The Theurgic Turn in Christian Thought: Iamblichus, Origen, Augustine, and the Eucharist by Jason A
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The Theurgic Turn in Christian Thought: Iamblichus, Origen, Augustine, and the Eucharist by Jason B. Parnell A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Classical Studies) in the University of Michigan 2009 Doctoral Committee: Professor Sarah L. Ahbel‑Rappe, Co‑Chair Professor David S. Potter, Co‑Chair Professor Victor Caston Associate Professor Arthur Mfw Verhoogt © Jason B. Parnell 2009 Acknowledgments Thanks beyond measure are due to Professor Sara Ahbel‑Rappe, my principal advisor, without whose thoughtful and timely input this project would simply have failed. What coherence is to be found here is largely due to her knowledge, experience and knack for dispensing just the right wisdom at just the right time. For their very helpful advice on constructing a larger narrative about intellectual history, I am indebted to Professor David Potter and Professor Victor Caston – as to Professor Arthur Verhoogt for his papyrologist’s eye for error and scrutinizing attention to key ideas and their proper explication. Professor H.D. Cameron is justly acknowledged as well, for believing early on that the project was alive when it appeared quite moribund. More broadly, I must express my gratitude to the Department of Classical Studies as a whole, for permitting my completion of a project that began, properly speaking, in 1996. Among my peers in graduate school, who have contributed so much charm and mayhem to my years at Michigan, I must acknowledge pre‑eminently Raji Mittal, Alex Conison, Alex Angelov, and Albertus Horsting, whose capacities for constructive idleness and distraction astonishingly dwarf even my own. Along with them, Mike Sampson, Rob Chenault, Nate Bethell, Sanjaya Thakur, Kathryn Seidl Steed, Jenn Finn, Shonda Tohm, and the decidedly classical Alison Byrnes, MFA, were peerless contributors to the conviviality of many good days. I shall never again raise a tumbler of bourbon without remembering autumn afternoons spent among them, which is proof against all retort of the insight in Walker Percy’s declaration that “bourbon does for me what that piece of cake did for Proust.” ii Table of Contents Acknowledgments ii List of Abbreviations v Chapter I: Christian Thought and Theurgy 1 1. The Problem 1 2. Methodology: Approach, Limits of Study, Terminology 6 3. Overview 13 4. Summary Observation 17 Chapter II: Pagan and Christian Intellectual Culture 18 1. The Problem of Comparison: Christianity and Antiquity 18 2. Christianity and Antiquity: the Modern Problem 21 3. Christian Thinkers in the Roman Empire: the Greek Apologists 30 4. The Case of Anatolius and Alexandrian Intellectual Culture 44 5. A Third Century Christian Intellectual: Origen of Alexandria 50 Chapter III: The Iamblichean Symbolon and the Metaphysics of Theurgy 62 1. Introduction: A Dispute over Theurgy and the Soul’s Ascent 62 2. Plato, Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Tradition: Embodiment and its Discontents 77 3. Iamblichus and Platonic Cosmology 85 4. Iamblichean First Principles and the Goodness of Material Reality 88 5. Matter as Obstacle, Matter as Instrument: Daemons and Demiurgic Souls 100 iii 6. Divine Matter and Iamblichean ritual 112 7. Eikon and Symbol as Means of the Soul’s Ascent 116 Chapter IV: Origen and the Adaptation of Pagan Cult 133 1. Introduction: The Logos, the Rational Creature and Material Cult 133 2. Cosmology and Spiritual Anthropology: Corporeality and Rational Beings 137 3. The Defense of Materiality on Platonic Ground 168 4. The Incarnation of the Logos: Encountering God in the Body 179 5. Exorcising the Daemons: Christianizing Pagan Cult 189 Chapter V: Theurgy and Eucharistic Mediation in Augustine 209 1. Introduction: Augustine and the Theurgic Inheritance 209 2. Augustine’s Taxonomy of Daemons 214 3. Theurgy as Daemonic Cult 225 4. Christ as Perfect Embodied Mediation 229 5. Eucharist as Sign: A Sign Theory of Language Applied to Cult 239 Chapter VI: Conclusion 256 Bibliography 261 iv List of Abbreviations Abst. Porphyry, de Abstinentia agon. Augustine, De agone christiano Ascl. Asclepius C.Cels. Origen, Contra Celsum CMAG Catalogue des manuscrits alchimiques grecs cod. Photius, Bibliothecae Codices commEph Origen, Fragmenta ex commentariis in epistulam ad Ephesios commJohn Origen, Commentarii in evangelium Joannis commMatt Origen, Commentarium in evangelium Matthaei c.Faust. Augustine, Contra Faustum Manicheum Corp.Herm. Corpus Hermeticum DCMS Iamblichus, De Communi Mathematica Scientia Liber DM Iamblichus, De Mysteriis De civ. D. Augustine, De Civitate Dei De Deo Socrat. Apuleius, De Deo Socratis De praescr. haeret. Tertullian, De praescriptione haereticorum dial. Origen, dialogus cum Heraclide Diogn. Epistle