The Ancient Neo-Platonist Attack on Gnosticism - Plotinus Against the Gnostics

for a myriad of reasons intellectual productivity doesn't seem evenly distributed through history certain centuries and even decades are especially witness to Titanic explosions and philosophical and scientific developments of those the third Century of the Common Era was especially rich the intellectual spiritual and philosophical ferment of the Alexandria milieu was truly profound this was a world where no one intellectual tradition had established hegemony much less state power to enforce a particular Orthodoxy and everyone from the stoics MR religions hermeticist Roman Imperial religion indigenous Egyptian beliefs the platonists various species of emerging Christianity and Judaism among many others vied for adherence in the marketplace of both ideas and religious devotion it was into this environment that the Egyptian philosopher platonus would emerge and at his school in Rome would develop one of the most influential philosophical systems in history what Scholars Now call neoplatonism however platonis's school which he took to be the true and authentic inheritance of all of accurate Hellenic philosophy derivative of course from the Divine Plato became infiltrated one might say with a rival religious philosophy gnosticism in his most sustained polemic platinus aims a substantial portion of his famed any ads at precisely combating the gnostics but what did he take their beliefs to be and what were his Central philosophical concerns while proto-orthodox Christian polemics against synosticism such as those launched by irenaeus or hippolytus of Rome are well known I've actually done a whole episode on irenaeus in fact the attack launched by platinus against the gnostics is significantly lesser known mostly because of its highly technical nature and it's often very elliptical style but with that in mind let's turn to platinus's arguments against gnosticism as part of a massive collaboration on neoplatonism here among religious studies YouTube make sure to check out the description for a full list of the episodes as part of this collaboration but if you're interested in Magic hermetic philosophy Alchemy Kabbalah or the history of the occult make sure to subscribe here to esoterica and check out my other content on topics and other terrorism including curated playlists also if you want to support my work of providing accessible scholarly and free content on topics and other terrorism here on YouTube I hope you consider supporting my work on patreon which you can check out with a one-time donation with the super thanks option or you can even buy a esoteric shirt if you like that but now let's turn to platinus's anti-nostic polemic I'm Dr Justin Sledge and welcome to esoterica where we explore the Arcane in history philosophy and religion [Music] [Music] the eventual Triumph of state-backed Orthodox Christianity over virtually every other rival School of ancient philosophy and religion often skews our ability to see history with much in the way of Clarity for instance it's easy to think of gnosticism as much as it was a particularism in any strong sense primarily as just a rival or a heresy of Christianity simplicator indeed that's often how gnosticism is taught through the blends of the proto-orthodox polemics launched by people like irenaeus or hippolytus of Rome despite this many so-called gnostics would have understood themselves simply as just Christians and other variants that now fondra fall under the category of gnosticism would have likely thought of themselves as completely independent schools of thought however it's clear that not only did some early Christians find fault with what they termed gnosticism but so did platinus though for quite different reasons but before turning to platonis's attack on them what do we know about these particular gnostics that he had in his sights platinus's most sustained attack can be found in his famous book of the iniads to nine the last section of a much larger treaties that Scholars now know as the growth shrift however despite his lengthy and Technical polemic we actually learned very little about the targets of his attack from the attack itself unlike say irenaeus's attack which actually proceeded by means of religious expose explaining in torturous detail the extremely Baroque system of emanations precisely to show just helped at least to his mind ridiculous the Gnostic systems were platinus's method is rather different it's quite technical targeted strikes on the philosophical tenets that underpinned those very Gnostic systems and he also just calls them a lot of names he just makes fun of them just by calling them friends at one point toward the end I mean with friends like platanus as the saying goes however if we take behind us to student porphyry it actually appears that the Gnostic targets of platinus were in fact Christian Heretics as orphrey calls them for whom revelatory texts attributed to zostrianos and zoroaster were actually authoritative further and surely much to the Chagrin of platinus these nastics tell that Plato had not really penetrated into the depth of intelligible substance again at least according to porphyry in fact we learned that not only did platinus attack these gnostics but so did