Tag Archives: Plotinus

Platonism and the Trinity: Apophaticism and Pure Relationality

Posted on 6 April 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

by Alexander Earl APOPHATICISM To recapitulate, in Plotinus there are several levels of reality: the Cosmos (from our discus­sion of beauty and bodies), Soul (especially discursive reasoning), Intellect (the all-at-once act of intellect intellecting the intelligibles), and then the One … Continue reading →

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Platonism and the Trinity: Hierarchy and Participation

Posted on 1 April 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

By Alexander Earl PLOTINIAN HIERARCHY To provide an initial sketch, Plotinus has three primary hypostases in his philosophical system: The One, Intellect (nous), and Soul (psyche). In brief, the soul, despite countless misconceptions, is not a foreign homunculus inhabiting a … Continue reading →

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Remembering and Forgetting, Depression, and the Healing of Memories

Posted on 24 July 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Back when I was in seminary, I was introduced to what was then called the ministry of inner healing or the healing of memories. Numerous books were written on the subject, notably by Agnes Sanford, Francis MacNutt, Michael Scanlon, Dennis … Continue reading →

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Dionysian Ponderings: Transcending Freedom and Necessity

Posted on 14 July 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

“There is no evidence in the Dionysian corpus of creatio ex nihilo,” avers Timothy D. Knepper; “rather, the divine names, the properties they source, and the beings that participate in them, all preexist in and process from God” (Negating Negation, … Continue reading →

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“Neither the One nor God can be the same as Mega-Big, Galactic Engineers, nor yet the Gnostic demiurge laldobaoth”

Posted on 28 June 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

The first, historical, answer to the question my title poses (‘What has Plotinus’ One to do with God?‘) is obviously that theologians in all three major Abrahamic faiths shared Plotinus’ conception, of a transcendent and incomprehensible simple, having no properties, … Continue reading →

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Dionysian Ponderings: Plotinian Emanation and the Creatio ex Nihilo

Posted on 24 June 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Did St Dionysius the Areopagite teach the creation of the cosmos from out of nothing? This is a live question for readers of the Corpus Areopagaticum. Dionysius does not explicitly cite the creatio ex nihilo and therefore can easily (some would … Continue reading →

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Dionysian Ponderings: Emanation, Cosmos, and the Plotinian One

Posted on 11 June 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of The Divine Names by St Dionysius the Areopagite is his discussion of divine creation—or perhaps more accurately (or not), divine emanation. Dionysius was greatly influenced by the writings of Neoplatonic philosophers, particularly, Plotinus and … Continue reading →

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