Long Platonism: The Routes of Plato?s Reception to the Italian Renaissance

The impact of Platonism in shaping the Abrahamic traditions is yet to be fully explored. The papers in this volume examine the influence of Plato and his commentators in the conception and articulation of theological issues in late antique and medieval Christianity, but also in Islamic and Jewish traditions. The contributions are arranged chronologically and address key authors and themes in the reception of Platonic thought from the third to the sixteenth century. Neoplatonic debates on the Demiurgic Intellect, imagination, and contemplation informed Christian ideas about our ability to grasp God. Gregory of Nyssa played a key role in the reception of Platonic ideas about the nature of God in Christian and Jewish thinkers, while Neoplatonic schools continued to inculcate Platonic ideals in Christian leaders and intellectuals to the fifth century. Later Platonists, like Hermias, Porphyry, and Philoponus, subtly but creatively reworked Platonic theses to harmonize Plato’s and Aristotle’s philosophies, while paving the way for Psellus’ theory of spiritual illumination. Plotinus and Proclus offer examples of the uneasy and even polemical reception of Neoplatonic concepts both in eastern and western Christianity, including medieval Georgia. The influence of Platonic themes in Islamic thought and Jewish mysticism is traced back to the Qu’ran and John Damascene. Plato’s reception by Eriugena and Thomas Aquinas is also re-examined. Finally, the concept of the Platonic city in Medieval Islamic culture and Christian Florence is considered. By revealing the historical trajectories of Platonic themes across the Abrahamic traditions, the volume aims to serve as foundational resource for Long Platonism.

"This impressive collection of articles edited by Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides and Georgios Steiris concerns the history of Plato’s reception from the time of the first Neoplatonic schools to the Platonic Academy of Florence. The thinkers and works under discussion range over a chronological period of approximately fifteen centuries. They belong to different schools, geographical areas, cultural environments, and religious traditions: from Plato to Plotinus, Proclus, St Augustine, the Church fathers, the ancient commentators, John Scottus, Nicolas of Methone, St Thomas Acquinas, Byzantine philosophers and hagiographers, Jewish and Islamic authors , and Plato’s reception of Plato by the Florentines in the Renaissance. Separately or jointly, the chapters of the volume highlight the extraordinary richness of the material, illustrate a variety of perspectives from which it can be studied, and open new and exciting avenues for future research." Voula Tsouna, Philosophy Department, UCSB

Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; Georgios Steiris, The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.