his students producing dozens of volumes to refute the claims of these Revelations texts like zostrianos and that sets up the first set of elements that platonists found unacceptable about the gnostics that he aimed at first these revelatory texts one of which actually survives in the nakamati collections austrianos are just that their Revelation rather than philosophically reasoned positions now platinus had no problem with mystical ecstatic States He underwent such States in his own life but he maintained that the truths of reality had to be settled through reasonable philosophical analysis and not just I saw it in a dream or a vision secondly platinus despite his own Egyptian Origins maintained a kind of Hellenic chauvinism with Plato being the sole authentic source of philosophical wisdom thus rejecting these vaguely Eastern even Persian God forbid Persians as the Greeks sources of wisdom simply put zostrianos and zoraster were foreigners and their Revelations barbaric stupidity as platinus puts it I'm not kidding he calls them bumpkins at one point of course if that were all of his arguments if it was just making fun of them and saying it wasn't really Greek then we'd find it rightly wanting I mean it's funny seeing it otherwise Sublime philosopher like platin is calling is another is Gnostic opponents idiotic bumpkins but it being funny doesn't really make it a compelling objection to Gnostic philosophy itself generally speaking we can conclude the specific gnostics that platinus targeted were probably some species of Christians who subscribed to a variant of gnosticism that Scholars now recognize as platonizing sethianism that's a mouthful so-called because of the salvific role played by the third sign of Adam in its mythology and it was heavily influenced by platonism specifically the stoic Aristotle infused platonism of that period that we now call middle plagiarism but before turning to platinus's objections it's worth very briefly very briefly to summarize that very Gnostic mythology that he probably had in his sights and to do so I'll be recounting a variant most classically described in a text called the apocryphon of John in fact if you want to dive deeper into that text in its mythology I've made a whole episode about it so feel free to check it out in the card above but the basic myth begins with the great invisible Spirit the utterly Transcendent father monad gazing into himself in a kind of primordial water this inward gaze produces a reflection the Divine mother or barbello out of which the rest of reality will flow indeed with the consent of the father barbello actually emanates a series of Aeons or eternities eventually resulting in the production of the Divine Sun or autogenes the self-generated one though it does come from babia who was given authority over those very Aeons from the Sun flow for further luminaries from which 12 more Aeons also emanate if you want Aeons they got Aeons they got ions for days around here the last of which is the Divine wisdom or Sophia it's Sophia who actually sought out to generate further reality though without the consent of the father that ultimately generates the horrible demonic demiurge who and its jealous blindness creates the physical universe as we know it ruled over by the horrifying planetary archons Lovecraft time following the repentance of Sophia a Divine spark is smuggled into the physical creatures of clay made by yald dimiurge that'd be us human beings which can guide them out of the prison world of physical reality back to the true spiritual World eventually the Savior appears and teaches the truth which was actually known and taught by Seth it's the set the in part of that middle platonizing set the in gnosticism about the origins and tragic fall of the world out of its pure spiritual State until the dungeon of physical existence indeed it is knowledge or gnosis of this reality and the possibility of Escape that makes the system truly Gnostic it is this esoteric gnosis or wisdom or knowledge that proves ultimately salvific in the system now to be sure there are lots of variants of this myth to be found even within the sethian literature so strianos is a mess of this kind of stuff but the main features here the Primal try send it monab the emanation of the Aeons the tragedy of Sophia and the creation of the demiurge and the physical Cosmos along with the role of the saviors especially Seth and Jesus to provide the Divine salvific knowledge remain fairly consistent and it's precisely along those lines or at least the philosophical substructure of this myth that platinus is going to take aim but what's first striking and interesting about platinus's objection is that he basically never outlines or even directly combats this rather elaborate mythology unlike his Christian counterpart irenaeus the reason for that should be relatively clear from the earlier discussion it's Revelation and getting into a dogmatic dispute is is pointless for platinus as it is for as it is for anyone else what matters for him are the philosophical suppositions which underwrite that mythology of course if he's able to show the fundamentally illogical nature of all these suppositions then he'll be able to dispense with the whole mythological superstructure as well if you show the philosophy