Platonism and Christian Thought in Late Antiquity

Panagiotis G. Pavlos is Research Fellow at the Department of Philosophy, University of Oslo, Norway. His main interests are Late Antique metaphysics, cosmology and the early Christian philosophical tradition, with an emphasis on their interaction. His doctoral dissertation examines the concept of aptitude (epitēdeiotēs) in Late Antique and Early Christian thought. Lars Fredrik Janby holds a Ph.D. in the History of Ideas from the University of Oslo, Norway, where he defended a thesis on Augustine’s encyclopedic project. His research focuses on Christian receptions of classical material in Late Antiquity. Eyjólfur Kjalar Emilsson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oslo, Norway. His research interests include topics in metaphysics and ethics in the ancient and late ancient classical philosophical tradition. He is the author of four monographs and numerous articles on ancient philosophy, focusing on Plotinus in particular. Torstein Theodor Tollefsen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oslo, Norway. His main interests are metaphysics and cosmology in late antiquity and early Byzantium, and the tensions and interactions between pagan and Christian thought in that period.

Acknowledgements; List of contributors; List of abbreviations; Introduction LARS FREDRIK JANBY, EYJÓLFUR KJALAR EMILSSON, TORSTEIN THEODOR TOLLEFSEN AND PANAGIOTIS G. PAVLOS; PART I: Methodologies; 1 The Agreement of Christianity and Platonic Philosophy from Justin Martyr to Eusebius, SÉBASTIEN MORLET; 2 Augustine and the "Prophecy" of Plato, Tim. 29c3, CHRISTINA HOENIG; 3 Porphyry’s Daemons as a Threat for the Christians, CHRISTINE HECHT; PART II: Cosmology; 4 Patristic Reflections on Formless Matter, ENRICO MORO; 5 Plotinus’ Doctrine of Badness as Matter in Ennead I.8. [51], EYJÓLFUR KJALAR EMILSSON; 6 Proclus, Philoponus, and Maximus: The Paradigm of the World and Temporal Beginning, TORSTEIN THEODOR TOLLEFSEN; PART III: Metaphysics; 7 Christ and Pythagoras: Augustine’s Early Philosophy of Number, LARS FREDRIK JANBY; 8 The Impact of Ὁμοούσιον on the Divine Ideas, DANIEL J. TOLAN; 9 Theurgy in Dionysius the Areopagite, PANAGIOTIS G. PAVLOS; 10 On the Meaning of Hierarchy in Dionysius the Areopagite, DIMITRIOS A. VASILAKIS; 11 The Doctrine of Immanent Realism in Maximus the Confessor, SEBASTIAN MATEIESCU; 12 That and How Perichōrēsis Differs from Participation: The Case of Maximus the Confessor, JORDAN DANIEL WOOD; PART IV: Ethics; 13 Apophaticism in the Search for Knowledge: Love as a Key Difference in Neoplatonic and Christian Epistemology, E. BROWN DEWHURST; 14 The Origin of Passions in Neoplatonic and Early Christian Thought: Porphyry of Tyre and Evagrius Ponticus, ADRIAN PIRTEA; 15 Augustine on Eudaimonia as Life Project and Object of Desire, TOMAS EKENBERG; Indexes