Neoplatonism: The Spiritual Tradition of the West
Dr. Gregory Shaw
Spring 2025
Historically, Neoplatonism begins in the 3rd century C.E. with the teachings of Plotinus, in Rome. But "neo" is a term he would not have recognized. Like all Platonists from the 3rd to the 6th centuries, Plotinus understood his teachings to be those of Plato and Pythagoras who, he believed, were passing on the mysteries of the Ancients. After finding a spiritual master who opened him to the "inner source," Plotinus held seminars and taught his students by answering their questions. His answers were collected and edited by Porphyry under the title of Enneads ("groups of nine"), and they reflect the sources that shaped Plotinus' thinking and reveal his uniquely spiritual reading of Plato, Aristotle and other philosophers.
While Plotinus is considered the father of Neoplatonism, the later Neoplatonists were influenced as much by the teachings of the 4th century Syrian named lamblichus who once studied with Porphyry. He followed Plotinus' Platonism but disagreed with his view that the perfection of the soul requires that it become disembodied. Iamblichus introduced a system of ritual practices to complement the intellectual disciplines of Plotinus. These rituals, called theurgy by lamblichus, aimed at effecting an embodied spirituality. lamblichean Neoplatonism was later absorbed into Christianity and Islam, and the 6th century Neoplatonist, Dionysius the Aeropagite, organized the hierarchy of the Church and the sacraments following lamblichus' theories.
So, Neoplatonism "survived" within Christianity and Islam until the 15th century when Renaissance thinkers like Marsilio Ficino translated the Neoplatonic writings into Latin. These texts were then studied and retranslated by scholars, churchmen, and magicians until the 18th and 19th centuries when they came into the hands of Emerson and other New England Transcendentalists. From these Transcendentalists and Romantic poets like William Blake, Neoplatonism passed into our culture and into movements that describe themselves as spiritual rather than religious.
Nine Saturdays Live on Zoom
12 PM — 1:30 PM PST
March 22 — May 23, 2025
Historically, Neoplatonism begins in the 3rd century C.E. with the teachings of Plotinus, in Rome. Plotinus understood his teachings to be those of Plato and Pythagoras who, he believed, were passing on the mysteries of the Ancients. After finding a spiritual master who opened him to the "inner source," Plotinus held seminars and taught his students by answering their questions.
Gregory Shaw, professor of Religious Studies for over 35 years at Stonehill College, Massachusetts, is the author of Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of lamblichus, Practicing Gnosis: Ritual, Magic, Theurgy and Liturgy in Nag Hammadi, Manichaean and Oher Ancient Literature, 2013 (With April DeConick and John Turner), Hellenic Tantra: The Theurgic Platonism of lamblichus, 2024, and several articles on the later Platonists, Gnostics, and Hermeticists.
Syllabus at a Glance:
Week 1 – The daimon, the acorn within
Our initial focus will turn our attention within, to discover our daimon as taught by the Platonists. We will engage the difficult question of our daimon wants and what--most deeply--do we want?
Week 2 -- Platonic metaphysics
What is the point of Neoplatonic metaphysics? If we understand a philosophical system as a way of “explaining” reality, of describing it, that approach cannot be applied to Platonic or Neoplatonic philosophy.
Week 3 – The Platonism of Plotinus –the levels of Reality
The reading of Plotinus’ Enneads reveals a freewheeling reflection on basic existential questions that Plotinus answered in his seminars.
Week 4 – Plotinus on Beauty
Plotinus’ essay “On Beauty” shows evocatively how Plotinus was able to cast a spell on his students. He is called a “philosopher,” but we have little understanding of what that term meant in the time of Plotinus.
Week 5 – What is the Plotinian path to the divine?
Plotinus lays out the way to recover our divinity in his rhetorical flourishes in On Beauty. The human soul, he says, should “cut away” all excesses until only our divinity is left, like a statue hiding in a block of marble.
Week 6 – Iamblichus and the introduction of theurgy
Iamblichus (242-325 CE) was also a Platonist and Pythagorean. He was a native to Syria and was the descendant of priests and kings of Syria…...High Born. We know that Iamblichus studied Pythagorean mathematics and the dialogues of Plato.
Week 7 – Porphyry’s Letter to Anebo and the Response of Iamblichus
Porphyry expected to be the top Platonic teacher of the age, but his student, Iamblichus, in Syria was attracting more students. They incorporated the practice of the Chaldeans into their Platonic disciplines.
Week 8 – Theurgical Platonism
Iamblichus revisioned the Platonic tradition in a way that extended its appeal to all people, not just to intellectuals.
Week 9 – The legacy of Neoplatonism and theurgy: from Ficino to Emerson
Although the Platonic school was closed by Justinian in 529, its texts were preserved—largely by Arabs—and were recovered in the Renaissance by Marsilio Ficino.