as nonsense then the myth goes with it so what are his actual philosophical objections in general in the ads 2 9 contains about 20 philosophical objections to gnosticism which can be vaguely grouped into three interlocking categories metaphysical objections cosmological objections and moral objections so let's tackle each of those in turn the metaphysical objection Center on the triadic structure that platinus builds out of Plato's metaphysics as a brief reminder from the utterly Transcendent one the first emanation flipatinus is noose or the Divine mind or logos typically identified both with the demiurge and Plato's Timaeus but also kind of the realm of the platonic forms more generally from noose flows the world soul of which there is a higher and lower Dimension the lower Dimension being identified with nature from the lower World slow flows individual human souls and finally hulae are matter the lowest ontological register before everything sort of tatters off into non-being for platinus this triadic structure of the one mind and soul is both metaphysically and logically exhaustive and thus the introduction of any other metaphysical registers into the system is either going to prove to be redundant unnecessary or just mistaken thus it follows that the introduction into this elegantly triadic platonic system of the Divine mother or barbello and all those Aeons so many Aeons or Sophia as wisdom distinct from noose or mind much less the Hideous Creator demon yelled both this all introduces not only entities Beyond ontological necessity to kind of crib William evacum but it also introduces logical incoherence into the imminentory process itself interestingly enough this kind of critique is also deployed by irenaeus as well we're both polemises see logical contradictions and how for instance noose or mind works in the Gnostic mythology that Sophia can be distinct from noose is incoherent to them thus for platonists not only are all these Baroque hypostatic entities of the Gnostic mythology unnecessary or redundant they also confuse the very process of emanation Itself by muddying the ontological structural hierarchy and by extension the very function of those entities and the broader metaphysical system in other words platinus feels that the elegant triadic system he's inherited or developed from Plato is both necessary and sufficient for the metaphysical ethical and soteriological Analysis of reality and the Gnostic mythology only serves to confuse what is a otherwise perfectly fine platonic project further platinus projects the idea that any Soul can fall in any metaphysical sense or become alienated from its source for him Soul remains Soul regardless of how it becomes associated with the physical body while he does admit of a kind of logical distinction between higher and lower registers of Seoul he rejects the idea that this logical distinction tracks any kind of conditional shift in the quality of the Soul as such though frankly I'm not sure the gnostics did either the Gnostic concept of the soul is that it is a Divine spark smuggled into physical reality which allows human beings a chance out salvation despite being born into this whole prison Cosmos business so insofar as it is actually a Divine spark it is it's divine and not fallen in the ontological sense but that's platonus's mistake to make not ours I think he also just doesn't like the idea of Soul being somehow alienated from its nature but again I'm not sure the gnostics make that mistake of course this purely metaphysical line of objection leads directly into the most famous objection by platonix against the gnostics their metaphysical denigration of the physical Cosmos as I mentioned earlier most versions of this Gnostic mythology have the creation of the world the kind of end result of Sophia's mistaken production of the horrible blind demiurge that demiurge or bald or saklas the blind one is the jealous God of the Old Testament itself goes on to create the physical world to rule over in his ignorance of the higher spiritual reality from which all things truly flow thus for the gnostics that platinus has in mind this Cosmos is a kind of prison ruled over by evil planetary archons this is profoundly mistaken according to plot platinus in his system the emanation of the cosmos is an extension of the spiritual goodness and beauty of those higher spiritual Realms not a tragic break with those Realms in keeping with the traditional position of Plato as it's found in the Timaeus neoplatonous demiurge impressed upon matter the absolute best forms they were able to thus given the ontological limitations of matter again while the lowest ontological register before you know becoming non-being but certainly matter isn't evil for Plato or platinus although they kind of talk like that sometimes the physical Cosmos simply has certain limitations inherent to the nature of matter itself and that's not the fault of the demiurge in other words the plotinian demiurge created the best possible World given the building materials at hand those limitations are to be spiritually overcome not denigrated as matter as somehow how inherently evil as the gnostics had it at least the gnostics at platinus is arguing with in fact just as in Plato it's precisely by first recognizing the beauty