Title:
Theurgy and the soul : the Neoplatonism of Iamblichus / Gregory Shaw ; foreword, John Milbamk & Aaron Riches.
Neoplatonism of Iamblichus
Author:
Format:
Books
Call Number:
186.4 SHA
Publication Information:
Kettering, OH : Angelico Press, 23 cm.
ISBN:
9781621380634
1621380637
9781621380726
1621380726
Summary:
Iamblichus was once considered one of the great philosophers. The Emperor Julian followed Iamblichus's teachings to guide the restoration of traditional pagan cults in his campaign against Christianity. Although Julian was unsuccessful, Iamblichus's ideas persisted well into the Middle Ages and beyond. His vision of a hierarchical cosmos united by divine ritual became the dominant worldview for the entire medieval world. Even Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that he expected a reading of Iamblichus to cause a "revival in the churches." But modern scholars have dismissed him, seeing theurgy as ritual magic or "manipulation of the gods." Shaw, however, shows that theurgy was a subtle and intellectually sophisticated attempt to apply Platonic and Pythagorean teachings to the full expression of human existence in the material world.
Physical Description:
xxxiv, 305 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Contents::
Introduction: To preserve the cosmos -- Matter and embodiment: Embodiment in the Platonic tradition ;Matter as cosmic instrument ; Matter as obstacle to the embodied soul ; Theurgy as demiurgy -- The nature ofd the embodied soul: The descent of the soul ; Soul as mediator ; The constraints of embodiment ; The freedom of immortal bodies ; The paradox of embodiment ; Descending to apotheosis ; Eros and the one of the soul -- The liturgy of the cosmos: Cult and cosmos ; Ritual and the human hierarchy ; Ritual as cosmogony ; Material Sunthēmata ; Intermediate Sunthēmata : seeing and hearing the gods ; Intermediate Sunthēmata : naming the Gods ; Noetic Sunthēmata : mathematics and the soul ; Noetic Sunthēmata : the theurgy of numbers ; The Sunthēmata of the sun -- Toward a universal religion: The Platonizing of popular religion -- Conclusion.
Personal Subject:
Subject Term:
