NEO-PLATONISM. In Neo-Platonism ancient Greek philosophy took a religious and mystical turn. It was eclectic in the sense that with the ideas of Plato and Pythagoras were combined Oriental ideas and doctrines. Founded by Ammonius Sakkas of Alexandria (175-200 A.D.), the philosophy was developed and systematized by Plotinus of Lycopolis in Egypt. " All existence is referred, not to two principles, but only to one. God. or the primal Essence, is the simple unity that lies above all multiplicity. As such, God is without thought. because thinking requires plurality; and without will, because willing pre-supposes duality. God is the abso lutely transcendent One, exalted above everything, above consciousness and unconsciousness, above rest and motion, above life and being. Hence God is entirely un attainable in our knowledge. Thinking must here abandon itself and become Not-thinking, if it is to appre hend God in blessed vision, and unite itself with Him. But at the same time God is the original source and ground of all things; finite things arise out of Him by emanation of what is absolutely simple unfolding itself into an ever-advancing series of finite things, that are always the more imperfect the farther they are removed from God. In all things, therefore, there is only one divine power and essence, but In different degrees of per fection, so that every higher existence embraces the lower with itself. Finite things long for a return to their origin, and this is especially true of the human soul.
which, banished into this earthly life as a punishment for former sin, strives to soar aloft to its higher home. . . The highest goal •is immediate intuition of the primal divine Being. This Is the true philosophy, the perfection of the spirit, and likewise the highest happiness. By such intuition the soul becomes completely one with the primal Being, and sinks in ecstacy into deity " (Puenjer). Porphyry of Phoenicia (233-304), the disciple and biographer of Plotinus, further developed Neo Platonism on its religious side. He even accused the Christians of stealing and adulterating the teaching of his master. Iambliehus of Coele-syria (t 333), a disciple of Porphyry, is largely responsible for the degeneration of Neo-Platonism. He distinguished between gods. angels, and demons, and taught a system of theurgy and magic. The downward tendency was even more marked in the theosophical teaching of Proelus (412-485), who erected what has been described as " a veritable pantheon of pagan dogmas and philosophies." Synesius of Cyrene (f o. 430), a disciple of the Neoplatonist Hypatia of Alexandria. afterwards became a Christian and was made Bishop of Ptolemais, but he did not entirely abandon his Neo-Platonism. It is possible that Boethius also, one of the last of the Neoplatonists, was a Christian. See Schaff-Herzog; J. H. Blunt; B. Puenjer; C. J. Deter.