of the physical world even just beautiful people beautiful people that our souls awakened the possibility of contemplating Beauty and goodness as such beauty and goodness in themselves the forms of beauty and goodness something utterly unimaginable for the gnostics for whom again matter was just purely and simply Evil by extension far from being malevolent archons the planetary beings are exalted and beneficent extending and communicating the influence of Divine Providence down the chain of being to us I mean stars and planets are pretty to look at they're beautiful this platinian theory of evil as privation of course would be taken up by Augustine with Orthodox Christianity generally in agreement with the rejection of metaphysical evil as such evil is a privation in this philosophy and not only does platonus reject the idea that physical creation is evil but he also takes the idea of creation and Beth being a moment in time or a creation by a demonic gnostic demiurge it's just being logically nonsensical if the Transcendent one is beyond all space and time a position that actually platonus and the Gnostic shared in fact then it makes no logical sense to speak of a creation outside of Eternity what is the ontological totality toon including matter is simply always already in the sea of Eternity all in all given the imminentory system employed by both platinus and the gnostics to some degree platonix felt that it was a logical and metaphysical mistake to conclude that the physical Cosmos was in any way evil or that our souls Were Somehow ontologically marooned or alienated from the Divine etiology while embodied indeed for platoninous this mistake on the part of the gnostics LED to his final political attack against them but the gnostics were not only wrong about first philosophy or metaphysics in the physical Cosmos but that those eras LED them to become morally erroneous misunderstanding and failing to achieve what was most important in human life for that life to be lived virtuously the basic moral failure on the part of the gnostics for a platonix at least was twofold and pretty classically Greek moral failures the first was the moral failure of hubris which flows from the Gnostic cosmology and the second flowing from that hubris was a uniquely bivalent failure of quietism on the one hand and antinomianism on the other let's take both of these in turn because the gnostics take the physical world to be evil only their souls and recall that some Gnostic even felt that only a tiny group of human beings the pneumatics or spirituals could ever really be redeemed but their souls and their souls alone were the only good things in the entire Cosmos thus for platanus these gnostics exalt their own Souls over and against all of the rest of the cosmos including what he took to be the planetary and Stellar beings those of a much higher spirit dignity given their greater proximity to the spiritual realm up there thus for platinus the gnostics were guilty of among the worst sins aside from you know mucking up Plato which he really can't abide they were guilty of hubris for thinking that their souls and their souls alone were the only ontologically good entities in the whole of the universe of course the gnostics also posited what they and mother Christians held to be the new Earth this is another realm of spiritual fiction which the spirituals or pneumatics escaped to after physical death or would come at the end of the world as a release from this realm in fact he also attacks the idea that the gnostics could use magic or charms to manipulate the higher planetarium or astral beings because those astral beings were spiritually inferior to the spiritual gnostics now this issue of magic and theology would go on to prove pretty decisive as neoplatonism developed but go check out Angela's episode for that and I'll be working on it myself in the future but for platinus all of this was an outrage because it mistook the ontological hierarchy which was precisely what he took to be evidence of the providential goodness and Beauty emanated by the one the one the gnostics also allegedly believed in as well by elevating themselves Above This World they were engaging in a Titanic moral blunder blasphemy really against the very one they thought they were escaping to at least according to platinus further that the world could be divided into spirituals and intellectuals and the fundamentally irredeemable folks like myself probably was logically nonsense atop hubris and so far as all human beings were emanated as a species and dealt with soul and intellect equally to some degree in this way platonix is a kind of metaphysical egalitarian men also a kind of Hellenic conservative which is an interesting combination but wait there's more from this hubris also developed again at least according to platinus a further bivalent moral failure of quietism and antinomianism quietism or the failure to act in the pursuance of virtue or the avoidance of Vice was the precisely the result of the belief that physical action takes place in the theater of the physical world which again is utterly evil and thus utterly incapable of being redeemed or reformed the goodness of the soul is at a profound ontological remove from it all according to these gnostics thus the external