In the ancient world there was only one Western theologian who came directly under the influence of Neoplatonism; but that one is Augustine, the most important of them all. It was through Neoplatonism that Augustine got rid of scepticism and the last dregs of Manichaeism. In the seventh book of his Confessions he has recorded how much he owed to the perusal of Neoplatonic works. On all the cardinal doctrines—God, matter, the relation of God to the world, freedom and evil—Augustine retained the impress of Neoplatonism ; at the same time he is the theologian of antiquity who most clearly perceived and most fully stated wherein Neoplatonism and Christianity differ. The best ever written by any church father on this subject is to be found in chaps. ix.-xxi. of the seventh book of the Confessions.
Why Neoplatonism succumbed in the conflict with Christianity is a question which the historians have never satisfactorily answered. As a rule, the problem is not even stated correctly. We have nothing to do here with our own private ideal of Chris tianity, but solely with catholic Christianity and catholic the ology. These are the forces that conquered Neoplatonism, after assimilating nearly everything that it contained. Further, we must
consider the arena in which the victory was won. The battlefield was the empire of Constantine and Theodosius. It is only when these and all other circumstances of the case are duly realized that we have a right to inquire how much the essential doctrines of Christianity contributed to the victory, and what share must be assigned to the organization of the church.
In mediaeval theology and philosophy mysticism appears as the powerful opponent of rationalistic dogmatism. The empirical science of the Renaissance and the two following centuries was itself a new development of Platonism and Neoplatonism, as op posed to rationalistic dogmatism, with its contempt for experience. Magic, astrology and alchemy—all the outgrowth of Neopla tonism—gave the first effectual stimulus to the observation of nature, and consequently to natural science, and in this way finally extinguished barren rationalism. Thus in the history of science Neoplatonism has played a part and rendered services of which Plotinus or Iamblichus or Proclus never dreamt. So true is it that sober history is often stranger and more capricious than all the marvels of legend and romance.