to Diognetus div.qu. Augustine, De diversus quaestionibus octoginta tribus EH Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History ench. Augustine, Encheiridion de fide spe et caritate Enn. Plotinus, Enneads exProv Origen, Expositio in Proverbia f.et sym. Augustine, De fide et symbolo frJohn Origen, Fragmenta in evangelium Joannis frMatt Origen, Fragmenta in evangelium Matthaei haer. Epiphanius, Panarion seu adversus lxxx haereses in Nic. Iamblichus, In Nichomachi Arithmeticam Introductionem in Ph. Simplicius, in Aristotelis physicorum libros octo commentaria in Prm. Damascius, in Parmenidem in R. Proclus, in Platonis Rempublican Commentarii in Ti. Proclus, in Platonis Timaeum Commentarii Lg. Plato, Leges mag. Augustine, De Magistro v Marc. Porphyry, Ad Marcellam mart. Origen, Exhortatio ad Martyrium Phaed. Plato, Phaedo Phaedr. Plato, Phaedrus princ. Origen, De Principiis quant. Augustine, De animae quantitate selPs Origen, Selecta in Psalmos Strom. Clement, Stromateis Ti. Plato, Timaeus trin. Augustine, De Trinitate VP Porphyry, Vita Plotini VS Eunapius, Vitae Sophistarum vi Chapter I: Christian Thought and Theurgy 1. The Problem Until fairly recently scholars have regarded Iamblichus’ defense of theurgy as little more than a thin apology for the magical manipulation of gods and demons. It was famously termed “a manifesto of irrationalism,” a founding charter for every superstition opposed to genuine philosophical reasoning.1 The theurgic turn in Platonism was to be understood as an aberration symptomatic of decline and decadence, a falling away from the more sophisticated, rarefied philosophy of Plotinus and Porphyry. This view is in keeping with the arguments of Porphyry himself, whose unease with theurgy prompted him to write his Letter to Anebo to challenge it, provoking in turn Iamblichus’ response in his De Mysteriis.2 The most recent scholarship has shown that that more contemptuous evaluations of Iamblichus represent in part a misperception, and that his work is more accurately read as a genuine attempt to vindicate material religious rites within the framework of a coherent metaphysics and psychology.3 Because of the historically negative perception of theurgy, the question of its influence on later Christian thinkers becomes a complicated matter. The long‑standing prejudice against theurgy as debased superstition infects approaches to Christian writers 1 E.R. Dodds , The Greeks and the Irrational (1973) 287‑88. 2 Chapter III.1‑2 will consider the background of Iamblichus’ relationship to his fellow Neoplatonists. 3 Shaw (1999) summarizes the case and catalogs the essential bibliography: Trouillard (1972); Dillon (1973); Larsen (1972); Lloyd (1967); Steel (1978); Smith (1974); Sheppard (1982); Shaw (1985, 1995); Fowden (1986); Athanassiadi (1993). 1 whose works bear theurgy’s clear markings, and whose authors are often considered suspiciously “pagan” as a result. It has long been acknowledged that the works of Pseudo‑Dionysius4 openly adopt significant language and content from Iamblichus, mediated through the fifth century Athenian school of Neoplatonism. Among some scholars, this state of affairs has often given rise to the question of whether Dionysius, considering his Neoplatonist commitments and theurgic influences, can be regarded as legitimately Christian.5 Such scholars often strive to implicate Dionysius in his own “pagan” theurgy, thereby quarantining his “Platonism” from “authentic” Christianity. Specifically, Protestant scholars particularly have often undertaken to sanitize Dionysius’ adoption of the theurgic symbola, reading them as mere signs of principles to be intellectually apprehended, rather than materially efficacious elements in religious rites.6 Such approaches – both those that suspect theurgy itself, and those that suspect Christian authors of theurgic “corruption” – are arguably related, since each sees in theurgy a menace to be contained, the former regarding it as a threat to legitimate philosophical discourse, the latter to legitimate Christianity. Insofar as both approaches attempt such compartmentalization, they are almost certainly both defective. The assignment of theurgy to the category of the merely superstitious has now long been regarded as deficient; likewise, anxiety over theurgic influence on the pseudo‑Dionysius has been somewhat diminished, or perhaps finally declared moot. Gregory Shaw, for instance, specifically noting Dionysius’ adoption of a Iamblichean triadic ordering of worship, his adaptation of material symbola, and his prescriptions for advancement to 4 late 5th – early 6th century 5 See especially the dispute between Kenneth Paul Wesche, “Christological Doctrine and Liturgical Interpretation in Pseudo‑Dionysius” (1989) and Alexander Golitzin, “On the Other Hand [A Reponse to Fr. Paul Wesche’s Recent Article on Dionysius