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Philosophy and Salvation in Late
Antiquity
A proposal for an undergraduate seminar
in the History of Philosophy
Overview. Ancient philosophical practice
encompassed a far broader range of activities and methods than does the
category of philosophy as it is currently understood. A central concern among late
antique philosophers was the “fallen” condition of the human being and the need
to “reascend” to the divine realm of eternal truth and / or transcendent
principles. Discursive reason was only one of many methods available for such
an ascent, and not necessarily the most effective. Thus, for example, several
Platonists made use of ostensibly revealed texts, and some employed a form of
ritual praxis known as “theurgy” (theourgia)
in order to re–establish contact with the divine. Simultaneously, religious
practitioners and adherents of the burgeoning proliferation of competing
sects–– Christian, Jewish, pagan, and Gnostic–– turned to philosophical
teachings in order to conceptualize and to express their increasingly transcendent
notion of the supreme deity. To understand the thought of this period we must challenge
the conventional conceptual boundaries between the categories of “religion,”
“magic,” “science,” “medicine,” and “philosophy.” More importantly, we must
understand the contours of philosophical “rationality” to be firmly embedded in
a given historical context.
Goals and Methods. This interdisciplinary course will
survey the intimate relationship between philosophical thought and concepts of
salvation from both historically–embedded and more typically philosophical
perspectives, and conclude with a theoretical discussion of the relevance of
historical context for the understanding of epistemic categories. Emphasis will
be placed upon the close reading and analysis of primary sources (in
translation) within a specific historical context and also upon the methods by
which one can move from specifics of the text to more general theoretical
comparison. Although the course would be ideal for concentrators in Ancient
Philosophy, it will be of interest to a broad range of students, including
those pursuing the history of science, the social history of late antiquity,
religious studies, anthropology, and Classics, and will offer an unusual and
potentially attractive introduction to the study of ancient philosophy for
those not otherwise thus inclined.
Format and grading. The course will be divided into seven
principal units (spanning about 2 weeks each), each of which will deal with a
single theme or a related constellation of themes. Each unit will begin with a
number of primary texts (in translation) and follow with related secondary
literature, and will conclude with the assignment of a short (<5 pp.)
response paper discussing a single issue of interest that has arisen in the
readings, lectures, or class discussion. Most of the class time will be taken
up with lecture, but each lecture will conclude with a series of theoretical
questions to be pondered and discussed for the final 15–20 minutes of class.
Grades will be based upon response papers (20%), one midterm exam consisting of
several essay questions (40%), and one final term paper of 15–25 pp.
(40%).
Readings. Primary sources will include, inter alia, selections from Plato,
Aristotle (and the commentators), Roman Stoics (Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus),
Middle Platonists (such as Philo, Apuleius, Plutarch, and Maximus of Tyre),
Neoplatonists (primarily Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, the Emperor Julian, Proclus,
Synesius, and Damascius, as well as related literature such as the Chaldaean Oracles), historians and
biographers (Diogenes Laertius, Philostratus, Eunapius, and Marinus), Church
fathers (Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lyons, Hippolytus of Rome, Origen,
Justin Martyr, and Augustine) and numerous Gnostic, Hermetic, alchemical, and
magical texts. Secondary readings will include (among many others) the
essential works on the intellectual history of late antiquity by P. Hadot, P.
Brown, G. Fowden, J. Z. Smith, E. R. Dodds, G. E. R. Lloyd, H. Jonas, P.
Athanassiadi, G. Bowersock, and J. Dillon, as well as seminal works in
cross–cultural notions of rationality by theorists of ritual and philosophical
anthropologists such as P. Winch and R. Horton. Some acquaintance with ancient
philosophy would be helpful but is not required; knowledge of Greek or other
ancient languages is not assumed.
* * * * *
Hypothetical Schedule.
Unit I. Philosophy as therapy for the
human condition.
Week 1. Introduction. The origins of the
therapeutic conception of philosophy in Pythagoreanism, Plato, Stoicism, and
Middle Platonism.
