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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, using a venerable analogy that would become crucial for the (largely neoplatonic) metaphysics of developed Christian thought, likens the One to the Sun which emanates light indiscriminately without thereby diminishing itself, or reflection in a mirror which in no way diminishes or otherwise alters the object being reflected.
Platonism has had some influence on Christianity through Clement of Alexandria and Origen, [9] and the Cappadocian Fathers. [17] St. Augustine was heavily influenced by Platonism as well, which he encountered through the Latin translations of Marius Victorinus of the works of Porphyry and/or Plotinus. [9]
Porphyry, the most important of Plotinus's pupils, was born in Tyre c. 233. He was taught first by Cassius Longinus in Athens, before travelling to Rome in 262 where he studied under Plotinus for six years. After the death of Plotinus, he edited and published the Enneads, which had been compiled by his teacher.
"Christian Metaphysics and Neoplatonism" (1936) is the title of Albert Camus' thesis that would obtain for him permission to teach in the secondary schools of France. It was published when Camus was 23 years old.
He was undoubtedly the most significant influence on Plotinus in his development of Neoplatonism, although little is known about his own philosophical views. Later Christian writers stated that Ammonius was a Christian, but it is now generally assumed that there was a different Ammonius of Alexandria who wrote biblical texts.
In the third century CE, both Christianity and neoplatonism reject and turn against Gnosticism, with neoplatonists as Plotinus, Porphyry and Amelius attacking the Sethians. John D. Turner believes that this double attack led Sethianism to fragment into numerous smaller groups ( Audians , Borborites , Archontics and perhaps Phibionites ...
He goes on to advocate refilling the mind with the truth about God, untainted by mythology, bad analogies or false mind-pictures. [ 102 ] The mid-20th century Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd , who is often associated with a neo-Calvinistic tradition, provides a philosophical foundation for understanding the impossibility of absolutely ...