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884 APPENDIX APPENDIX F. Neo-Platonism and Christianity. " In connection with the views expressed on p. 716 of the Introduction of the influence of Neo-Platonism on Christianity, it is needful to refer to recent opinions expressed on the subject. The question is a complicated one and as remarked by Mr. J. M. Mitchell, who has ably brought up the literature on the subject as outlined by Adolph Harnack, "it is scarcely possible to get a complete view of their mutual relations". If Neo-Platonism is understood in the widest sense, as the highest and fittest expression of the religious movements at work in the Graco-Roman empire from the second to the fifth century, then it may be regarded as the twin sister of the Church dogmatic which grew up during the same period; the younger sister was brought up by the elder, then rebelled against her and at last tyrranised over her. The Neo-Platonists themselves characterised the theologians of the Church as intruders, who had appropriated the Greek philosophy and spoiled it by the admixture of strange fables. Thus Porphyry says of Origen (Euseb., H.E., VI. 19): "The outer life of Origen was that of a Christian and contrary to law; but as far as his views of things and of God are concerned, he thought like the Greeks, whose conceptions he overlaid with foreign myths." Where did he get these "myths" from? This verdict of Porphyry's. has been characterised as more just and apt" than of the theologians or the Greek philosophers, when they accused them of having borrowed all their really valuable doctrines from the ancient Christian books. But the important point is that the relationship has been acknowledged on both sides. In so far as Neo-Platonism and the Church dogmatic both set out from the felt need of redemption ; both sought to deliver the soul from sensuality and recognized men's inability without divine aid-without a revelation-to attain salvation and a sure knowledge of the truth, "they are ", it is added, once most intimately related and at the same time mutually independent". It is suggested that during the third century A.D., NeoPlatonism exercised little influence on Christianity. During the fourth century A.D., however, the influence of Neo-Platonism on Oriental theologians proved of the utmost importance. Apart from certain doctrines, Neo-Platonists and Church theologians, indeed, drew so closely together that many of them are completely at one". In ethical precepts, in directions of right living (that is, asceticism), the two systems more and more approximated each other. But it was here that Neo-Platonism finally celebrated its greatest triumph. "It indoctrinated the Church with all its mysticism, its mystic exercises and even its magical cultus as 11 " at

APPENDIX 885 taught by Iamblichus. The works of the pseudo-Dionysius contain a Gnosis in which, by means of the teaching of Iamblichus and Proclus, the Church's theology is turned into a scholastic mysticism, with directions on matters of practice and ritual..... 'The influence of these writings, first on the East, and then-after 9 th (or 12 th) century on the West, cannot be over-estimated." Augustine came fully under the influence of Neo-Platonism. Through it, he got rid of scepticism and the last remnants of Manichaism. In his Confessions (Book VII), he has recorded how much he owed to the perusal of Neo-Platonic works. On all the cardinal doctrines-God, matter, the relation of God to the world, freedom and evil--Augustine retained the impress of Neo-Platonism. But at the same time, he is the one early Christian writer who states the differences between Christianity and Neo-Platonism distinctly. (See Book VII, Chapters ix-xxi.) Why did Neo-Platonism succumb to Christianity? Catholic Christianity and Catholic Theology, it is said, conquered it after assimilating nearly everything that it contained". This conquest of Neo-Platonism took place in the Empire of Constantine and Theodosius. And when we remember the attendant circumstances in which this conquest" came about, we can rightly enquire how much the essential doctrines of Christianity contributed to the victory, and what share must be assigned to the organization of the Church." It has been held on high authority that the empirical science of the Renaissance and the two following centuries was itself a new development of Platonism and NeoPlatonism, as opposed to rationalistic dogmatism with its contempt for experience". Magic, astrology and alchemy-all the outgrowth of Neo-Platonism-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 Neo-Platonism has played a part and rendered services which Plotinus, or Iamblichus or Proclus never dreamt. (See J. M. Mitchell in the Ency. Brit., Eleventh Edition, XIX, 377-378.) 66 ""