Week 2. The goal of Platonic philosophy
as “assimilation to the divine” or “ascent” to the divine realm of eternal
truth (the realm of Forms); Aristotelian notions of rationality as assimilation
to the divine; the imagery of philosophy as separation of soul from body;
philosophy as catharsis from the psychic passions: apatheia versus metriopatheia.
Response paper due
Unit II. The late antique philosopher
as “divine man.”
Week 3. The hagiographic biographies of
Apollonius of Tyana, Pythagoras, Plotinus, and Proclus. The philosopher and
society in the newly–deracinated social geography of late antiquity. The
philosopher as wonder–worker, magician, and healer.
Week 4. Philosophical schools as sects; hairêsis and “heresy”; philosophical paideia and religious discipleship; the
notion of scholastic succession and the transmission of spiritual authority
from master to disciple in philosophical circles; philosophy and Roman imperial
power: the case of Marcus Aurelius; the Roman imperial court and Plotinus’
“Platonopolis”; the Emperor Julian as philosophical disciple.
Response paper due
Unit III. Philosophical mysticism and mystical union with
the One.
Week 5. The notion of the daimôn or “God within” in Stoicism and
Platonism. Self–knowledge as knowledge of the divine in Stoicism, the
Aristotelian commentaries, Middle Platonism, and Neoplatonism.
Week 6. Mystical union and the
interiorization of the heavenly ascent (H. Jonas). Plotinus and the Platonizing
Sethian Gnostics on mystical ascent. The reification and hypostatization of
cognitive processes in Neoplatonism and Gnosticism. Apophatic and aphairetic
approaches to the transcendent.
Response paper due
Unit IV. The body as prison or as
locus of liberation?
Week 7. The role of medical and
physiological knowledge in the conception of salvation. The Stoic notion of pneuma and its echoes in late antique
medical theory (Galen), the Greek magical papyri, Philo, Pauline Christianity,
Plutarch, and Gnosticism. Aelius Aristides and the medical context of
salvation.
Week 8. The redeployment of sexual
physiology and Hellenistic embryology as a template for the metaphysical realm
in Gnosticism. “Flee femininity”: antifemininity and gender hierarchy as model
for salvation; the negative valence of birth / incarnation and the need for apogenesis in Gnostic thought.
Midterm Examination (take-home essays: a choice 2 out of 3
possible questions that will require the comparison of specific issues
discussed in class, and generalization therefrom; 7–10 pp. max.).
Unit V. Philosophy and ritual.
Week 9. The role of theurgy in
philosophical praxis. Iamblichus and Proclus on theurgical union. The debate
between Porphyry and Iamblichus on the value of theurgy. The relation between
natural magic, astrology, and Platonism.
Week 10. Reason versus revelation: The Chaldaean Oracles and the use of
oracular revelation and inspired poetry among Neoplatonists. The Neoplatonic
and Gnostic use of allegorical hermeneutics. The close relation between Gnostic
and philosophical schools. The question of philosophical versus Gnostic
rhetoric.
Response paper due
Unit VI. Philosophical mysteries as technique
for self–transformation.
Week 11. Techniques of ascent. The
Mithraic mysteries, the Mithras Liturgy,
the Platonizing Sethian ascent treatises from Nag Hammadi, the Corpus Hermeticum, the spiritual alchemy
of Zosimos of Panopolis, and Hekhalot literature.
Week 12. Comparisons between the
mysteries and philosophical paideia;
the notion of epopteia in philosophy
and mystery religion. P. Hadot’s notion of philosophy as a way of life.
Response paper due
Unit VII. Theoretical Overview.
Week 13. The problem of “science” versus
“religion” already apparent in early Pythagoreanism (P. Kingsley). A reassessment
of the categories of religion, science, medicine, magic, and philosophy.
Philosophical approaches to different notions of rationality; the contours of
“rationality” in late antiquity.
Week 14. Conclusion and review.
Final paper due
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