldean Oracles.
Its branches
Roman (Plotinus, Porphyry), Syrian (Iamblichus), Athenian (Proclus), Alexandrian (Hypatia, Ammonius); Christian, Jewish and Islamic Neoplatonisms.
Of note
Almost every mystical tradition in the Abrahamic religions — Dionysian Christian mysticism, Kabbalah, Sufi metaphysics — runs on Neoplatonic machinery. Its influence is invisible precisely because it is structural.
Its timeline
- c.245 CE Plotinus opens his school in Rome.
- c.270 CE Plotinus dies; Porphyry publishes the Enneads around 301.
- c.300 CE Iamblichus develops theurgy in Syria.
- 415 CE Hypatia, mathematician and Neoplatonist head of the Alexandrian school, is murdered by a Christian mob.
- c.412–485 CE Proclus systematises the whole structure at Athens.
- 529 CE Justinian ends state funding for the Athenian school; the last Neoplatonists depart for Persia, some returning under a peace treaty clause protecting them.
- c.500 CE Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite writes Christian Neoplatonism under an apostolic pseudonym; it is accepted as near-apostolic for a thousand years and reshapes Christian mysticism.
- 9th–12th c. Transmitted into Islamic philosophy (al-Farabi, Avicenna, the Ismaili tradition) and Jewish Kabbalah.
- 1462–1499 CE Ficino translates Plotinus for the Medici; the Florentine Renaissance revival.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.