world even the from the indifference of the external goods and ills the diaphora that were the subject of a lot of criticisms against my stoic buddies was simply not worth interfering in at all thus platinus kind of ribs them by wondering out loud that they just don't go escape reality as soon as they learn the truth about all this evilness of realities go jump off a pyramid or something thus no action in the physical world could ever be good ever because it was fundamentally and ontologically evil to begin with so why not just go jump off a building to escape all of this for platinus that the gnostics would remain in this world at all much less have families or children aside from perhaps to spread the Gnostic truth to other pneumatics or spiritual types kind of Gnostic bodhisattva style was just profound hypocrisy on their part on the other hand if the world is just evil and the Divine spark within us is never affected by our contact with the physical world then why not just indulge in all the pleasures of the body while we're while we're in one thus platonus along with some Christians actually accused some of the gnostics of the worst kinds of moral and sexual outrages you know simply enjoying rampant physical pleasure because again physical bodily pleasure can in no way contaminate the Divine spark within the gnostics at least according to the Christians and platinus here thus they accuse the gnostics of engaging in every kind of sexual debauchery and general antinomianism you know stuff like eating babies and incest looking at you carpet creations I don't think they did it yeah of course this is just a damning criticism from platonix who was famously ashamed to be in a body according to his student porphyry which kind of sounds like a Gnostic humbleflex if we're being honest regardless the final outcome for platinus is that Gnostic hubris prevents them from cultivating the spiritual virtues which actually does allow for the soul to reach back up through the process of emanation and recession to become reunited with the Primal Unity of goodness Beauty and truth without those virtues you don't get to go back to the one and the Gnostic simply eschew virtue entirely in the end platonus Lycans has disagreement with the gnostics by appealing to the analogy of the house two people are born into the same house one only sees the Perfections and deficiencies and judges the house horrible and its Builder even worse the other person also notices the imperfection of the house but sees its beautiful elements as well realizing that the Builder did the best they could with the materials at hand making the best of the situation they're still looking forward to the day in which they get to move out but in the meantime they're going to make the best it's a subtle but important distinction between how platinuses himself and how he sees the gnostics as they view this world we often think of the gnostics primarily as the targets of attack by the so-called early proto-orthodox church but it's interesting to see the criticisms of gnosticism by a perfectly good pagan perfectly good pagans a long strangely similar but also distinctly non-Christian platonic lines as well one also suspects that a very similar line of attack would have actually been taken up by hermetic philosophers as well but no such political texts survive they were probably too busy cleaning their soles of diamonds or something probably regardless while gnosticism is a game some degree of popularity is a more Pagan friendly or Pagan adjacent variant of Christianity it's important to note that who's come down to us as the premier Pagan philosopher of that period also had sustained and Powerful criticisms of the gnosticism in his milieu and in that way it only enriches my profound appreciation of the third Century intellectual philosophical and religious ferment the literature around platonus and the gnostics is truly vast first I just go read the apocryphan of John and zosterianos and the nakamati library and then I turned to platonus attacks and iniad29 or if you're really hardcore you'd read the entire growth shrift to see how platinus sets up his philosophy in some ways as a giant counter to what he takes to be gnosticism in general it's a pretty amazing text once you reshuffle the deck after porphry scrambled everything so it's an amazing text and perhaps the best of platinus for a sustained study of platinus and hypnostic targets the study by Burns is a truly powerful analysis and well worth the effort it's highly specialized however but I mean you're watching this episode aren't you I also again check out the other episodes in this amazing vast neoplatonism collaboration with other fine folks here on religious studies YouTube I have to say I'm truly humbled and blessed to be in their digital presence so check out the links in the description and go watch their videos as well for a neoplatonism Extravaganza but until soon more neoplatonism and gnosticism content to come so stick around for that until then I'm Dr Justin Sledge and thank you for watching esoterica where we explore the Arcane in history philosophy and religion

Channel: ESOTERICA

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Length: 30min 18sec (1818 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 30 2022