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Plotinus (/ p l ɒ ˈ t aɪ n ə s /; Ancient Greek: Πλωτῖνος, Plōtînos; c. 204/5 – 270 CE) was a Greek Platonist philosopher, born and raised in Roman Egypt.Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism.
Neoplatonism was a major influence on Christian theology throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages in the East, and sometimes in the West as well. In the East, major Greek Fathers like Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus were influenced by Platonism and Neoplatonism, but also Stoicism often leading towards asceticism and harsh treatment of the body, for example stylite asceticism.
Plotinus believed the followers of Gnosticism had corrupted the original teachings of Plato and often argued against likes of Valentinus who, according to Plotinus, had given rise to doctrines of dogmatic theology with ideas such as that the Spirit of Christ was brought forth by a conscious god after the fall from Pleroma.
God is the creator of all things. Many religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam believe he created the entire universe and everything in it. He has spiritual attributes found in angels and humans. God has unique attributes of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. He is the model of perfection in all of creation. [3]
Many Platonic notions were adopted by the Christian church which understood Plato's Forms as God's thoughts (a position also known as divine conceptualism), while Neoplatonism became a major influence on Christian mysticism in the West through Saint Augustine, Doctor of the Catholic Church, who was heavily influenced by Plotinus' Enneads, [3 ...
Gnosticism refers to a collection of religious groups originating in Jewish religiosity in Alexandria in the first few centuries AD. [1] Neoplatonism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century, based on the teachings of Plato and some of his early followers.
Hellenic Christians and their medieval successors applied this form-based philosophy to the Christian God. Philosophers took all the things they considered good—power, love, knowledge, and size—and posited that God was 'infinite' in all these respects. They then concluded that God was omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent ...
The identification of nous with the demiurge in the neoplatonic tradition was adopted and developed in Christian gnosticism. Augustine of Hippo follows Plotinus, identifying the nous with logos (the creative principle) as part of the Trinity. [16] [17] Iamblichus multiplied the number of divine entities according to universal mathematical ...